I don't understand poetry.

>>8174592
The first one

Just read it normally, and only pause if punctuation tells you to. Line divisions are usually there just to highlight the rhythm that the poem has when read naturally.

Of course, there are exceptions to this.

depends on the poem, modernist poetry breaks convention and tries to escape the constriction of line breaks, whereas more classical and romantic poetry comfortably exists in the conventions of stanzas, couplets, rhyme schemes, etc.

>>8174592

>should I still try to read the lines as if they were sentences?

What does the punctuation tell you to do? The poem below, for example, is punctuated like normal english, so you certainly wouldn't want to take the line breaks as delineating separate statements-

Whate'er is born of mortal birth
Must be consumèd with the earth,
To rise from generation free:
Then what have I to do with thee?

The sexes sprung from shame and pride,
Blowed in the morn, in evening died;
But mercy changed death into sleep;
The sexes rose to work and weep.

Thou, mother of my mortal part,
With cruelty didst mould my heart,
And with false self-deceiving tears
Didst bind my nostrils, eyes, and ears,

Didst close my tongue in senseless clay,
And me to mortal life betray.
The death of Jesus set me free:
Then what have I to do with thee?

Understanding Poetry by Brooks and Warren.

>>8174592

Read it aloud. Poetry is meant to flow, so when you read it aloud, with only a little practice, you'll be able to judge where the breaks are, and when to add emphasis.

To practice, try this:

1. Read the poem through in your head first, and try and pick up on the meaning, rhyming scheme, or meter.

2. Read through the poem aloud slowly, and pick up on words or sections that are giving you trouble saying them aloud.

3. If the poem still interests you, invest more time into 1 and 2, and become more fluid in both the understanding of the poem and the ability to read it aloud.

Youtube is also a great resource for figuring out *how* to read aloud. Just find a poem you like, and search for a reading of it.

>>8174632

Whats the point of the line breaks, then, if the rhythm is guided by the punctuation? I understand that poetry is not the same as normal writing, but it seems like there's a "point" to the format of the poem and line breaks. Some poems dont have any punctuation at all, which honestly just confuses me.

I find it easiest to act as if the line break wasn't there, and just keep reading like it was a normal sentence, though I feel like I'm doing it wrong. For instancec I would just read that first stanza like

Whate'er is born of moral birth must be consumed with the earth, to rise from generation free: then what have I to do with thee?

>>8174692

Oh, I did not mean to imply that the rhythm is guided by the punctuation. My point was simply to avoid taking each line as an isolated statement (which is how I interpreted your OP)-

>Or should I take each line as its own statement?

Pause while reading for the sake of rhythm. It might help to listen to poetry being read?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEunVObSnVM