RULES OF ENGAGEMENT..

A poet is a man who uses is pen and pads to give expression to the accumulated wisdom of the community he lives in.
His aim is to entertain as well as to Instruct, and to do that he makes use of vivid and imaginative language.

A poet is a man skilled in and concerned with language. 

The poems that he writes reflect the realities of the world he lives in; it paints pictures of the mind.

A poet does not use prosaic language.

He does not want to just ‘tell’ us his experience, he want us as we read to be able to relive it imaginatively.

A poet is someone who cares about language

The words of poetry are compressed, charged with meaning and significance.

A poet must be dynamic

Sometimes a poet chooses words which are not especially unusual but which are used in unusual ways for a particular effect.

Some understanding of figurative language is essential for writing and reading poetry.

Figurative languages are language which is not used in literal way but still makes sense. E.g. metaphor, simile, Personification, Oxymoron…..etc

When reading a poem, you have to go beyond the obvious surface meaning.
It could be deeper than you imagine.

A poet usually makes use of rhymes and rhythm also known as sound of poetry.

He’s also particular about the pace, pattern, structure and metre of the poem.

You need to train your ears has a reader so that you can hear how a poem sound with a particular attention to the rhymes.

 (The repetition of consonant sound is alliteration; that of vowel sound is called assonance)

Poets are mostly passionate and emotional which makes their writing exceptional. (Poetry is spiritual)

Poetry is as diverse as the human beings who write it.

So to the readers The General Rule of Engagement is: 

Read a poem with as alert and open mind as possible, thinking steadily and carefully about the details and the total effect of the poem.

The best way of dealing with a Poem.

1. Read it through completely at first stage.
2. Read it again several times, thinking more carefully than the first. Checking the main point. 
1. i. The choice of words and its ordering. 
2. ii. The rhythm of the poem

3. Read through the poem again, aiming to get a renewed sense of how it works as a whole.
To appreciate poetry fully, you should be able to form your own judgment.
Try to develop your own critical thinking.

Once you truly understand a good poem, you will almost certainly realize that the writer could not have expressed himself in any other way. You will realize why he did not write in prose- and be glad he did not.

Remember that the mother of all poetry is writing.

Though some write poetry for the ears, some write for the eyes, some for the page and others for the stage.