The document summarizes a presentation on English poetry given during a municipal reading week celebration. It highlights several well-known poems, noting how they reflect themes of passion, humanity, and the power of words. The presentation aims to showcase the talent and timeless nature of English poetry and inspire further reading of the genre.

1. Municipal Reading Week
(Semana Concelhia da Leitura)
3rd – 7th May 2021

2. This year’s theme of Semana Concelhia da Leitura (Municipal Reading Week) is “The Sound of Words”.
As member of the school library and teacher of English, my initial reaction was to look for English poems that reflect the
chosen theme and several poems of this short presentation fit it to a T, but it gradually dawned on me that all poetry
could be included, as by definition “poetry is literature that evokes a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience or
an emotional response through language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound, and rhythm.”
With this new-found awareness, I decided to include some poems which have greatly influenced my love of the English
language, culture and literature. While reading them once again, I was struck by the importance of revisiting old poems,
stories and plays, as our reaction to them changes with age and life experience. We see them with new eyes and meaning.
There is a misconception that the English language has mainly produced great prose and plays. However, through the
centuries, amazing and innovative poems have been written in English.
I take this opportunity to give you a sneak-peak at some wonderful poems; some in written form, others read by
exceptional people, who with outstanding use of voice, pause and intonation, bring the words on a page to life, leaving
us in awe at their beauty, humour, sadness, depth and wisedom. Undoubtedly, poems were meant to be read aloud.
I hope that this presentation whets your appetite, so you will want to read more English poetry and, in so doing, not only
discover the wealth of talent which exists in this literary genre, but also the intemporal nature of literature.
Cristina Tomé

3. We do not read and write poetry because it is cute.
We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race, and the human race is filled with
passion.
Medicine, law, business, engineering; these are noble pursuits, and necessary to sustain life.
But poetry, beauty, romance, love… these are what we stay alive for.
From the film: Dead Poet’s Society

4. Scene from the film: Dead Poet’s Society - written by Tom Schulman and directed by Peter Weir (1989)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7OE6bDfM2M

5. Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring - What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer:
That you are here - that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.
From: Leaves of Grass (1892)
Walt Whitman is
America’s world
poet and is often
called the father of
free verse.
In Leaves of Grass
he celebrates love,
democracy, nature
and friendship.
Source of note:
waltwhitman.com
Source of poem: Poetry Foundation

6. Source of video: RedFrost Motivation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOHhUUWeKN8

7. Tis a strange mystery, the power of words!
Life is in them, and death. A word can send
The crimson colour hurrying to the cheek,
Hurrying with many meanings; or can turn
The current cold and deadly to the heart.
Anger and fear are in them; grief and joy
Are on their sound; yet slight, impalpable:
A word is but a breath of passing air.
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
(14 August 1802 – 15
October 1838) was an
English poet and novelist,
better known by her
initials L.E.L.
Source of note:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org.
Source of poem: Welocme to Poetry.com
Source of image: Revive Our Hearts Podcast

8. Source of video: RedFrost Motivation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tkPDCK5e4s

9. What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore -
And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over -
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Source of poem: https://pgoatseay.files.wordpress.com
This poem was conceived as
part of a book-length
poem, Montage of Dream
Deferred. With more than 90
poems strung together in a
musical beat, the full volume
paints a full picture of life in
Harlem.
Source of note: 10 of Langston
Hughes' Most Popular Poems -
Biography
Source of image: SBWorldphotography

10. Source of video: Hammers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPlSH6n37ts

11. In the heel of my thumb
are whorls, whirls, wheels
in a unique design:
mine alone.
What a treasure to own!
My own flesh, my own feelings.
No other, however grand or base,
can ever contain the same.
My signature,
thumbing the pages of my time.
My universe key,
my singularity.
Impress, implant,
I am myself,
Of all my atom parts I am the sum.
And out of my blood and my brain
I make my own interior weather,
My own sun and rain.
Imprint my mark upon the world,
whatever I shall become.
Source of poem: https://pgoatseay.files.wordpress.com/
From her earliest years,
the rhythmic, rhyming
nature of poetry
impassioned her so
much that being a
poet was something of
a necessity for her.
Merriam urged:
"Whatever you do, find
ways to read poetry.
Eat it, drink it, enjoy it,
and share it.“
Source of note;
Eve Merriam | Poetry Foundation
Source of image: self-portrait / right thumbprint

