Some key questions to ask
What can we learn about the speaker’s character? Is the character merely a voice meditating on a theme? Does the speaker have a specific personality? What characterises the speaker? (Remember that the speaker may be a persona. The persona and the poet may be totally different entities.I
Here are some examples. Make sure you have the vocabulary necessary to describe tone and mood. Use the hand out you have been given. jovial indignant serious dignified tense angry excited contemptuous embarrassed
If the speaker is addressing a particular person why is he/she interested in him/her? Some poems are addressed to a specific person or group of readers. Others, like dramatic monologues, address a silent auditor. Others are simply meditations on a universal theme. The identity will be important to the poem.
Try to understand the setting, it will often be implicit so you will need to work quite hard to do this. Is the poem occasioned by a particular event or place? Is a particular situation being described?
Often themes are stated in the final lines. Some poems use fairly straightforward literal language others may use lots of figurative language and symbols. The theme may be explicit and use the actual word of the theme. The theme may be implicit and you will need to work hard to find out what it is.
Is the speaker recounting events of the past or the present? If past events are being recalled what present meaning do they have for the speaker? The perspective will be very closely linked to the persona.
How do the meanings of words, and all their possible shades and levels of meaning, combine to create an overall effect? Always think of connotation (association) and not only denotation (dictionary meanings). You have to be able to pick up on subtleties here.
What is the literal meaning of the figurative language used? Some poems begin to open up when you recognize patterns of imagery. Why does the poet use these particular images and analogies? What is the rhetorical significance of the poet’s use of language? Does the poet use various sound techniques like rhyme and onomatopoeia? Never simply list the devices used. This will not win you any marks.
The most powerful symbols are often those that do not specify the ideas they represent. You will need to think hard to identify the symbolism in many poems.
Is it free verse or a specific poetic form such as a sonnet? What verb or stanza patterns are there? Don´t simply state what they are without saying why they are that form and what the form adds to the poem?
The sound must match the sense. Is the language presented with intentional rhythmic effect? Is it slow, fast, gentle and so on? What are the rhyming patterns and how do they help bring the poem to life?
Your response may change with the intensity of your reading. Be honest here. The examiners really want to read an intelligent, educated personal response. They want to know how the poem affected you as an individual.