I'm not entirely sure what you mean by 'reading' -- presumably a kind of getting-to-grips-with, rather than reading in its basic sense?

Saying that formal poems are less difficult demonstrates a lack of familiarity with poetry in general, but is not entirely nonsensical; the really difficult stuff in poetry arises from the modernist urge. The reason it is more difficult than what comes before is that it very often flouts narrative forms and traditional mimetic assumptions. And of course, the modernist stylistic inevitably involves freeverse in a big way.

I think it was Geoffrey Hill who said that 'difficult' is a problematic label, since it's fundamentally discouraging. He preferred 'complex' -- but you can have very complex poetry in very traditional forms. I suspect that 'difficulty' in most cases underlines the jolt of going from direct narratives and monologues to the collagistic (and otherwise) forms of modernism -- which is where most irregular poetry-readers would be introduced to freeverse, I suppose.

The only real way to help people read difficult poetry is probably immersion into it -- getting to know its familiar tropes and figures. Otherwise you can probably guide someone to read one poem, but then they'll feel lost going to the next. But obviously this is all very vague.

Difficult poets writing today would include people like Geoffrey Hill and JH Prynne in the UK, and people like Jorie 'windbag' Graham in the States. It's increasingly difficult to really delineate, since poets mix and match their styles a lot more nowadays, and often resist those kind of labels.

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Poetry can be difficult regardless of fixed or free verse formats; the difficulty comes in the context or message etc of the poetry itself, which can be simple or complex regardless of formatting. To understand poetry you need to read through poems numerous times, you need to study all the words and meanings (if you don't understand them simply from reading) and, where possible, it can help you if you read up on the poet or the year of the publication - although this is generally only relevant to well-known poets.

Personally I find fixed form more difficult because, to put it simply, it usually bores me and I cannot truly absorb the work.

Personally I find experimental poetry the most difficult to read, when the concepts are loose and ambiguous and the structure is almost unstructured, the flow broken and haphazard. When it comes to general free-verse I enjoy reading it and don't really find it difficult simply because I am not worried about how the poet intended it to be read. I feel that with free-verse; line beaks, punctuation and stanzas can give you an individual experience, you are reading it from the way those things affect you consciously and subconsciously. If I really like the poem, I will re-read it, perhaps pick it apart and experiment with ways of reading it, from different imaginary perspectives. If I were to help someone read difficult poetry, I would just get them to read it without fear that they are reading it the "wrong" way. Because formal poetry seems to be about control from the poet, I would say free-verse encourages more experimentation and more interpretations from it's readers. Though I could be wrong on that.

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The Gentle Hum

"Because formal poetry seems to be about control from the poet, I would say free-verse encourages more experimentation and more interpretations from it's readers. Though I could be wrong on that." That's a great point, I think that, in many cases, you are correct.

Mm, I tried that: asking if he was talking about modernist poetry, but he (unsurprisingly) just looked blank.

The only real way to help people read difficult poetry is probably immersion into it -- getting to know its familiar tropes and figures.

True.

I think people are afraid to read poems several times, as if the pleasure of reading a poem needed to be immediate, or that it had to "mean" something the first time, or else it's not really a poem, or it's "difficult".

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*Writers-Workshop | `seniormentors

Perhaps you have to expose yourself to the fixed forms of poetry e.g., sonnets, pantoums, and what not in order to understand its rules and perhaps, restrictions. After which, you might be able to understand why the poets break free of the traditional forms in free verse.

Maybe the key is understanding the basics - everything more advanced than that will fall into place.

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I just put a bunch of random words here to waste your time.

I dunno, I started with free verse first. The way I see it is that if you can do decent free verse, you can probably do any style of fixed once you learn the formats.

I read free verse much the same as fixed verse, though there have been times I've thought I was reading unstructured poetry and gone back after reading the last few lines and discovering it to be a sonnet/other form. The differences in my readings are mainly that I consider the enjambment more, as with fixed form I can usually figure out quickly if I like a line break but it may take a couple more seconds with free, and that I have to consider its form from a different angle.

Free verse isn't as free as its name implies; form still has to depend on content and vice versa, and line length and sound patterns can still create a sense of structure even without metrics. Free verse is often more subtle in its sonics if it does use sound for effect, but again, not always.

Difficult poetry is poetry that requires several re-readings and some thought to be clear to the reader, which means that poetry is less difficult depending on the experience of the reader. It also means that amateur poetry can be some of the most difficult poetry, though not usually the most complex. Complexity implies intricacy and that does not depend on the reader (as much as that's possible).

When I find a poem difficult (or complex!) I re-read it several times, think about it, come back to it, and if I'm still having trouble, look up critical material (from a comment online to an analytical essay) or google names or images from the piece to help me decode and understand it.

Perhaps this is simply because most or at least a lot of free verse is ungramatical and unpunctuated--often making it harder to parse.

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