109. Ira Virtanen: The Power of Poetry Reading for Public Speakers

Dr. Ira A. Virtanen is a researcher in communication. She specializes in interpersonal relationships and supportive communication, in particular in the friendships of boys and men. Ira trains companies, nonprofit organizations and the research community in effective public speaking and interview skills. She is also known for reciting poems –a hobby she took on as young child and in which she has even competed. For the past decade Ira has been an artistic member of the Finnish Poem Readers Association (Suomen Lausujain Liitto) and a founding member of the poem reading group Siitä pitäen. She has worked as a university lecturer in communication at the Universities of Tampere and Helsinki (Finland), and as an ASLA-Fulbright Scholar at Purdue University (USA). Ira is passionate about opera and sports so you can spot her at any major volleyball tournament or opera house such as La Scala and the Metropolitan.

The power of poetry reading for public speakers

Ira believes that poetry can greatly enhance one’s public speaking. Why? A great speech speaks to the minds and the hearts of the listener. When the goals of the speaker and the listener are met, the speech can be considered to be a success.

You need to choose the content of the speech in a way that it addresses the concerns that the listener has and to use words that the listener understands, that speak to the many layers of who we are as people. Finding common ground, finding a space in which the speaker and the listener are equal or recognize the similarities in each other is most beneficial. Poetry is such a vessel: Poems describe experience that we all can relate to.

The following three things are useful:

* Imagery

Use language that stimulates the senses of the listener because words carry meaning, they carry emotions, they raise emotions and heighten our senses.

* Comparison

Use similes or metaphors. Reading poetry gives you a ton of unusual, fresh, accurate, surprising metaphors and imagery. In sum, you can happily bid farewell to clichés.

* Music

Poetry teaches you about assonance and alliteration, rhyme, and rhythm.

How to be great at reading poetry

A person is great at reading poetry when they become the experience that the poem describes. This means that you become aware of your own story,