PRESENTING POETRY/PROSE: Dramatising the Written Word
Poetry needs to be spoken or read aloud in order to gain maximum impact.
Poetry, verse agree in referring to the work of a poet. The difference between poetry and verse is usually the difference between substance and form. Poetry is lofty thought or impassioned feeling expressed in imaginative words: Elizabethan poetry. The verse is any expression in words which simply conforms to accepted metrical rules and structure: the differences between prose and verse.
Presenting Poetry/Prose
General:
a. Understand and enjoy what you are speaking or reading.
b. Visualise what you are saying and share it with your listeners.
c. Let your eyes and voice reflect the feelings or the emotions conveyed by the poet.
d. A poised and relaxed stance is essential.
e. Your stance is enhanced by correct breath control.
Breathing Exercise:
Take a deep breath in through the nose and whisper aloud from one to three.
Relax, take a deep breath and whisper aloud from one to five.
Relax, take another breath, count aloud slowly (if possible on one breath) from one to ten.
f. Watch the run-on lines (enjambments) as these will monitor your meaning, your pace and your pauses.
g. Adhere to punctuation marks such as commas, colons, dashes and parentheses.
These will help you to vary your pauses.
h. When speaking a narrative poem, a accent could be used for interpretative reasons, if this accent fits the poem.
i. When speaking the lyric, you are only the messenger of the poet and therefore the poem should not be overdramatised or self-interpreted.
I just downloaded your quote of Robert Frost. It provides form for what I had thought of as essence of poetry, without having an effective way to express this feeling.
Thanks - and I like what you are doing here at Steemit.
PS: It feels like winter just does not want to end - I feel sorry for all those people who have the expense of a swimming pool, but half the (summer) times they cannot use them.
:)
Thank you for your reply.
As far as the winter is concerned, every time it says the final farewell, it pops back in again and says: "Sorry I've forgotten something!" It popped in again last night!