How to Read an Oral Poem

by John Miles Foley

Though they appear diverse, Homer's Odyssey and slam poetry from contemporary urban America both draw from the well of oral tradition. This unique, practical, and user-friendly guide explores the cultural contexts of verbal art to provide more-than-textual methods for understanding the structure, principles, and social applications of oral poetry.

Using dozens of examples, including a North American slam poet, a Tibetan paper-singer, a South African praise-poet, and an ancient Greek bard, John Miles Foley shows that although oral poetry long predates the invention of writing, it continues to be a vital culture-making and communications tool in societies all over the world. Based on fieldwork and archival research on epics, folktales, lyrics, laments, charms, and other oral traditions, How to Read an Oral Poem answers the questions, What is oral poetry? How does it work? What is reading, literally and figuratively?
This accessible and engaging work is enhanced by audio and video examples of oral poetry, which are available at The book can also be used as companion volume to Foley's Teaching Oral Traditions.
 

280 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2002

About the author

John Miles Foley (1947 – 2012) was a scholar of comparative oral tradition, particularly medieval and Old English literature, Homer and Serbian epic. He was the founder of the academic journal Oral Tradition and the Center for Studies in Oral Tradition at the University of Missouri, where he was Curators' Professor of Classical Studies and English and W. H. Byler Endowed Chair in the Humanities.

Reviews

[Bernard Norcott-mahany · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the schools to which I applied for graduate study back in the 1980s was the University of Missouri at Columbia. Reading this book makes me regret not having gone, as I would have had the famous teacher, John Miles Foley, for at least one and maybe more than one class. I have a deep interest in the Homeric works, and Foley goes a long way to broadening the sense of what oral poetry is and what oral poetry does. Parry and Lord who famously studied the Muslim epics of Yugoslavia, and found in them proof of the "formulaic" way of speaking we see in the Homeric poems, did a great service, but they were limited in their approach, and their pronouncements have led lots of people to conclude that oral poetry is very much as Homer presents it, but Foley shows how, even in Yugoslavia, the world of oral poetry is much wider than these particular epics, no matter how great those works are.

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

i took john foley's course as a senior in college, and it was a radical experience for me-- totally transforming the way i view the process of poetry, the process of sharing poetry, the mystery of oral communication, and art of trying to preserve such mystery with the written word.

[Suzette Kunz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was for one of my PhD classes. Some really helpful theory that I'm sure I'll use for my dissertation.

[Paula Soper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting ideas. I wish it would apply to my dissertation.