Poetry Analysis Form and pattern of organization: 1. Identify the type/category of the poem o Tells a story (ballads, epics) o Has the form of drama-dramatic (Shakespeare’s plays, blank verse) o Personal view of the poet

Poetry is divided into stanzas. Look for the ideas developed in each stanza.

2. Types of Stanzas: o Couplet: two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry o Quatrain: a four line stanza; it may be unrhymed or have a variety of rhyme schemes (ex. abab) o Free verse: poetry that has no fixed pattern of meter and rhyme. It often uses sound devices and a rhythm similar to human speech. o Blank verse: poetry or lines of dramatic verse written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. It consists of five iambic feet, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. (Ten syllables per line)

3. Specific Forms of Poetry: o Ballads: a narrative poem, often musical, that tells a story, often dealing with adventure or romance. Most ballads are about everyday people and everyday life. A ballad usually has quatrains where the first and third lines rhyme. o Sonnets: fourteen lines; three quatrains (three four line stanzas) with one idea per quatrain, followed by a couplet, which contains the poet’s commentary on the theme o Elegies: an extended, usually formal poem in which the speaker mourns a death or other great loss. They have four divisions: mourning the death of a person; death as a fact of life; the poet meditates on his own death; poet resigns himself to the inevitability of death o Free verse: reads like prose; must be read thought by thought rather than line by line

Reminder: The meaning of the poem never deviates from the form!

Strategies for Poetry Analysis TP-CCASSTT

Title—think about the title and what it might mean before reading the poem. Paraphrase—what does the poem literally say (denotation) o Use dictionary for any unfamiliar words o Look for any archaic or dated words o Understanding the poem literally enables you to understand the symbolic meaning Connotation—contemplate the poem for meaning beyond the literal o Find all literary devices o Establish what they suggest or imply o Make sure you look at words, phrases, all poetic devices, and title Contrasts—stated and implied. Look for opposition between o Poet and himself o Poet and speaker (if applicable) o Poet and society o Poet and nature o Poet and listener (reader) o Poet and life Attitude—observe both the speaker’s and the author’s tone o Look for the poet’s attitude or feeling toward the subject o Look for multiple attitudes o Notice any changes in attitude o Look for the prevailing attitude

Shifts—note any shift in speakers or attitudes Syntax—sentence structure o Does the poet write mainly in simple, compound, complex, compound/complex sentences? o Does the poet use inverted sentence order? o How many lines does it take to complete a thought? o Read the poem following the punctuation exactly. Title—Examine the title again, this time at an interpretive level Theme—determine what the poet is saying o The theme is seldom about the poem’s subject matter o It is usually larger than the parts (all poetic elements used by the poet) o The theme can be considered an “umbrella of thought” that covers all devices, topics of poem and applies to all people, all times o The theme differs from the subject matter and should be stated in a sentence