Read the poem all the way through. It might be tempting to stop and puzzle over any tricky bits, but by reading the poem all the way through, you should be able to pick up the overall idea the poet is trying to convey. Consider the subject matter - what the poem is literally about - as well as any themes that emerge - these are the ideas that the poet wants you to think about after reading the poem.
What is the mood of the poem? Think about how the writer wants you to feel at the end of the poem. Is the overall tone uplifting, or does the poem leave you feeling sad? Some poems have a deliberate change of mood within them, where an apparently downbeat poem ends with a joyful scene (such as Imtiaz Dharker's The Blessing) or vice versa.
Consider how the poem is structured. The poet will have planned the structure of their poem carefully, so look at how many stanzas or verses the poem is divided into. Why do you think the poet has chosen to structure the poem in the way they have? Perhaps each new stanza deals with a new idea or mood, or maybe the poem consists of just one short stanza in order to suggest a brief, fast-moving event. Robert Frost's magnificent poem After Apple-Picking is one long stanza, containing a handful of very short lines, allowing the poet to create a feel of an exhausted narrator gradually falling asleep as he talks to us.
Listen to the sounds of the words. Poetry is designed to be read aloud, so forget your embarrassment and recite the poem to yourself. Doing this should allow you to hear whether the poem has any regular rhyme or rhythm, as well as any words the poet has chosen because of the way they sound. For example, the writer may be using alliteration (where two or more words in close succession begin with the same consonant) in order to draw our attention to a certain line or image, or assonance (the repetition of vowel sounds within words).
For an example of the latter, Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening shows how effective the technique can be in the lines "The only other sound's the sweep/Of easy wind and downy flake"- here the assonance slows down the pace of the poem and suggests the sound of the wind murmuring through the snow-laden branches.Other aural techniques to look out for include onomatopoeia, where words such as "crash" are used to echo the sound of the word itself, and sibilance - repetition of an "s" sound as in the Frost lines discussed above.
Listen to the sounds of the words. Poetry is designed to be read aloud, so forget your embarrassment and recite the poem to yourself. Doing this should allow you to hear whether the poem has any regular rhyme or rhythm, as well as any words the poet has chosen because of the way they sound. For example, the writer may be using alliteration (where two or more words in close succession begin with the same consonant) in order to draw our attention to a certain line or image, or assonance (the repetition of vowel sounds within words).
For an example of the latter, Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening shows how effective the technique can be in the lines "The only other sound's the sweep/Of easy wind and downy flake"- here the assonance slows down the pace of the poem and suggests the sound of the wind murmuring through the snow-laden branches.Other aural techniques to look out for include onomatopoeia, where words such as "crash" are used to echo the sound of the word itself, and sibilance - repetition of an "s" sound as in the Frost lines discussed above.
Consider any other Techniques used by the poet. For example, look at how the poet uses imagery - in other words, how language is used to help the reader picture the events of the poem. In order to do this, the poet might use simile or metaphor, to help the reader draw a comparison between ideas. A simile uses "like" or "as" to draw attention to the comparison - such as Robert Burns' "O my love is like a red, red rose".
Metaphors are harder to spot as the comparison is a direct one - the reader is told something is something else, as in Robert Frost's Road Not Taken, where a journey through a wood represents a passage through life. Always consider why the poet has chosen these particular comparisons rather than any other.
Metaphors are harder to spot as the comparison is a direct one - the reader is told something is something else, as in Robert Frost's Road Not Taken, where a journey through a wood represents a passage through life. Always consider why the poet has chosen these particular comparisons rather than any other.
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