on practice of Reading

Q. offers good advice for those already literate in the mother tongue of which you are reading poetry at the moment, but this is nigh unto impossible with second-language students. To read a poem through with no stops in one's classroom, then wait for questions is to wait for wrinkles and grey hair. A new-to-english student is both shy and lacks the vocabulary to ask questions about content. Thus, in violation of Q's dictum, I find it most helpful to question my students, explaining words and pictures and ideas as we go along, one stanza at a time, re-reading over again all at once. We are all like hard sponges, needing much sprinkling of words to soften the ear to hearing and the heart to absorbing the life giving picture.