Poetry Analysis Name: Period: Date:

What does it mean to analyze a poem? You examine it closely, you take it apart, you try to understand it, you determine if there are multiple meanings to what the author has written. It can be like solving a puzzle or cracking a code. Analyzing a poem should help you have a better appreciation for the poem. analysis is the SUDOKU of English. It’s FUN!!!

How do you analyze a poem? Read this to help you answer the questions on the back of this paper.

1. Is this poem dramatic? lyric? narrative? haiku? elegy? What kind of poetry is it? 2. Start by just reading it—title and all. What are your initial reactions to it? Any parts of it you understand or don’t understand? Does it seem to make sense to you? Anything you can appreciate about it from that 1st reading? 3. Denotation--Find words you don’t know. Look up their definitions—read all of them. Sometimes a poet will select words because of how the word works in the poem to mean more than one thing and all of the meanings apply to the poem. If you really want to analyze a poem, define all the words except conjunctions, prepositions, and articles. Even words you think you know my have a deeper meaning in the poem if you read all the dictionary definitions. 4. Connotation—Looking at the words in the poem, what feelings, ideas, or images do you associate with the word? How could those connotations apply to the poem? 5. Lines and —How many lines are in the poem? How many stanzas? Are there any ? Any octaves? Any sestets? Any ? Why do you think the poet organized the poem into stanzas the way he/she did? Are there line breaks anywhere that seem awkward or different? Do the line breaks enhance the meaning of the poem? Why? How so? 6. Does the poem ? If so, is there a ? What is it? Why do you think the author did that? 7. Is the poem put on the page in a special way? If so what? Why do you think the author did that? 8. What imagery, sound devices—, assonance, consonance, etc.-- personification, , similes, allusions, , etc. do you find in the poem? Consult a list of poetry terms & discuss which of those apply to the poem & why you think the author used those techniques when writing the poem. 9. What is the mood of the poem? The ? 10. Is there a SHIFT that happens in the poem (a moment where the speaker’s attitude or tone change, where the situation changes, where the level of tension changes)? If so where? What does the shift signify? 11. Theme--What is the poem saying about the human experience, motivation, or condition? What subject or subjects does the poem address? What do you learn about those subjects? What idea does the poet want you take away with you concerning these subjects? Remember that the theme of any work of literature is stated in a complete sentence. 12. Punctuation—How is the poem punctuated? Why do you think the poet punctuated the poem that way? Anything unusual about the capitalization? Why or why not? 13. Author information—what can you find out about the author? How does knowing something about him/her help you understand the poem better? 14. Paraphrase—Can you put the poem into your own words? interpret it? Does it all make sense now?

J. Martin