1. Steps and Focus
How to Annotate Poetry

2. Step One: Number lines and/or stanzas
Stanzas are like paragraphs in poetry.
The number of lines can dictate the structure, and helps you for referencing the work in an essay or writing assignment.

3. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening BY ROBERT FROS T Whose woods these are I think I know.    His house is in the village though;    He will not see me stopping here    (4)To watch his woods fill up with snow.    My little horse must think it queer    To stop without a farmhouse near    Between the woods and frozen lake    (8)The darkest evening of the year.    He gives his harness bells a shake    To ask if there is some mistake.    The only other sound’s the sweep    (12)Of easy wind and downy flake.    The woods are lovely, dark and deep,    But I have promises to keep,    (15)And miles to go before I sleep,    (16)And miles to go before I sleep.

4. ST Whose woods these are I think I know
ST Whose woods these are I think I know.    His house is in the village though;    He will not see me stopping here    (4)To watch his woods fill up with snow.    My little horse must think it queer    To stop without a farmhouse near    Between the woods and frozen lake    (8)The darkest evening of the year.    He gives his harness bells a shake    To ask if there is some mistake.    The only other sound’s the sweep    (12)Of easy wind and downy flake.    The woods are lovely, dark and deep,    But I have promises to keep,    (15)And miles to go before I sleep,    (16)And miles to go before I sleep.
How many Stanzas?

5. Do the Rhyme Scheme For the Poem
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening BY ROBERT FROS T Whose woods these are I think I know.   a His house is in the village though;   a He will not see me stopping here   b (4)To watch his woods fill up with snow.   a My little horse must think it queer  b  To stop without a farmhouse near   b Between the woods and frozen lake   c (8)The darkest evening of the year.  b  He gives his harness bells a shake    To ask if there is some mistake.    The only other sound’s the sweep    (12)Of easy wind and downy flake.    The woods are lovely, dark and deep,    But I have promises to keep,    (15)And miles to go before I sleep,    (16)And miles to go before I sleep.

6. Look For Symbolism
Highlight and explain (in the margins) symbols you see. Do they connect with each other?

7. Identify Unknown Words
Vocabulary: Be sure to DEFINE the words you do not know (in the margins)

8. Identify Figurative Language
Look for metaphor, simile, personification, analogy, allusion, etc. Fog
BY CARL SANDBURG
The fog comes 
on little cat feet. 
It sits looking 
over harbor and city 
on silent haunches 
and then moves on.

9. Identify Meter: Is there a specific rhythm?
SCANSCION is the process of identifying stressed and unstressed syllables. One can determine if the rhythm and meter fit a particular structure (iambic pentameter, for example).

10. Who is the speaker in the poem? How do you know?
Be sure to determine the speaker.
Who is the speaker in the poem? How do you know?

11. Remember, setting is TIME and PLACE
What is the setting?
Remember, setting is TIME and PLACE

12. Structure