112. Five ways poetry makes you a better speaker
Reciting poetry from a young age not only gave me a love of language but helped me be the speaker I am today. In this episode I share five ways reading poetry aloud is proven to help you become a better speaker - even if poetry brings back bad memories from high school English classes this episode is for you.
Transcript
"The Journey" by Mary Oliver
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and
began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice --
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to
do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voice behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and
deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do --
determined to save
the only life that you could
save.
Hello, hello. Welcome to That Voice Podcast. Yes, a little bit of a different start to this episode. If you're here for the first time, welcome! I don't normally start the episodes with poetry, but oh wow. Isn't that poem by Mary Oliver fantastic? I just love it. It's one of my faves, which is why I wanted to start today with it. It's to me all about daring to take the leap and courageously choosing to listen to your own voice. It really takes courage to do that, to not only break through the noise of all the external voices, but to break through the noise of those inner critics that you have, and really get to your true voice.
Love that poem so much. And of course it relates to today's topic, which is 'Five ways poetry makes you a better speaker'. I love poetry. I've been into poetry ever since I started speech and drama at the age of nine. And I learned poems for a eisteddfods and exams, and I write poetry. Although I was going to read some of it for you today, but whoa, it's a little bit much.
But hey, much better to have those emotions on a page than bottled up inside. I think my, uh, collection of poems, my anthology will be published posthumously. That's how deep some of the stuff is. But I have lots of poetry books on my shelf, and I include poetry in Speak from your Soul, my six-week online course, to find your authentic voice and make it heard. Each week, I share a poem, the audio version and also the written version. The one that I shared at the start of this episode is part of that course.
And the reason I do that is because poetry has such an incredible power to help us better understand concepts. And that was the feedback I got from the course last time around. Everybody was like, wow, that poem. Oh, I love the video. I love the meditation, but the poem. Wow. That really got me thinking. That poem. It really got me feeling.
And that's exactly why I include them. Get on the wait list. The link is in the show notes, Speak from your Soul. We are starting again in May.
Now the other reason I include poems is not just for the understanding, but I encourage people to read them out aloud because when you are speaking poetry, it takes things to the next level.
Now, if you are sitting here going, oh God, Sal poetry. This just brings back nightmares of high school English. Like, ugh. Well, I'm here to say, hopefully I can turn it around for you today. And it sounds like you may have been given poetry that wasn't very exciting for you, or it was taught by a teacher who wasn't that excited by it.
And couldn't convey that I don't know that that life that is in poetry, I think saying that you don't like poetry is like saying that you don't like music. Like, who doesn't like music? Sure, we don't like every type of music, but surely every person at least has one type of music that they enjoy listening to.
And I believe with poetry, it's the same. So if you've convinced yourself, you hate poetry, I would like to challenge that and say, potentially you haven't been exposed to the kind of poetry that suits you. The kind of poetry that is music to your ears.
Poetry has incredible benefits. So, so many, and today we're going through five ways it helps you be a better speaker. And the first way is it helps you master language. It helps you master language. One of the most common things I hear people say is Sal. I know in my head what I wanna say, but I can't get it out. I struggle to find the right word, the right phrase. I'm just at a loss. And of course that can be a fight or flight reaction going on as well.
But the more language we're exposed to the more we will have in our brain to pull upon when we are searching for that word, searching for that phrase, or especially in any kind of coaching or any kind of communicating really. If somebody doesn't understand the first time you wanna have plan B, C and D of ways to explain it other ways to approach it.
And you can do that by having a depth in the vocabulary and the language. So poets are like word artists. I think it was, uh, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who said poetry is the best words in the best order. Poetry is the best words in the best order. So if you want to learn from the maestros, go to poetry. And every time I read poetry, I find myself going, wow, what an interesting metaphor, what a clever play on words.
What an unusual angle to come at that from. and it really opens up my creativity and gives me ideas on what words I can use in my own presentations and coaching and day to day conversation. And there's been studies that show poetry makes us smarter. I guess that's what we're really saying, but it's not just about reading the words.
It's about understanding the sounds, the meanings, the emotions of them, because the brain has to put all these things together at once. And so they say that the brain function peaks, and then we strengthen our overall cognitive health. So the quick way to get smarter, read poetry. So that's the first way it makes you a better speaker, by helping you master language.
Now, the second thing reading poetry allowed does is it improves your memory. Again, another thing people say to me is, Sal. I can't break away from my notes. I'm going to forget what to say. Even one phrase. I struggle to remember. I need my notes. And so we really wanna pull away from these notes because when we speak from the heart, of course, it's a lot more fluent.
Poetry sticks with you. Poetic words are a lot more easier to memorize than non poetic ones. This is why you can remember song lyrics, because lyrics are often rhyming and nursery rhymes as a kid, poems are easier to remember. It's like our brain is hardwired for. Poetry. And so if we get good at memorizing poetry, it actually makes us more receptive to remembering other information as well.
Now the third way poetry makes you a better speaker is it is like a day spa for your voice. I remember, this is, this is really where I learned all about vocal range, about the changing in the pitch, the pace, the pause, the volume, the inflections, the different types of pauses, the different effects you can use with your voice.
All of that came from doing poetry in my speech and drama lessons. And when we're expressing, and this is not an episode just about this, I do have episodes about vocal expression. But when we are looking at what to do with our voice, like, do we go high, do we go low? Do we go quickly? Do we go slowly? Do we take our... pause? When we are looking for all those cues, we look to the words and poetry has this beautiful ability to be our guide. The language is very descriptive, very melodic, very beautiful. It's the, it's the cream of the crop when it comes to writing if you ask me! And so it really guides our voice to join the meaning of the words in the poem.
