Close Reading Poetry Analysis

CLOSE RREADING –– PPOETRY AANALYSIS

For the next few lessons, we will study a skill from Sound and Sense. You will need to make sure to have this text with you EVERY DAY for the rest of the week and for the next two trimesters.

In class, we will go over the skill we want you to learn, however, please remember that every poem we study contains many skills you will need to learn. The poems used on a particular lesson just happen to demonstrate the skill in a way that helps add meaning to the poem.

After some guided practice, you will have HOMEWORK from the chapter and will workshop the writing the following day.

Homework for Close Reading - Poetry: Choose one of the poems in the chapter we studied and write a WELL-CRAFTED paragraph or two in which you analyze the poem for the skill we covered in class. It cannot be the poem we used as a class example. As you write your paragraph, consider the questions that go along with the poem.

Homework must be DOUBLE-SPACED typed in a 12 point font OR NEATLY handwritten in INK, skipping every other line. Please use an MLA heading and the skill you are writing about as the title.

As you approach the poem looking for ideas, remember these things. 1. The first time you see something; you should say, “That’s interesting.” 2. The second time it appears, you should say, “That’s suspicious.” 3. The third time you see it, DEAL WITH IT! It is probably worth writing about.

Your paragraph should follow the rubric you received after break. Go to the wiki if you need another copy. It must use evidence from the poem. Use these questions to guide your analysis: 1. What is it? What ideas, devices, and/or interesting things do you see in the poem? 2. What does it do? What is the effect of this interesting idea or device in the poem? 3. Why is it relevant? So what? What is the intention or purpose of this idea or device in the poem?

Also, instead of writing your paragraph around the skill, let the big ideas of the poem guide your writing. The skill should be used to help analyze how the idea is developed throughout the poem. Think in terms of intention and effect. Ask yourself these questions: 1. Who is the speaker? Remember the author is NOT the speaker. The speaker is a persona the author has created. Who do you think it is? How do you know this? 2. What is the occasion of the piece? What do you think are the events that inspired this piece? What evidence supports your idea? 3. Who is the intended audience and how do you know? 4. What is the purpose of the piece?

As always, our goal is to move you away from formulaic writing (a simple 5 paragraph essay) to more sophisticated, academic writing. Analyzing a poem or prose requires that you understand the intention and effect of the entire piece. The questions above and on the other side of this sheet are meant to help you. Start from the top and work your way through the poem. Go stanza by stanza or chunk it by ideas (its rhetorical structure). This should help your organization. QUESTIONS TO ASK ABOUT POETRY

1. Diction/Connotation/Word Choice  Why did the write choose these words?  What do they make me think of?  Why is that relevant?

2. Imagery/Sensory impressions  What do I see, hear, feel, smell, taste?  How do I feel about these literal sense details?  Is there a pattern?

3. Metaphor/Figurative Language  What is being compared to what?  Is this comparison stated or implied?  How does this comparison affect my attitude to the topic being described?

4. Symbol  Are there two levels of meaning: Is the writer talking about something concrete on the surface and something else, probably an abstract idea, underneath?  What do these two meanings have in common?  How does the literal description make me feel about the abstract idea?

5. Allusion (related to connotation but broader)  What historical, religious, mythical or literary event or idea does this word or phrase make me think of?  Why is this relevant?

6. Tone—Speaker’s attitude toward the topic  How does the speaker feel about the topic?

7. How does the sound of the poem work, and how do the musical devices affect this?  Are there repeated sounds?  Are the sounds pleasant or unpleasant (cacophonous or euphonious)?  Does the poem move slowly or fast? What causes this? (Words that are hard to say?)  Where does the poem stop? (Stops are caused by periods, semi-colons, commas, dashes; stops are also caused by ends of lines and stanza breaks.) Whey does the poet want to make the reader stop or not stop?

8. Is there a pattern or form to the poem?

9. Theme: What does the poem mean?  What statement about the meaning of life or about human nature or about values does the poem make?  How do all the pieces of the poem help create this meaning?