If you don’t read, you will never be successful.
“People who never read poetry don’t write poems that are worth reading,” says Wendy Cope in this article about the importance of reading. I daresay that a lot of you will resent this statement, but I’m afraid it’s absolutely 100% true.
Since setting up Read This a year ago (and One Night Stanzas about a month ago), I have seen thousands and thousands of poems by young and emerging writers; and when it came to picking out the best work for publication, about 80% of everything went immediately onto what the industry calls “the slush pile” - in other words, the “definitely no” pile.
This may seem incredibly harsh - particularly as so many of these submissions were accompanied by cover letters which stated “I’ve never had my poems accepted and I don’t know why” or “I want to know how to make my poems better” - weren’t we just rejecting them out of hand? Why didn’t we read them with as much care as the other 20%? Basically the answer is this: you can tell immediately, sometimes from the very first line of the very first poem in a submission, whether or not the poet in question reads poetry. And if it’s clear that they don’t, you can basically guarantee that none of their poems will be good enough for publication.
You can leap down my throat if you like - because yes, sometimes, rarely, a poet who doesn’t read anything does get lucky, and writes something insightful or interesting which deserves a closer look. However, bear this in mind: Read This is a lot more accomodating than most magazines… we do read everything through at least once before consigning it to the slush pile (just in case), and we respond personally to everyone - particularly those people who’ve asked for help and advice in their cover letters. Furthermore, giving 80% of submissions an “immediate rejection” is nowhere near the 95%-97% mark of most major magazines and publishing houses - you think we’re harsh? Try Poetry Review!
Basically, you can dress it up any way you like, but as Wendy Cope says: if you don’t read, you are not going to be a successful poet, and the earlier you allow yourself to accept that fact, the better! Defiantly refusing to read other poets’ works will not endear you to the poetry community (as Kenneth Patchen said, “people who say they love poetry but then never buy any are cheap sons-of-bitches”), and chances are your work will remain stagnant and always sound, look and read in the same old way (so if it aint getting published now, the future doesnt look good). However, if you open your eyes to the great wealth of poetic material around you, and start taking it in, then you’ll soon begin to see and feel the benefits. It’s like the old adage ‘you are what you eat’ - you are also what you read.
But I hate reading!
Ok, that’s fine. Some people will say “well, why are you a poet?”, but I understand. My sister is an artist, but finds most art shows and galleries a total snooze-fest. However, you’re in luck: reading poetry is NOT like reading a novel. Forget what you learned in school - poetry is not boring, and it’s not difficult (don’t believe me?).
Read as much or as little as you want. Break yourself in gently. If you’re really struggling, try to read just one poem per day (there are heaps of resources out there to help you with this). Buy yourself a book of haikus and absorb one or two in a spare five minutes. Check out Poetry Archive and listen to a poem. Ask other people what their favourite poem is, and start a to-read list. Soon enough, you’ll find that you feel inspired; you might notice that you’re writing more, or that your writing looks and sounds different. This is poetic influence at work - embrace it!
What should I read?
Read what you enjoy (I’ve also spoken out in favour of reading what you really don’t enjoy, but that serves a different purpose). If you check Paradise Lost out of the library, get three lines in and want to kill yourself, stop reading. Read something that excites you, that inspires you, that makes you think “I want to write like this.” It doesn’t matter whether that’s The Waste Land or Tom Leonard’s This Is The Six O Clock News. There is poetry out there that you’ll love - but it might not be what you think. Keep reading until you find it.
What shouldn’t I read?
Basically, any reading is good reading - if you prefer novels to poetry, read novels: they can help you to write better poetry, too. Read anything; stage plays, memoirs, the phone book. Immerse yourself in words and look at how they’re put together. Absorb ideas.
(The only thing I would advise against is reading the poetry of other poets who don’t read. This will get you nowhere. It may be cheap and convenient, but avoid reading amateur poetry and try to read people who are published in some form or another. This may sound like snobbery, but it isn’t: if you want to get published, reading published poetry is the best way to understand what “makes it”, and the best way to turn your own poetry into something publishable.)
But if I read other people’s work and then start writing like them, isn’t that copying?
This is a tricky issue, and one that comes up a lot. As Wendy Cope says, a lot of non-reading poets claim that they don’t read “because they don’t want to be influenced” - i.e., they want their work to be original, personal to them, unsullied by associations with Eliot or Leonard, etc. However, these people are missing a massive trick: all poetry is, at least in part, stolen. Frank Zappa once said, “Adam and Eve made all the great records: everyone else just copied,” and that really applies to poetry. Every successful poet is influenced by someone - usually by a huge variety of other poets who came before him or her. Being influenced is a good thing… and it is totally possible to read and still be original. Try reading a few poems. Read until you come to a line, a stanza or a whole poem that makes you think “I could have done that better,” or “I’d have examined that idea differently” (it’s OK, you’re allowed to think this, even if the poet you’re reading is Whitman or someone equally famous and revered). When that thought arises, act on it: go away and write that line, stanza or poem the way you’d like to see it written. I bet it comes out looking nothing like the original.
