4.3: Performance of Poetry

Overview

Performing poetry requires a deep understanding of its meaning, tone, and emotional nuance to deliver it authentically and effectively. Because poetic meaning is often abstract and indirect, performers must analyze elements such as the narrator’s intent, audience, and emotional context to inform their vocal delivery, posture, and facial expressions. One of the main challenges, especially with rhymed poetry, is avoiding a mechanical or sing-songy rhythm that distracts from meaning. To overcome this, performers can restructure the poem on the page—without changing the words—to better reflect natural phrasing and speech rhythms. This technique helps preserve the poem’s emotional truth while enhancing clarity and audience engagement.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Oral interpretation performers commonly use a black notebook or binder during their performances. (CC-BY-SA; Efrat Mishori - Efrat Mishori reading poetry photo Esra Levi)

Learning Objectives

1. Practice making poetry performance sound natural rather than mechanical by avoiding overemphasis on rhyme.
2. Learn to restructure or rewrite the poem’s formatting to reflect natural speech pauses and phrasing for effective delivery.

Performing Poetry

Since poetry can vary in its levels of abstraction, some find it frustrating to read since meaning is often connotative and indirect. This can make it difficult to decide how to perform it and adequately assign meaning to its words with our delivery. However, an oral interpreter of poetry must thoroughly understand a poem to honor it properly and convey each nuance of its meaning and feeling. For example, a performer could not decide where the narrator should gaze if they haven’t thought about to whom the narrator is speaking. If a performer has not considered the emotions or motivations behind the narrator’s words in a poem, they will not be able to use appropriate facial expressions, posture, or vocal inflection.

Perhaps the most challenging part of performing poetry, particularly those poems that rhyme, is making it sound natural. When a performer gets caught up in overly emphasizing the rhyme of a piece, it can sound unnatural, mechanical, and it tends to detract from the meaning. To prevent this from happening, you might consider physically rewriting the poem, reflecting the natural pausing spots you would like to take during performance. For example, take a look at a monologue delivered by King Henry V from William Shakespeare's play, Henry V:

 

Henry V, Act III, Scene I, by William Shakespeare

(Appearing here as typed in the original Shakespearian work)

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,

Or close the wall up with our English dead!

In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man

As modest stillness and humility,

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,

Then imitate the action of the tiger:

Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,

Disguise fair nature with hard-favored rage,

Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,

Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit

To his full height. On, on, you noblest English,

Dishonor not your mothers. Now attest

That those whom you called fathers did beget you.

Be copy now to men of grosser blood,

And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,

Whose limbs were made in England, show us here

The mettle of your pasture. Let us swear

That you are worth your breeding, which I doubt not,

For there is none of you so mean and base

That hath not noble luster in your eyes.

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,

Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot.

Follow your spirit, and upon this charge

Cry “God for Harry, England, and Saint George!”

 

The above is written in a rhythm known as iambic pentameter (a poetic rhythm where each line has ten syllables, arranged in five pairs called iambs). A review of the poem reveals that the natural stopping point for some of the sentences/phrases don’t always land at the ends of the poems “lines.” For example, in the line “Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit To his full height,” the line ends visually after “spirit,” but the essence of the sentence’s meaning only shines when the phrasing is continued through the word “height.” So, a performer would likely want to take care not to pause between the words “spirit” and “To” but rather after the word “height.”

Therefore, when performing poetry, a performer might consider rewriting the poem structurally (without changing the words) to better reflect how it might look if the character spoke the words as natural speech:

 

Henry V, Act III, Scene I, by William Shakespeare

(Appearing here in a re-typed/re-formatted version that reflects more natural phrasing)

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more -- or close the wall up with our English dead!

In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility.

But when the blast of war blows in our ears, then imitate the action of the tiger:

Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,

Disguise fair nature with hard-favored rage,

Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide.

Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit to his full height.

On, on, you noblest English,

Dishonor not your mothers. Now attest that those whom you called fathers did beget you.

Be copy now to men of grosser blood, and teach them how to war.

And you, good yeoman, whose limbs were made in England,

Show us here the mettle of your pasture.

Let us swear that you are worth your breeding, which I doubt not, for there is none of you so mean and base that hath not noble luster in your eyes.

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, straining upon the start.

The game’s afoot.

Follow your spirit, and upon this charge cry “God for Harry, England,

….and Saint George!”

 

Note that the above, though it has the identical wording as the previous version, looks a bit more like a prose piece since the lines no longer seem to reveal an obvious rhythm/pattern. After analyzing a poem, consider rewriting it to reflect the phrasings and meanings more naturally. This may help you avoid falling into a sing-songy, unnatural delivery style and help your audience to understand the meaning of the poem more deeply.

Exercise \(\PageIndex{1}\)

Activity 1: Understanding the Speaker and Audience

Objective: Analyze a poem to identify the narrator’s perspective and intended audience.

Instructions:

• Read the poem carefully.

• Answer the following questions in writing:

  1. Who is the narrator of the poem?

  2. To whom is the narrator speaking?

  3. What emotions or motivations can you infer from the narrator’s words?

  4. How might these factors influence where the performer should direct their gaze, facial expressions, or posture?

Example: Use the excerpt from Henry V to practice.