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Poetry reading
Posted By: LaZorra, on host 209.135.4.147
Date: Monday, May 13, 2002, at 10:32:30

My English teacher is driving me nuts with the way she reads poetry. She says that at the end of a line without punctuation, you should just barge on ahead to the next line without a pause unless there's a natural pause there. For instance, in Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken", the lines read this way:

"...And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth..."

But she reads it like this:

"...And sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth..."

Now, what I'd like to know is, is there a correct way to read lines of poetry like this? Her way doesn't seem to make sense in a rhyming poem, because then it doesn't rhyme like it's supposed to. Could someone shed some light on this for me? Flashlight, anyone? Candle? Match?

La"There once was a man from Nantucket"Zorra

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