You’re not copying, you’re borrowing; you’re sharing. Try it: it’s what poets do.
But there’s so much poetry out there. Where do I start?
Wherever you like. If you’re totally clueless, go to a bookshop or library, find the poetry section, and pick out a book with a cover that catches your eye. Go for a cool title, or a poet with a weird name. Search the net for poems in a style you like or on a subject that interests you - science fiction, for example - and take note of the published authors who write in that style or genre… then hunt them down in a bookstore.
Just read any poetry you can get your hands on: if you like it, find out what’s similar to it, and read that too. If you hate it, find out what the opposite is, and try that. Dabble, mess around, feel free to loathe some poets and love others. Just read as much as you can, as often as you can. Then write.
What are your thoughts on the role of reading in writing? Got a good book to start off new poetry readers? Want to make any suggestions? You know what to do!
Tags: advice for young writers, if you don't read poetry you will never be successful, resources for young writers
September 23rd, 2008 at 4:50 pm
I couldn’t agree more. What I tend to find daunting when trying to take in the wealth of talent out there is deciding what to read and what to steer clear of. To quote Type-O (this is highbrow even for me), DON’T MISTAKE LACK OF TALENT FOR GENIUS. This applies to poetry as much as anything else. Don’t feel compelled to like something you don’t, or it might make you resent all other people’s poetry in general. With patience, you will eventually find those nuggets of brilliance that make you think, I know exactly what they mean but would never have thought of putting it like that….and therein lies the rush.
September 23rd, 2008 at 7:56 pm
I think is really useful summary of some of the arguments for and against reading poetry. I would add that some of the poetry I end up enjoying most is the stuff I have to read seven times before I really get it.
I’m like that with listening to music, too, although I suppose it seems like less hassle to listen to a CD seven times than to read some poems.
I think the slightly bumbling point is that some good poetry does take a bit of effort to engage with and that’s not always a bad thing.
September 24th, 2008 at 12:35 am
i hate to agree with wendy cope but i will when i have to. reading is absolutely necessary (and while i agree with your sister about some gallery shows visual stimulus for visual artists is just as important, and possibly moreso if you don’t like them)
not only that but writing/translation is eessential. with regard to the last comment listening to a cd seven times is okay but its not a patch on learning and playing the song. as with poetry. looking at a translation (or even better engaging in a translation exercise with others) is a top way of getting into another poets head, seeing the choices they made.
that said, not all of us english speakers can speak another language/be bothered to pick up a dictionary. in which case (and if only because in some small way you’re driving a stake into wendy cope’s heart) just copy the poem. makes you take your time, makes you look at the language/ the lines, makes you sound it in your head. also, just the rhythm gets you into your own writing and off you go somewhere uncharted
September 24th, 2008 at 12:35 am
oh yes. and read them out loud. preferably to other people but household pets will do
September 24th, 2008 at 8:46 am
i concur with swiss, by physically writing out a poem, we become aware of things we may not with just reading, as assembling/taking apart the nuts and bolt constituent pieces of lingo means engaging with it as fully as possible on an intellectual level.
For example, on carol rumen’s poem of the week this week, william wordsworth’s sonnet
Surprised by joy - impatient as the wind: which was *suggested by my daughter Catherine, long after her death* (june 1812). So it is a sonnet in remebrance of his dead three yr old daughter.
One of Wordy’s chief literary legacies was a moving away from the highly artifical styles of speaking employed by poets in the works, and into the realm of ordinary speech.
Today this is the total norm, but when Bill first set forth tramping the wilds of Cumbria, this was a radical innovation which naturally the squares of his time resistant to the injection of what they would have viewed as outrageous and unpoetical contaminations of the common herd.
However if we view nearly anyting up till Pound and Eliot, thou canst see it’s all thee and archaic pronouns we no longer use; so the exercise i set myself, was to pimp up the pronoun *thee*, and turn it to *you*.
So i began and the start and extemporise my way through not only this but a number of other minor syntactic and sonic editing decisions, using this piece as a slab on which to practice, develop, just do another go at editing-as-exercise, and i became aware of stuff which informed my critical response in way far deeper than just reading and reacting without doing this hands-on, deep down and dirty mechanical approach, as the most interesting thing was the appearance of the narrators *I* was 8, wshilst the appearance of his daughter as the promoun *thee* was 3.
This informed how i responded, as it was possible to cut 4 of the appearances by the narrator with no effort at all. Just change the pronoun into a definite or indefinite article *a* or *the* — so *my heart* changes easily into *the heart*.
I also, changed two of the appearances of the *I* into *we* and *our*, bringing his wife into the poem, who had previously been absent, and further cutting Willy out the picture, as well as changing the relative pronoun of *that face* to *your face*, and ended up with a ratio of three narrators *I*’s to five *you*’s pimped up from three *thee*’s and two other editing opportunities which made it possible to up the time on stage performing in the language on-stage in the poem, of the dead daughter.
