seven rules for reading poetry

Following on from the other day’s rules for writing poetry, and last week’s Guardian feature on tips for writing fiction, here are – at the suggestion of Chris Hamilton-Emery – my ‘rules’ for reading poetry.

I found on closer inspection that this is all in aid, really, of Elmore Leonard’s book 10 Rules for Writing, which is about to be published in the UK. But what’s with the rules? Why are we looking to other people for rules suddenly? What ever happened to tips, examples, technical expertise? Is it true that more people want to write even fiction than want to read it? And is that such a bad thing? Is it not better for them to be uselessly employed in making something than in merely passively consuming the things other people have made? Or must we preserve X percent of the nation’s attention for the consumption of that which is worth consuming?

How does this craze – if it is a craze, and not just human nature – compare with the fact that almost every pre-Victorian young lady and many of her uncles wrote verses? Is not the urge to record, to make testament, the second or third human urge? (I put it after food, naturally; but babies and toddlers have it in abundance, as do infant and new cultures.)

Anyway, people do still love reading. I really think they do. Even if they don’t do much of it there is an unresolved hankering. There is even an unresolved hankering for poetry, I see it everywhere and I hear about it from the most unlikely people. They are everywhere among us. And I feel for them, because there was a time when I knew there was a vast sea of poetry out there, but even I, with my lifelong interest and background, didn’t know where the port was. So here are my rules for the general reader, and I hope they are some help.

1. Don’t be afraid of the poem! It may be a puzzle but it’s not a trap. The poet will have wanted to give you pleasure of some kind.

2.Don’t fall into the trap of thinking one kind of poetry is “good” and another is “bad.” Be open-minded, read, and see how you react to things.

3. Don’t worry if you don’t understand everything. Read it some more and see what you do understand. You might just like the sounds or the colours or two lines of it. That’s fine.

4. Listen to it in your head as you read it. You can read it aloud if you like, but you don’t have to.

5. Poems, like novels, are different. Some are harder, easier, funnier, more serious. If you don’t like one you might well like another.

6. There is nothing wrong with themed anthologies. They are a great way of learning who the poets are and who you like.

7. Seek advice! It’s like with anything else. You want a new hairdresser, you ask your friends. You want to decide what movie to see, you ask your friends. Poetry’s not secret, you can talk to people about it.

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