Need for a discussion topic on poetry. need to think about a specific work of poetry and have to discuss particular elements or types of poetry that me understand the different parts of a poem, and the challenges faced with reading it and the strategies that have with reading comprehension.

Hello, although I am unable to do this for you I do hope this helps in your endeavors. I would like to suggest the poem And death shall have no dominion by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. Here is the poem:

And death shall have no dominion.

Dead men naked they shall be one

With the man in the wind and the west moon;

When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,

They shall have stars at elbow and foot;

Though they go mad they shall be sane,

Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;

Though lovers be lost love shall not;

And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.

Under the windings of the sea

They lying long shall not die windily;

Twisting on racks when sinews give way,

Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;

Faith in their hands shall snap in two,

And the unicorn evils run them through;

Split all ends up they shan't crack;

And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.

No more may gulls cry at their ears

Or waves break loud on the seashores;

Where blew a flower may a flower no more

Lift its head to the blows of the rain;

Though they be mad and dead as nails,

Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;

Break in the sun till the sun breaks down

And death shall have no dominion.

It deals obviously with the paradox of death and immortality and this poem is one of his most famous works and has greatly influenced popular culture. He was heavily influenced by Romantic poetry, notably Shelley and Lord Byron and you can compare it to Shelley’s poem Music, When Soft Voices Die for example.

The challenges of reading poetry are mainly that since its language is largely figurative not only the reader needs to have a certain amount of culture and education to detect many historical, artistic or cultural references, he also needs to carefully reflect on the actual situational and contextual logic of the story the poem is telling and its symbolic aspects.

The strategies that usually help with reading comprehension are always to begin with e good knowledge of the author’s biography which provides context that explains the author’s ideals, vindications and motives. You can start by reading their Wikipedia page and by googling the poems online since there are website that provide with analysis and comprehension strategies.