Re: Poetry Reading
Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 9:54 pm
There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods of presenting poetry. I have seen people who can read poetry poetry very well (English poet Les Barker springs to mind here - his shows at the National Folk Festival in Canberra were excellent).
If you are going to present a poem by reading it, it pays to have a good knowledge of the poem first - knowing what pace, inflections, pitch, tone and characterisation for example are appropriate and in what places can make something that is being read much more memorable. Reading the poem without trying to take those things into consideration is likely to be met with a very poor response. The person who has only taken the trouble to memorise the words without thinking about the importance of those things is likely to be met with that same response.
Performing from memory has the disadvantage that you are limited to the poems that you have in memory at the time. If something special is required somewhere (if you have a poem written for a friend's birthday for example), you may have to weigh up whether or not it is worth learning a poem in the first place if it is only going to be given limited time otherwise. If it is only going to be in limited usage after that time, it probably isn't worth learning in the first place, you are better off reading it.
If you are reading a poem instead of memorising it, you may not be able to use as much body language and there will be times when you lose eye contact with your audience. Also, if you are reading from a lectern, much of your body may be blocked from the view of the audience which could also block body language as well if you are trying to use it. Trying to keep some eye contact with the audience while you are reading could also lead to you losing your place on the page and a pause out of place while you are trying to find where you are up to. If you are reading you have an almost limitless amount of material to choose from.
It is a myth that poets are excluded from reading in competition, even at open level there are provisions in the rules for reading. You are likely to lose out in some of the areas outlined above and on memorisation if you do choose to read.
For the most part, you shouldn't be able to tell whether or not a poem (or for that matter a song) on an audio recording is being done from memory. A live performance is different - presenting from memory, especially for the top performers, is a much more professional look. You don't see the top singers performing their songs by reading them off a page and it doesn't hurt to aspire to be at that level if you wish to be one of the best performance poets. The better rehearsed you are on your material - the less likely you are to have a problem. Similarly, the more stage time you have, the better you are likely to recover if something does go wrong. Practice makes perfect as they say.
Incidentally, I can tell that Jack Thompson is reading the poems - from what I have heard of his recordings, he has done a very poor job of knowing the poems first in terms of the key things already mentioned and as a result presents with very little expression. If more attention was paid to those things it would be hard to tell from the recording.
If you are going to present a poem by reading it, it pays to have a good knowledge of the poem first - knowing what pace, inflections, pitch, tone and characterisation for example are appropriate and in what places can make something that is being read much more memorable. Reading the poem without trying to take those things into consideration is likely to be met with a very poor response. The person who has only taken the trouble to memorise the words without thinking about the importance of those things is likely to be met with that same response.
Performing from memory has the disadvantage that you are limited to the poems that you have in memory at the time. If something special is required somewhere (if you have a poem written for a friend's birthday for example), you may have to weigh up whether or not it is worth learning a poem in the first place if it is only going to be given limited time otherwise. If it is only going to be in limited usage after that time, it probably isn't worth learning in the first place, you are better off reading it.
If you are reading a poem instead of memorising it, you may not be able to use as much body language and there will be times when you lose eye contact with your audience. Also, if you are reading from a lectern, much of your body may be blocked from the view of the audience which could also block body language as well if you are trying to use it. Trying to keep some eye contact with the audience while you are reading could also lead to you losing your place on the page and a pause out of place while you are trying to find where you are up to. If you are reading you have an almost limitless amount of material to choose from.
It is a myth that poets are excluded from reading in competition, even at open level there are provisions in the rules for reading. You are likely to lose out in some of the areas outlined above and on memorisation if you do choose to read.
For the most part, you shouldn't be able to tell whether or not a poem (or for that matter a song) on an audio recording is being done from memory. A live performance is different - presenting from memory, especially for the top performers, is a much more professional look. You don't see the top singers performing their songs by reading them off a page and it doesn't hurt to aspire to be at that level if you wish to be one of the best performance poets. The better rehearsed you are on your material - the less likely you are to have a problem. Similarly, the more stage time you have, the better you are likely to recover if something does go wrong. Practice makes perfect as they say.
Incidentally, I can tell that Jack Thompson is reading the poems - from what I have heard of his recordings, he has done a very poor job of knowing the poems first in terms of the key things already mentioned and as a result presents with very little expression. If more attention was paid to those things it would be hard to tell from the recording.