And to demonstrate this, I'll just share a tiny bit of one of my favorite poems of all time, which is by Australian poet, Bruce Dawe, it's called 'Enter Without So Much As Knocking' and just in this first bit, oh gosh, this will be testing me. I haven't done this for a while, but just in this first bit, you can really hear how it challenges the voice and gives it this beautiful opportunity to show range.
So let's go.
Blink, blink. HOSPITAL. SILENCE.
Ten days old, carried in the front door in his
mother's arms, first thing he heard was
Bobby Dazzler on Channel 7:
Hello, hello hello all you lucky people and he
really was lucky because it didn't mean a thing
to him then...
A year or two to settle in and
get acquainted with the set-up; like every other
well-equipped smoothly-run household, his included
one economy-size Mum, one Anthony Squires-
Coolstream-Summerweight Dad, along with two other kids
straight off the Junior Department rack.
When Mom won the
Luck's-A-Fortch Tricky-Tune Quiz she took him shopping
in the good-as-new station-wagon (£ 495 dep. at Reno's).
Beep, beep. WALK. DON'T WALK. TURN
LEFT. NO PARKING. WAIT HERE. NO
SMOKING. KEEP CLEAR/OUT/OFF GRASS. NO
BREATHING EXCEPT BY ORDER. BEWARE OF
THIS. WATCH OUT FOR THAT. My God (beep)
the congestion here just gets (beep)
worse every day, now what the (beep beep) does
that idiot think he's doing (beep beep and BEEP).
Oh, I love this poem. It is so good. Go and read the rest of it. It's called 'Enter Without So Much As Knocking'. But you can see how it's really that spa for your voice, giving it the opportunity to get way out of monotone town and really into all of the expressive devices.
Reason number four, poetry makes you a better speaker because it helps calm you down and give you focus. So when you are panicking before speaking, especially, this is why it helps to have a routine or warm up. Something to go to. I often talk about breathing, but reading poetry is also very effective because it gives you something to focus on. It takes your mind off the other things you are worried about and just gives you focus.
There's actually a theme song, which I use and Speak from your Soul, which sums up the course. And as I mentioned earlier, poetry is great for memory. This is why we get songs stuck in our head. So it helps with the recall. I actually also use a poem in My Six Week Voice Makeover that I share at the end as well.
I don't know why I'm laughing. It's actually really good. I think it's just, it's, there's a bit of comedy in that one. But in Speak from your Soul, it's designed to sum up the content of the course, but also to give a focus point.
Listen to your body, return to the earth. Inspire yourself. Get ready to be heard. Raise your vibrations. Connect with your words. Love your voice. Now you're ready to be heard. Listen to your body. Return to the earth, inspire yourself. Get ready to be heard. Raise your vibrations, connect with your words. Love your voice. Now you're ready to be heard.
And so it's like a little bit of a healing, medicine song and it can help you focus. And there's studies to back this up as well. There was one study of undergraduate students in Iran, and they found that reading poetry together reduced signs of depression, anxiety, and stress. And so they found poetry is particularly powerful in times when going through a lot.
And there's a poetry therapist called Robert Carol. And he said, our voices are embodiments of ourselves whether written or spoken. It is in times of extremity that we long to find words or hear another human voice, letting us know we are not alone.
Beautiful, absolutely beautiful. And that's how poetry can help you calm down and give you focus.
Okay. Number five, the fifth way, poetry makes you a better speaker. Is it boosts your mood. It boosts your mood. So it can calm you down, but it can also boost your mood and make you feel more joyful. Especially if you're reading really fun, that's still nonsense content. And I have some nonsense poetry in the course as well for this very reason.
And it reminds me of a woman named Amanda Gorman. So you might not be familiar with the name, but you might remember this particular occasion. She was 22 years old when she recited her poem, the hill we climb at Joe Biden's inauguration. And she was the youngest inaugural poet ever. And it was this beautiful poem that was pinned after the riots on the capital.
So, you know, that time it was quite tumultuous. And just this stanza, listen to it:
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true.
That even as we grieved, we grew.
That even as we hurt, we hoped.
That even as we tired, we tried.
That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious.
Amazing. You know, just weeks before that was the violence storming of the capital. And so, for millions of people watching that, and of course the pandemic was going on as well, Amanda Gorman's words provided solace and healing. It gave hope, and it really was a testament to the power of poetry and its delivery through the spoken word to express our collective fears, and also our hopes.
And so that's an example of the search in action, which is that poetry can help support our mental health, especially in times of great need.
My goodness. What more reasons do you need? So five ways poetry makes you a better speaker: it helps you master language. Number two, it improves your memory. Number three, it's a day spa for your voice. It gives it that chance to go wild. Number four, it calms you down gives you focus. And number five, it boost your mood and gives you a shot of optimism.
Thank you so much for joining me on this episode. It is quite different to what I normally do, so I'd really appreciate it. If you reached out to me on Instagram @SallyProservoice and shared what you thought it would really mean a lot. And of course, I would love to see you in Speak from your Soul. The poetry element is just one of the things that makes this course like no other. This is a public speaking course, like no other.
It really gets to the heart and soul of what we are trying to do, which is communicate human to human. Connect with our breath connect with our voice and truly, speak from our soul.
Hence the name of the course, the details are in the show notes. I will see you next week. Bye!