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Hello, this is 6 Minute English
from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.
And I'm Pippa.
In this episode
we're discussing poetry.
For some, poetry is what you study
at school, then forget,
while for others it becomes
an important part of their life.
Have you ever read
or written any poetry, Neil?
Well, I haven't written any poetry
since I was at school.
I would love to read more poetry,
but I just don't get it, really.
I find it difficult to understand.
A good place to hear poetry
is an open mic night, a live event
where anyone is allowed to stand up
on stage to sing or recite poems.
Here, BBC reporter Maria recites
her open mic poem
about a friend who suffered a stroke,
for BBC World Service
programme People Fixing the World.
This first poem, I wrote it
about a friend who I love dearly.
It's called Stroke.
You're awake
And trying to grasp who it is.
I pull my mask past my lips
and you study my face,
Eyes wide.
I've enough stuff to tell you, I say,
Sinking into a chair.
I stare.
Sometimes
if you go to an open mic night,
people can really touch your soul
with what they're saying.
And even if you're having a bad day,
life can feel so much better
after going to an open mic night.
For Maria, poetry has the power
to heal emotions and touch your soul,
meaning to affect you deeply
on an emotional or spiritual level.
In this episode, we'll hear more
about the positive power of poetry and,
as usual, we'll learn
some useful new words and phrases.
And remember,
you'll find all the vocabulary,
plus a quiz and worksheet on
our website, bbclearningenglish.com.
But first,
I have a question for you, Pippa.
Just now you used the phrase
'the positive power of poetry',
repeating the same initial 'p' sound
across a string of words.
Doing this is a common feature
of poetry, but what's it called?
Is it: a) assonance, b) alliteration,
or c) simile?
Hmm. Finally, my
English degree might come in handy!
And I'm going to say b) alliteration.
Well, we'll find out at the end, and
I hope you don't get embarrassed, Pippa!
Now, poetry helped
Maria overcome sadness,
but could its power to heal work
in other areas too?
Hot Poets is a group helping
people understand the science
behind global issues
like climate change.
They go to meetings
like the UN Climate Conference
and listen
to scientific papers being presented.
Then they write a poem about it all
and perform that back to the audience.
Here's Hot Poet Liv Torc,
reciting her poem
to BBC World Service's People Fixing
the World.
It starts with an adventure at sea,
A big blue murder mystery,
where the killer is not the whale
But an epic humanity fail
Of overfishing
and polluting at unimaginable scale.
Liv's poem is based
on a study into biodiversity.
It's a complex research project
that many find hard to understand.
Here, Liv discusses this
with Myra Anubi for BBC World Service
programme People Fixing the World:
And Liv, I mean, so what you've
identified is that there is an issue
around the communication of science.
Yes, a lot of this jargon
is really hard to understand,
or a lot of the science is
quite impenetrable to normal people,
so it's instantly a turn-off.
Science uses lots of jargon –
specialist or technical vocabulary
which is quite different
from everyday language.
For example, a scientist might use
the word precipitation,
while in everyday English
we would say rain.
Jargon can make
scientific papers impenetrable,
an adjective meaning impossible
to understand.
And worse,
it makes science a turn-off –
something that people dislike
or find uninteresting.
Hot Poets try to change all of that
by making complex environmental ideas
easy to understand through poetry.
And it works, says Kat Bruce,
the environmental scientist
whose study Liv based her poem on,
talking here with Myra Anubi for BBC
World Service's People Fixing the World.
What did it mean for you, Kat,
hearing the poem, having actually
experienced everything she's saying?
It still gives me goosebumps
when I hear it now.
I think it's everything that I wish I
could say and put into words myself.
I feel like Liv just,
you know, has done that.
Liv's poem gave Kat goosebumps,
meaning she was so emotionally affected
that the hairs on her skin stood up,
making tiny bumps.
Maybe poetry can't fix everything,
but for Kat,
it's making an impact for good.
Now, what was the answer
to your question, Neil?
Well, you seemed very clear, Pippa,
that when you use a string of
words beginning with the same sound,
it's called alliteration...
and you're absolutely right.
Phew!
OK. Let's recap
the vocabulary we've learned,
starting with open mic night,
a live event where anyone is allowed
to perform poems or music on stage.
If something touches your soul,
it affects you deeply
on an emotional or spiritual level.
Jargon means special words
and phrases
that are used in a particular
profession or subject.
The adjective impenetrable means
impossible to understand.
A turn-off is something that
people dislike or find uninteresting.
And finally, if you get goosebumps,
the hairs on your skin stand up
because you're cold,
emotionally affected, or afraid.
Once again, our six minutes are up,
but remember, you'll find lots more
episodes as well as a quiz and worksheet
for this one on our website,
bbclearningenglish.com.
See you again soon.
But for now it's goodbye.
Goodbye!
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