Intro
1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.
2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.
Even though some of the most beautiful things ever written in the English language were written as poetry, it’s hard to find many Americans today who frequently read poetry. Maybe it reminds them of a hated high school English teacher, or they think they just aren’t deep enough to understand it. Maybe poetry seems boring, stuffy, or old fashioned to them. Yet great poetry, if given the chance, can be as exciting to read as a great song is to listen to. Hear Jason and Amy’s thoughts about reading poetry.
Dialog
1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.
2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.
Amy |
Amy: Do you read poetry, Jason?
Jason: No. I read so much poetry as an English major in college that I just haven’t developed an appetite for it yet.
Amy: That’s funny, because I was an English major, but I somehow got away with hardly reading any poetry at all.
Jason: What? Really?
Amy: I mean, I took a couple classes, but I was always reading more novels and stories. I’ve always been a little afraid of poetry.
Jason: What’s scary about it?
Amy: Well, it just seems like you might not get it, you know?
Jason: Yeah.
Amy: But lately I’ve been reading more, and I’m so into it. I love poetry.
Jason: What’s your favorite?
Amy: Well, I’ve been reading some contemporary stuff, but then I’ve also been reading a lot of Emily Dickinson.
Jason: Oh, I was going to say, if you’re worried about not understanding the poetry, you could just read poetry that nobody understands, like Emily Dickinson.
Amy: Yeah. I mean, a really good poem is great because you can kind of partly understand it, or different people can understand it in different ways. You know, there isn’t one right answer.
Grammar Point
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Discussion
Amy asks Jason if he likes to read poetry. Jason says that he read so much poetry in college, he isn’t interested in reading it now. Amy was an English major in college like Jason, but she did not read a lot of poetry. Recently, she has become more interested in poetry.
Amy says that she used to be scared of poetry. She worried that she wouldn’t understand it or would interpret it incorrectly. But now she realizes that poetry can mean different things to different people. There is more than one “right answer” when it comes to poetry.
Do you like reading poetry? Describe your favorite poem.
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