POETRY RECITATION

According to Matthew Arnold, "Poetry is simply the most delightful and perfect form of utterance that human words can reach", it is "nothing less than the most perfect speech of man, that in which he comes nearest to being able to utter the truth", it is "a criticism of life under the conditions fixed for such a criticism by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty."

One of the chief element of poetry is its revealing power. It opens our eyes to sensuous beauties and spiritual meanings in the worlds of human experience and of nature to which otherwise we should remain blind.

  Generally we all are attracted towards the content of poetry and to its general importance as an interpretation of life. The formal and technical aspects of poetry include meter, rhyme & stanza. There are  innumerable other matters which are equally important for the outcome of a good poetry.

Reading out loud  or reciting  is a better way to find more pleasure in poetry. Quite reading has its own benefits  and essence of enjoyment too. But go through these words of Prof. Butcher and you too will agree with him.

 I quote "The art of printing", has done much to dull our literary perceptions. Words have a double virtue- that which resides in the sense and that which resides in the sound. We miss much of the charm if the eye is made to do duty also for the ear. The words, bereft of their vocal force, are but half -alive on the printed page. The music of verse, when repeated only to the inward ear, comes as a faint echo." The moral of this is clear. If Poetry is "musical speech", if it owes much of its beauty, its magic, its peculiar power of stirring the feelings and arousing the imagination, to its verbal felicity and its varied melodies of meter and rhyme, then full significance as poetry can be appreciated only when it addresses us through the ear. The silent perusal of the printed page will leave one of its principal  secrets unsurprised. As much as possible, therefore, we should make it a practice to read our poetry aloud.