Plays and Poems

After reading Glaspell's Trifles, I must say that I believe reading plays and poetry are highly similar, disregarding plays that actually are poems. The author formats the lines in such a way that a special feeling comes across and uses punctuation to help speed the lines along or slow them down. In Trifles, I often encountered little dashes that caused me to take a break or read something in a hushed or nervous tone. One line reads, "And then she- laughed." Personally, I flew through the lines leading up to that one because no pause was elicited. Then I suddenly stopped because this line forces you to. There's a creepy feeling lingering in the poem and the laugh creates an almost maniacal feel to go with it. It almost catches you I guess. You're rushing through the lines and suddenly you stop because a character is laughing in what seems to be a serious situation. And then I realize the author did it on purpose. Like a poet, the playwright wants certain things to be noticed about his or her work, they want special feelings to be emitted. They want something to sound sorrowful or happy. They want pauses or rushing depending upon the scenario being portrayed. To use an example Gardner already called upon: "To be or not to be." Rushing through that line would lose the contemplative feel. It would change the overall feeling of the play. Thus, I believe, despite the visual nature of a play, reading plays and poetry are quite similar. I think it would be a fair statement to say that you could call upon your skills at reading poetry to help you with reading plays.