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Recite a Poem

Edited by Thor, Zack, Eng

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Steps

Video: Recite a Poem

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Hello and welcome to VisiHow. In this series of videos, we're exploring the world of poetry and some of the concepts and styles that exist within it. In this video, we're going to show you how to recite a poem. Now that you have written a collection of poems after being inspired by our previous videos, you might be thinking about reciting them to an audience. Here is some advice on how to do it.

Steps

1
Reciting poetry is a very visual experience
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You need to convey the words that you're speaking not just with your mouth but with your whole body, to emphasize and give them more potency or power. You use your eyes, your body, your hands, your mannerisms and gesticulations in order to intertwine and re-enthrall the audience. You want to grasp and seize them with your physical presence, drawing them into the world that you are reciting. Here is some of our advice on how to recite a poem.

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2
Alternate your voice to reflect the words being read
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If there is excitement in the words, then express that with your voice. Express if there is peace or sadness, seriousness or play. You should not be monotone when you're reciting a poem. Your voice must rise, fall and change in order to give words more emphasis, and to create more drama or theatre.

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3
Project your voice so that the people at the back can hear
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You want to speak loudly and clearly so that everyone in the auditorium can clearly hear.
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4
Pronounce each word clearly
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Fully open your mouth so that each syllable can be articulated. It can feel a bit theatrical and over the top at first but you will notice how it allows you to accentuate every letter.

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5
Practice reciting the poem until it is ingrained in your mind
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You need to be able to recite it completely and naturally without pausing to recollect lines, and you don't want to stumble or lose your flow - and therefore, lose the audience's attention.
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6
Vary your pitch, tempo and volume to create a more theatrical recital
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7
Remember that stance, gestures, eye contact, and movement are all an important part when reciting poetry
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Make sure to face your audience and engage them directly with your body and eyes as you are doing with your voice.
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8
As you can see, reciting poetry requires you to attach your voice to the words
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It requires you to convey the excitement and emotion that are hidden (and sometimes not so hidden), explicit or implicit in the text. Reciting poetry or prose allows you to give life to words. So if you have a famous piece of poetry or poetry that you've written, what you should do is learn it by heart. Practice it so you can recite it at any given moment. Recite it in front of the mirror. You can also record yourself, and play it back so you can hear how you sound. This is quite good for an objective analysis of your work. So practice the advice that we've shown you in this video, and I hope you find it to be useful!

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9
You've been watching a video on how to recite poetry, a prose or a sonnet
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If you have any questions, you can leave them in the section below. In that section, you'll also find the links to the other videos in this poetry series. You've been watching VisiHow, and goodbye!
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