1. THE POETRY ESSAY STEP ONE Analyse the question. STEP TWO
Make a plan of your essay
STEP THREE
Write the essay
STEP FOUR
Edit your essay

2. SOME SAMPLE QUESTIONS Analyse the imagery in the poem
Write a critical analysis of the poem
Comment on the structure of the poem and how it affects meaning
How does the title of the poem relate to the rest of the poem
Explain the literal and the figurative meanings in the poem and show how they have been created.
Describe how this poem is an example of metaphysical poetry

3. WHAT THE ESSAY SHOULD LOOK LIKE
LENGTH: About a page
CLEAR INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSION
SEPARATE PARAGRAPHS FOR EACH SEPARATE IDEA.
LINKING WORDS JOINING PARAGRAPHS
STYLE: formal

4. Analyse the imagery in the Sonnet 104
EXAMPLE OF AN ESSAY
Analyse the imagery in the Sonnet 104
Sonnet 104 is Shakespeare’s tribute to a “fair friend” In the sonnet Shakespeare speaks of the beauty of the friend and therefore much of the imagery is related to beauty. He also speaks of how the beauty remains constant although there is the passage of time. In order to show the passage of time, Shakespeare uses the imagery of the seasons .
The first interplay of seasons to be mentioned is the movement from winter to summer. Shakespeare says that the “cold” of three winters has shaken the leaves and fruit, which are “summer’s pride” from the trees. This emphasises the passing of three full cycles in the year. The imagery is further enhanced because it illustrates how the beauty of summer is destroyed by the cold of winter. We see here the transience of physical beauty, how all physical beauty comes to pass.

5. Another image which repeats this idea is that of three springs turning to autumn. The freshness and newness of spring is transformed into the dry, burnt autumn. Spring is referred to again when the olfactory image of April’s “perfume” is used. Here Shakespeare is describing the way in which the gentle scents of spring are burnt by the hot sun of summer. This is another image showing that in time even the most subtle of physical things will be destroyed.
In the next quatrain, the imagery moves away from the seasons. Here beauty is compared to a clock, or sundial, and as the hands of the clock move and steal time, so beauty is stolen from the figure. Even as we cannot see each individual movement of the clock, so we cannot see beauty disappearing.
These images, that of the seasons changing and time passing illustrate that all that is physical must pass . In contrast to this, the poet says that the beauty he sees in his friend is still the same and will not change. However, in case he might be deceived, he writes the sonnet for the ages yet to come and ends his sonnet by boasting that before those ages were even born, he had experienced the paragon of beauty.