1. How to Analyze a poem

2. Create a metaphor for what poetry is for you. A storm? A garden?
3/16
Poetry is __________.
Create a metaphor for what poetry is for you. A storm? A garden?
Explain why this is.
Then start reading your literature circle book!

3. Getting to know the poem
Read it through without marking it
Listen to it or read it out loud
Jot down initial thoughts/what you know about the basics of the poem

4. Content
Go through the poem looking at what you do not know: CIRCLE or place a “?” by it
Any challenging words? Words you “sort of” know?
Any words that have multiple meanings? Consider the multiple meanings of “bar”
Allusions? Is the poem naming other texts, people, characters, places, historical events?
Diction: Slang? Accents? Scientific language? Jargon? Formal? Informal?

5. Title
After reading the poem, does the title help explain the meaning?
Does it name the subject? Help determine the theme or tone?

6. Tone
Who is the speaker/persona in the poem?
Young? Old? Gender? Background?
Is it the poet speaking or a voice created by the poet (persona)?
What is the speaker’s tone? Angry? Joyful? Melancholy?
Who is the poem addressed to?
Who is the target audience?
Is the poem trying to argue? Inform? Call to action? Express emotion?

7. Structure
How are the stanzas organized?
Does each have a topic
How do the stanzas relate to each other?
Is it a certain type of poem: sonnet? Haiku? Ode?
Does the poet follow the rules or break them?
Does the structure tell you about the ideas? Does it mimic the tone/theme?

8. Sound and Rhythm
Meter/rhythm
Repetition
Alliteration, Assonance, Consonance
Rhyme
Onomatopoeia

9. Rhyme Schemes End Rhyme Internal Rhyme Half Rhyme/Near Rhyme
From “Player Piano” by John Updike My stick fingers click with a snicker And, chuckling, they knuckle the keys; Light-footed, my steel feelers flicker And pluck from these keys melodies. My paper can caper; abandon Is broadcast by dint of my din And no man or band has a hand in The tones I turn on from within
End Rhyme
Internal Rhyme
Half Rhyme/Near Rhyme
Adds meaning
Help create mood/tone
Watch for changes

10. Alliteration
From “A Bird came down the Walk—” by Emily Dickinson Than Oars divide the Ocean, Too silver for a seam – Of Butterflies, off Banks of Noon Leap, plashless as they swim.
The repetition of beginning consonant sounds (not spelling)
Emphasis, relation, meaning
Overdone: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

11. ASSONANCE
Repetition of the same vowel sound in nearby words
Asleep under a tree
Time, tide, I’d
To hover over words, like the smoke
From the loggers’ fires, over the valley.
- Nina Bogan
CONSONANCE
Identical consonant sound repeated in different part of words (Home, same, made)
The moon was shining sulkily, Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there After the day was done—
“It’s very rude of him,” she said, “To come and spoil the fun!”
-Lewis Carroll

12. onomatopoeia

14. Literary Techniques/Figurative Language
Imagery
Metaphor/simile/analogy
Symbolism
Personification

15. What is going on at this time?
Context
When was this written?
What is going on at this time?
Who is the author and what is his/her background info?

16. Now put all of this information together What does it all add up to?
Synthesize
Now put all of this information together
What does it all add up to?
What is the poet’s message?

17. Create an Analysis Chart
Must include:
Where to start
Content/Literal Meaning
Title
Tone
Structure
Sound and Rhythm
Literary Techniques
Context