No poem should ever be discussed or analyzed, until it has been read aloud by someone, teacher or student. Better still, perhaps, is the practice of reading it twice, once at the beginning of the discussion and once at the end. All discussions of poetry are, in fact, preparations for reading it aloud, and the reading of the poem is, finally, the most telling "interpretation" of it, suggesting tone, rhythm, and meaning all at once.
Hearing a poet read the work in his or her own voice, on records or on films, is obviously a special reward. But even those aids to teaching cannot replace the student and the teacher reading it or, best of all, reciting it.
I have come to think, in fact, that time spent reading a poem aloud is much more important than analyzing it, if there isn't time for both. I think one of our goals as teachers of English is to have students love poetry. Poetry is a criticism of life, and a heightening (提升) of life. It is an approach to the truth of feeling, and it can save your life.
I am not saying that every English teacher must teach poetry. Those who don't like it should not be forced to put that dislike on anyone else. But those who do teach poetry must keep in mind a few things about its essential nature, about its sound as well as its sense, and they must make room in the classroom for hearing poetry as well as thinking about it.
