How to Read Poetry Like a Professor: A Quippy and Sonorous Guide to Verse

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

PART 1

Reading Check

1. What does Foster say many in-training teachers turn to instead of poetry?

2. What does Foster suggest readers should pay attention to as a guide to meaning in poetry instead of focusing on where lines begin and end?

3. From which American poet does Foster borrow the title “The Sounds of Sense”?

4. What term describes the repetition of initial sounds to create an effect?

5. What does Foster view poetry as a deliberate struggle against?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What is Foster’s assessment of how most people feel about poetry?

2. What relationship does Foster propose between poetry’s sensory aspects and ways to increase enjoyment of reading poetry?

3. What suggestion does Foster make in his analogy between decoding poetry and decoding music?

4. What point is Foster making in his discussion of avant-garde poets such as E. E. Cummings and Gerard Manley Hopkins?

5. What criticism does Foster make of the definitions of poetry offered over the ages by famous poets?

Paired Resource

“What Makes a Poem…a Poem?”