12. Source of video: Atomic Studios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4inFlgryiCg

13. Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message “He is Dead”.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
First published in the anthology The Year’s Poetry (1936).
The poem is also known as
“Stop All the Clocks”. The
poem became famous after it
was recited in the film, Four
Weddings and A Funeral.
Source of note:
www.shadowofiris.com
Source of poem: http://niksargent.com/blog/
Source of image:
https://www.behance.net/gallery

14. Source of video: Upgrade Your Mindset
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqOgyNfHl1U

15. Popcorn leaps, popping from the floor
of a hot black skillet
and into my mouth.
Black words leap,
snapping from the white
page. Rushing into my eyes. Sliding
into my brain which gobbles them
the way my tongue and teeth
chomp the buttered popcorn.
When I have stopped reading,
ideas from the words stay stuck
in my mind, like the sweet
smell of butter perfuming my
fingers long after the popcorn
is finished.
I love the book and the look of words
the weight of ideas that popped into my
mind.
I love the tracks
of new thinking in my mind.
From Soul Looks Back in Wonder (1993)
Angelou’s poem is a
celebration of words
and ideas, bouncing
around in our brains
like popcorn.
Source of poem and note: Reading to the Core
Source of image: https://shirtnation.net

16. Source of video: Yodi insigne
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcSkZ5wXC6E

17. It makes one all right, though you hadn’t thought of it,
A sound like the sound of the sky on fire, like Armageddon,
Whistling and crackling, the explosions of sunlight booming
As the huge mass of gas rages into the emptiness around it.
It isn’t a sound you are often aware of, though the light speeds
To us in seconds, each dawn leaping easily across a chasm
Of space that swallows the sound of that sphere, but
If you listen closely some morning, when the sun swells
Over the horizon and the world is still and still asleep,
You might hear it, a faint noise so far inside your mind
That it must come from somewhere, from light rushing to darkness,
Energy burning towards entropy, towards a peaceful solution,
Burning brilliantly, spontaneously, in the middle of nowhere,
And you, too, must make a sound that is somewhat like it,
Though that, of course, you have no way of hearing at all.
From: Terms to be Met (Yale University Press, 1986)
In this poem, Bradley
observes the power of the
sun, and observes that you
can hear the sun if you listen
very closely. Do you think the
sun makes a noise? Can you
imagine that it does?
Source of note:
Poetry Foundation
Source of poem: Poetry Foundation
Source of image:
https://www.sciencefocus.com/

18. Source of video: Upgrade Your Mindset
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpnxLEErSVc

19. After the unceasing noise of war.
Silence unnerved us with her passive quiet.
With the removal of the guns chatter and roar.
Warm welcome to the reappearance of nature
Unbowed, Desecrated
But resilient and defiant.
Chris Bond is a keen
amateur poet, trying
to share some of his
work and read others.
Source of poem and note: All Poetry
Source of image: https://gravitycenter.com/silence/

20. Source of video: RedFrost Motivation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8sq5JwytjY

21. Source of quote: AZQuotes
Yes, I read. I have that absurd habit. I like beautiful poems,
moving poetry, and all the beyond of that poetry.
I am extraordinarily sensitive to those poor, marvelous words
left in our dark night by a few men I never knew.
Louis Aragon
Source of image: Panda Clipart

22. This is a beautiful, but long poem, written in 1845, by the great American poet
Edgar Allen Poe.
Due to the fact that we might not have time to hear the complete poem in
class, I have decided to add it as a post scriptum, so you can hear it, at your
leisure and without interruption.
In this narrative poem, Poe uses alliteration, internal rhymes, similes and
metaphors to create what many consider his poetic masterpiece. Therefore, not
to include “The Raven” in this presentation would be a serious oversight.
Edgar Allan Poe is famous for his short stories and poems of horror and
mystery. He is regarded as the architect of the modern short story and his
imaginative storytelling gave birth to the modern detective story.
Source of Image: https://goticuseternus.blogspot.com/
Sources of notes:https://www.biography.com/writer/edgar-allan-poe/
www.poetryfoundation.org / and https://poemanalysis.com/

23. Source of video: RedFrost Motivation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAdQ3CcPHQU

24. Compiled and produced
by
Cristina Tomé