What to say at workshops

It's not always easy to know what to say after hearing a poem. Though we're not in competition with others, we don't want to sound stupid. Remember it's a team effort, and whatever you say can be built upon by others. If you feel confident you can try to analyse the poem in depth, looking at these factors - Then you could look at how these factors combine. Do they reinforce or is there ironic contrast?

Usually there's insufficient time to do this kind of analysis in full, but you might concentrate on just one of the above, hoping that the group collectively will cover all the points. There are other ways you can be useful though

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Tim Love, December 1997.