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English Literature

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How to Analyze a Poem?

Getting Ready

* Listen to a reading of the poem if that is available. * Read the poem aloud more than once. * Look up new words as well as familiar words that could have more than one meaning. * Record your first impressions.

Getting Started

Paragraph 1 | * Write about the content of the poem: * The title of the poem * The connection between the title and the meaning of the poem * Main theme and sub-ideas * The speaker: Is it the poet himself? Is he wearing a mask and talking through a different voice; a persona? * The tone: How does the speaker sound? Is the tone consistent throughout the poem or is it changing? |

Paragraph 2 | * Write about the form of the poem: * Type (sonnet, ode, elegy, ballad, villanelle, haiku etc) * Division (number of stanzas and lines, line length) * Sound Devices: rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, repetition. * The relation between the form and the content: How is the poet employing the form to deliver his message? How does the form reflect/convey/ illustrate/portray the poet’s feelings? |

Paragraph 3 | * Discuss the imagery of the senses: Is the poet using any images that appeal to the senses? * Visual * Auditory * Olfactory * Tactile * Gustatory * Organic * Kinesthetic |

Paragraph 4 | Tackle the Figures of Speech: * Simile * Metaphor * Personification * Oxymoron * Hyperbole * Allusion * Ambiguity * Pun * Paradox |

Paragraph 5 | Explore symbols and motifs |

Paragraph 6 | Conclusion: You write reflectively about the poem. What does it mean to you eventually? |

Notes: * A paragraph is from 3 to 5 sentences or a bit more, but never less than three. This means after writing, you need to count from 3 to 5 full stops in your paragraph.

* The imagery of the senses and the figures of speech can be joined together in one paragraph depending on the poem.

* The analysis does not have to be 6 paragraphs. The number of paragraphs depends on your style and on how you join ideas together.

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