Question About Poetry

[cacian]

1) should you be able tell wether a poet is from a certain region/area because of the regional accent?
that is without relying on say proper nouns like this piece from Burns

'My heart's in the Highlands, My hearts not here,
My heart's in the Highlands, achasing a deer.
Whereever I go and whereever I roam,
My heart's in the Highlands, My heart is home'

2) Should you be/Are you able to tell wether the poet/writer is a woman/ a man/both?

[hillwalker]

Your first is an interesting question because the likes of Wordsworth who was born in Cumbria displays very few traces of regional langiage in his poetry. Perhaps in his day most 'educated' writers strove to write in 'accepted English' so their work could be appreciated by a wide readership. And there's also the posibility that displaying his parochial roots would lead to his being considered a lesser artist than someone from London.

More recently of course there are many writers who choose to advertise their roots by writing in nothing but vernacular. It's a way of preserving a region'a dialect and patterns of speech as well as paying hommage to the place of their birth and its community.

Kathleen Jamie from Scotland writes a great deal of wonderful poetry using her 'mother tongue' as does the Scottish makar (poet laureate) Liz Lochhead.

Of course, most writers seldom choose to write in a fashion that will limit their readership to those raised in the same country or region so it's not always possible to identify the nationality of a poet. There's certainly no expectation on the reader to identify the writer's background. The closest one can get to identifying where a writer comes from is whether they spell 'colour' with an 'u' (UK) or without an 'u' (USA).

As for identifying a poet's gender - certainly on these pages there have been many instances of the readers getting it hopelessly wrong. In the past I've been mistaken for a teenaged girl... so I'm best leaving it for someone else to ponder your second question.

H

[cacian]

Interesting.
Let's put it this way then
Is one able to tell which era a story/poem has been written in for example?
How do I find out that a given poem has been written say in the Burns era?
I am trying to work out how to do it?

[hillwalker]

I'm not sure you'll ever be able to nail down a piece of work to a particular time based purely on phraseology and vocabulary. Poetry certainly doesn't always accurately reflect the language and expressions of the era in which it was written. Many poets try to convey an artificial sense of timelessness by using archaic words and an arcane style.
One can tell Chaucer from Coleridge but that doesn't mean no one today is able to write in Middle English.

It is possible to tell whether or not something is contemporary by reference to certain modes of dress or behaviour for example. If a poem written in the style of Burns mentions nylon stockings or a mobile phone you are safe to assume it was written more recently!

The best way to authenticate the age of a particular work is probably to read as much other material that is known to have been written at the time you surmise the questionable piece belongs to. Study the way of life of that time as well (in terms of religious beliefs, agricultural practices, social mores, etc.). There's no guarantee you'll be any the wiser but you will be able to spot certain clues.

There's also the style of the poem itself, of course. The way poetry is written has developed over the years as you are no doubt aware. There are many groups and movements of poetry that you can check out on Wikipedia pertaining to a particular period of time. I'm not sure being able to pin-point when a poem was written is going to enhance your enjoyment of it but good luck with your endeavours.

H

[cacian]

Thank you hillwalker.
Your posts have helped a lot.
I think I am trying to introduce pieces of works/poetries to students and asking them to look for clues and determine when or even who wrote it.
It is part of studying language and identifying when and how and who is the writer behind a literary piece of work.

[cafolini]

1) should you be able tell wether a poet is from a certain region/area because of the regional accent?
that is without relying on say proper nouns like this piece from Burns

'My heart's in the Highlands, My hearts not here,
My heart's in the Highlands, achasing a deer.
Whereever I go and whereever I roam,
My heart's in the Highlands, My heart is home'

2) Should you be/Are you able to tell wether the poet/writer is a woman/ a man/both?

Experts could do it with a high probability of success. But it is never more than a high probability. However, actors could also be experts and fool you with a high probability of success.

[cacian]

Experts could do it with a high probability of success. But it is never more than a high probability. However, actors could also be experts and fool you with a high probability of success.

It makes me think about Antiques and forgeries.
There is always one out there who would try and outdo one unless one is very careful.

[cafolini]

It makes me think about Antiques and forgeries.
There is always one out there who would try and outdo one unless one is very careful.

Certainly. The problem is you could never be ABSOLUTELY careful.