This alerted me to the possibility of contextualising Wordy as being a bit of a me me me’er, and this poem not being one his greatest, it was possible to do, not having a pop at William Woirdsworth the man for hogging the limelight in a poem supposedly showing how devasted he was about the tragedy he suffered, but silly willy the artist who exists first in the mind of a critic (or not) in the sense that we can use works of verbal art printed on a page, as vehicles in which to test drive our thought, to go deeper into ourselves in a play only, detached from reality way we arty types are supposed to..
top tips, 1/1000. do better next time, this is outrageous Askew, you will never work again in the MacDonalds Gorbal’s brach if i have any say in the effin matter. yr barred!!!
only joshing claire, well done, keep it coming, 8/10..argh sod it ok, 11/10, just coz one can innit?
September 24th, 2008 at 9:19 am
I am a big fan of Wendy Cope but she does seem keen to get on ‘Grumpy Old Women’ these days. Telling people to read is always good advice (whoever you’re talking to… wannabe poets or anyone else) but at the same time there will always be people (especially younger folk) who don’t want to read the collected works of anyone before they get started, who are so desperate to say (or write) their piece that they don’t feel they have the time to stop and read anything else on their way. Some of them will write painfully bad poems, some will learn the error of their ways, some will give up and go and do something else, some of them will come up the odd exciting poem. I can just about remember what it feels like to be really young…isn’t part of the experience thinking you know it all and then gradually coming to realise quite how wrong you were…? Maybe that was just me…
September 24th, 2008 at 9:20 am
I missed a ‘with’. Very poor poofreading.
x
September 24th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
i agree with all the above but at the same time there’s a big difference between advising people to read and telling them what/who to read!
and esp when it comes to young people (didn’t you blog something about this?). while i’ve never troubled to read something while i’ve been writing equally i think i must’ve been nearly thirty before i gave a collected works a proper go. i like those big ass collections you get so i can pick over them like a magpie and it doesn’t matter what mood i’m in.
generally speaking tho, i’m not into recommendations and, outside of any educative effort, i really can be bothered with something called the canon. that said, like anything else i do believe in practise!
September 24th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
I’d like to throw in a good word for poetry podcasts as a way of adding to one’s poetry diet. There are many out there, but my favorites are: Poetry Off the Shelf from alt.NPR, and the Poetry Magazine Podcast. For a beginning poet, the Poetry Magazine Podcast is particularly useful, as it features two editors of the magazine discussing the poems featured, and what it was about those poems that caught their eye.
September 24th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
My post on reading lists for a fictional 17 year old was more about what people would recommend to a younger reader (if that reader was interested!). It started when I read a comment about someone not reading pre-1920 writers and whilst I’m not quite that old I was interested to see if there olde worlde writers that we could recommend to a younger reader… and if so who and why. Then it just turned into lots of recommendations… I was really mostly interested in which writers people liked enough to recommend. And a lot of it was to help with my own ongoing education! I know it’s easy to get stuck with your favourite writers and I’m always looking to expand the horizons.
September 25th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Simon - I agree 100%… so many people resent poetry because they were forced to read stuff they hated in school. If only we could make all the jaded poem-haters realise that there’s a wealth of brilliant stuff out there that’s nothing like Keats/Whitman/Lorca/whatever they read in school (and get them to read some of it), poetry’d be the most popular genre of them all!
David - That’s a good point, you shouldn’t always dismiss something because you don’t like it the first time. The first time I read Ginsberg’s ‘Howl,’ I thought what so many academics think: there’s no talent here, this guy’s just rambling. Then I heard him read it, and had a religious experience! So you’re totally right: don’t give up too quickly, people!
swiss - oh dear, sounds like you and Wendy have a history (I’m the same with Pam Ayres)! But that aside, yes… taking apart a poem at translation-type level can really make a different writing experience entirely…
AND I’m kicking myself for not mentioning reading aloud. Very good point.
Mystic Fitz: You forced me to comment on PoF today! Thanks for the mention of Read This.
Rachel - Collected Works are by no means compulsory! As I said in the article, a haiku a day is enough! As you say, everyone writes awful stuff when they’re young, whether they realise it at the time or not… but I genuinely think that if they NEVER read, they’ll never improve much (and as you say, they’ll probably go away and find something else to do…)
Iolanthe - Thanks so much for those tips, I’ll check them out and maybe feature some in my links post on Friday. Cheers!
October 4th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
It is easy to make sweeping statements like ‘People who never read poetry don’t write poems that are worth reading’ but I think a fairer statement might be ‘ People who have never read poetry are unlikely to write poems that are worth reading’. I really read - and have read - very little poetry although I’ve written the stuff for over thirty years. But I read enough. When one decides enough is enough is a personal thing - maybe I was a quick study - but I soon learned that very few poets were writing about the kind of stuff that interested me. It was the novelists that were. And so I read novels, good novels and that stimulated my poetry. There’s a lot of poetry to be found between the pages of many a novel.
October 4th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
I definitely agree Jim. Reading is the key - read whatever you like, but for goodness’ sakes read!
March 20th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Awesome tips. I started reading poetry after I started writing it–completely by accident. As a kid, I read thousands of novels, but poetry bored me (English is my third language, it takes a while to understand subtlety).