Qualitative Data Analysis : An Introduction

Carol Grbich

Chapter 10. Poetic Inquiry

Poetic Inquiry

Definition

Poetic inquiry is a form of qualitative research that incorporates poetry as a component of an investigation. It requires the researcher to participate creatively in the reframing of data in order to bring the reader as close as possible to the original researcher/participant experiences.

 

Poetic InquiryUses

for exploring individual experiences or feelings of :

Self

Other

both.

Used in:

Autobiography

autoethnography

narrative inquiry

Data sources

1. researcher response to existing literature or to current social or political events?

2. researcher’s field notes and/or their autoethnographical data?

3. participants’ interview transcripts created

separately by the researcher

or collaboratively between researcher and participants

Process of poetic reframing

During data collection:

Read the transcripts

Undertake preliminary data analysis to gain information on all aspects of the research question

When all the data is in:

Re read the transcripts together with any other data gathered (observations, visual and written documents)

Make notes identifying themes.

Process of poetic framing. (2)

develop files of the themes

Order and reorder these themes

Transform themes/portraits into the poetic or combined styles that best portray the response to the research question

Read aloud or display to others to gauge the effect

 

Types of poetic form1. 1. Haiku - a poem written in three unrhymed lines of 5 7 5

syllables . This form can be repeated.

2. Narrative poetry – a story portrait with a beginning, middle and an end in any form but usually close to the spoken word;

3. Cinquain

This is a poem with five lines.

Line 1 has one word (the title).

Line 2 has two words that describe the title.

Line 3 has three words that tell the action.

Line 4 has four words that express the feeling. in need

Line 5 has one word, which recalls the title.

Types of poetic form4. Tanka - a poem of 31 syllables divided into 5 lines of 5-7-5-7-

7 syllables

5. Heroic couplet - Two successive lines of rhymed poetry in iambic pentameter

6. Quatrain – a stanza of 4 lines where lines 2 and 4 must rhyme

7. Canzone – a lyrical poem with 5-6 stanzas and a shorter concluding stanza

8. Free/blank verse, - using rhymed/unrhymed lines with no fixed pattern mimicking ordinary speech

9. Prose poetry – combines prose and poetry for emotional effect sometimes with metrical overtones.