How does one get into poetry?

How should I read poetry? Should I just read it and see if I like it for whatever reason? Should I learn rhymes, forms and patterns beforehand? Should I study accompanying notes that explain what the poet meant by a certain analogy, or what feeling is he trying to evoke with a certain alliteration or the choice of a particular word?

And what when I switch to poetry in another language? Should I do something to get it (for examples, rhymes and forms may be different or have a different significance in other languages and traditions) or once I do it for one language I'm set for all the languages (that I can understand)?

By the way, I've bought image related. It's a big book of poems ordered by date of appearance to the public, going from poems in middle English to contemporary ones.

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Read in your native language first. If you're older than 6 you should be able to feel the rhythm. You don't really need to study any technicalities to enjoy poetry. Notes are useful, but not essential.

i tried several times and i just don't get it. the closest to evoking any resction in me was rilke and only slightly and occasionally. guess poetry just isn't for everyone

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Yeah, autistic people usually have a hard time with poetry

what a helpfull post

it just feels like almost every poet tries way too hard.

you could suggest me some better ones instead

Chaucer

>what a helpfull post
>it just feels like almost every poet tries way too hard.
>you could suggest me some better ones instead
What's your native language?

Read Homer

Only do this if you know Greek.

german

Only listen to this poster if you're a retard.

The most beta language in current existence. Hope you like your muslim overlords

Schiller, Lessing, Mörike

Reading a translation is literally worse than reading a Wikipedia summary.

"When it comes to the question of poetry, a great many people don't even want to
know that their own country does not occupy ALL the available surface of the planet. The idea seems in some way to insult them. " -- Ezra Pound

Just be yourself when reading poetry.if your an emotional person try to feel the beauty of the poems.if you are a rationale person try to analyse the poems.
By the time ,you will enjoy taking either way, or maybe you will make your own way combining the two ways in one way with all available possibilities.

...

>See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil
>am i tolerant now????

germany isn't the only country that speaks german you retard

i've got
minna von barnhelm
fabeln
nathan der weise
kabale und liebe

didn't know schiller and lessing also were into poetry. will look into it. thanks for the suggestions

Poor countries, places where Hitler was born, the sanitised (lifeless) Swiss. Wowow how boring you sure showed me.

Why would you be proud of any of these?

i don't know how you come up with such amounts of assumtions

Not the guy you are asking to, but I'm OP, and my native language is Italian (but I've been reading in English for so long and so much material that it really makes little difference to me - and that's why I bought the book of English verse), have you got some suggestions for me too?

I've read a lot of poetry in middle and high school, but I never really understood how one should enjoy it. For every poem we read a lot of analyses about it, and I always ended up wondering whether the author really intended all those intricacies or it was the result of critics laboring on it like kabbalists on a biblic text.

>German
>poetry
pick one

I can't help with Italian, but in English try romantics like Byron, Keats, Shelley and see if that floats your boat. If not maybe try something different like Yeats or Plath. I'd recommend not looking into any analysis at first and just something you will like as is. Once you feel comfortable reading poetry go for further studying if needed.

A. E. Housman is a good starter poet. Loved by critics and the masses.


“Is my team ploughing,
That I was used to drive
And hear the harness jingle
When I was man alive?”

Ay, the horses trample,
The harness jingles now;
No change though you lie under
The land you used to plough.

“Is football playing
Along the river shore,
With lads to chase the leather,
Now I stand up no more?”

Ay the ball is flying,
The lads play heart and soul;
The goal stands up, the keeper
Stands up to keep the goal.

“Is my girl happy,
That I thought hard to leave,
And has she tired of weeping
As she lies down at eve?”

Ay, she lies down lightly,
She lies not down to weep:
Your girl is well contented.
Be still, my lad, and sleep.

“Is my friend hearty,
Now I am thin and pine,
And has he found to sleep in
A better bed than mine?”

Yes, lad, I lie easy,
I lie as lads would choose;
I cheer a dead man’s sweetheart,
Never ask me whose.