Reading Response: Poetry and Performance

Humanities

Listen to We Real Cool and My Papa’s Waltz. These clips demonstrate the importance of performance, rhythm, and musicality in the poetic form. 

Describe your listening experience of one or more of the poems.  How did hearing the text(s) recited aloud compare to a silent reading of it/them? Did the performance in any ways add to or detract from your experience of the text? Did the performance change your perception of the poem or its content in any ways? Explain how (or how not). 

Support your ideas with textual details and analysis. When applicable, address how specific literary techniques and/or devices contributed to your experience?

*Poems found on poetryarchive.org.