Customer Reviews

Poetry Out Loud

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Anyone who likes to recite poetry out loud or get others to recite it will find this collection of 100 poems a special treat. It is attractively laid out in a square page shape--the height of a regular paperback, but a little wider. On every page there are interesting notes about the poem in the margin--everythng from how it ties in with oral storytelling and poetic traditions to the use of rhythm, rhyme meter, and language, The user friendly notes zero in especially on aspects of the poem that are important for oral delivery without bogging down the reader. The poem lines are double-spaced for easy reading. The selection of poems ranges from childhood rhymes to literary classics by such poets as Lewis Caroll, Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Ogden Nash, and Rudyard Kipling. The styles include love poems, limericks, elegies, raps, ballads, and more; from Middle English to free verse, sonnets to satires, nonsense poetry to formalism, there is something to fit every budding poet's tastes. Even if you don't plan to use the poems for oral reading, the margin notes help you to appreciate the poems more fully in their use of language, sound, and literary traditions. To quote James Earl Jones in the introduction to the book, "In this "burst of verses," you will find fun and sorrow, stories and songs, whimsy and majesty." And a chance to explore how to bring them to life out loud.

The only reason I gave two stars is the hope that this book may be of some use in paper format. On the Kindle it is useless for it's stated purpose of providing poems to read out loud. Many of the poems are in extremely small print. One cannot increase the font size. There is some sort of goofy system to "zoom" the font. Sometimes it turns the print 90 degrees and enlarges it, sometimes it doesn't. Even when it is of some help it only works for one stanza. Press "next page" and you're right back where you started with no "zoom". There are helpful comments about each poem, unfortunately they may be inserted in exactly the wrong place. In "Casey at the Bat" after Casey swings his first strike come two pages of commentary. Try maintaining a rhythm reading aloud with that!

I have public domain volunteer created Kindle poetry that is far easier to read aloud than this. It may work in print but skip it for the Kindle.