Prepare so both you and the poet can relax during the interview.
Poets are just like everyone else. Some are good-natured and some are curmudgeonly; some shy and others gregarious. Most are smart and imaginative -- but their interesting, imaginative natures may not show in an interview unless you know talk shop with them. Through intelligent, well-informed questioning, you will let the poet know that you have enough knowledge to carry on an interesting conversation on the subject all poets love: poetry.
Instructions
1. Give yourself a steady footing. Review poetic techniques before the interview. Refresh yourself on symbolism and metaphor, basic sound devices such as types of rhyme, the differences and similarities between free verse and formal verse, and what a poet means by imagery. None of these may actually crop up in your discussion with the poet, but your thinking about poetry will be more well-informed.
2. Review the poet's work and background. You should be familiar with her work before attempting to interview her. And, as with any other interview subject, if you know something about her background, you'll be less likely to waste time on obvious questions, such as "Where are you from?" Instead, you can ask, "How does your hometown of Detroit inform your work?"
3. Use one of the poet's poems to launch a discussion after you have introduced yourself and broken the ice for a minute or two. You might ask how the symbolism of the poem developed, how the poet makes line break choices, or some other aspect of the poem that stands out. Make sure you have a copy of the poem with you. Poets don't have all their poems memorized, so many poets will appreciate having a hard copy to review.
4. Prepare a list of questions you can weave into the discussion. You might ask how the poet goes about writing a poem from start to finish, whether he works from a preconceived idea or from spontaneous invention, and whether he believes poems are products of pure inspiration. Sometimes it's productive to ask a poet who her influences are and whether the influences inspire emulation or whether the influence works in another less tangible way, such as in creating a mood or as a model of ways to think about poetics. The revision process is as often at least as creative as the initial composing, so ask the poet what his revision process entails.
5. Ask how the poet establishes voice and manipulates language. The poet's approach to language and voice is rich with discussion possibilities, but it can be a tough issue to broach, because for many people it's difficult to articulate. To help guide the discussion, first examine the poet's work for a dialectical approach, which suggests an argument. Many successful poems argue with themselves. For example, in one stanza, the speaker voices a place in the world, whether it be literal or psychic, and in the next stanza defies it or questions it. Sometimes the argument is evident in language that argues with itself. The poet may describe terrible things in lovely terms and lovely things in terms of the terrible. For example, tracer fire may streak across the sky like falling stars, or in a poem about flowers, a gardener may stab at the soil, turning it up to face winter's chill.
