Analyzing Poetry: A Comprehensive Guide
Is the Poem an Obvious Fantasy?
Consider the intense confrontation in Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” and the setting of Rita Dove’s “Geometry”.
Mood and Tone of the Poem
Mood
Is the poem cheerful or mysterious, ominous, or brooding, as with Randall Jarrell’s “Sad Heart at the Supermarket”? Does the mood change within the body of the work, as with Joy Harjo’s “The Woman Hanging from the Thirteenth Floor Window”? Why does the mood shift? Where does the shift begin?
Tone
Is the poet’s tone satiric, serious, playful, somber, or teasingly humorous, as with Robert Frost’s “Departmental: The End of My Ant Jerry”? Does the poet admire, agree with, ridicule, or condemn the speaker, as in the touch of mock heroic in Richard Wilbur’s “The Death of a Toad”? Is there an obvious reason for the poet’s attitude, as suggested by the suffering in James Dickey’s “Angina”? Does the poet withhold judgment, as is the case with the epitaphs of Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology?
Themes of the Poem
Locating and identifying theme is crucial to understanding dominant ideas; theme is the poem’s essence.
Is the subject youth, loss, renewal, patriotism, nature, love? Are there several themes? How do these themes relate to each other?
Is the poet merely teasing or entertaining or trying to teach a lesson, as do Robinson Jeffers’ “Hurt Hawks” and Marianne Moore’s “The Mind Is an Enchanted Thing”?
Does the poet emphasize the theme by means of onomatopoeia, personification, or controlling images?
Rhythm of the Poem
Is there a dominant rhythm? Does it dance, frolic, meander, slither, or march? Is it conversational, like a scene from a drama? Is it a droning monologue, as found in a journal, diary, or confessional?
Does the rhythm relate to the prevalent theme of the poem? Or does it seem at odds with the theme?
Does the rhythm increase or decrease in speed, as does Ezra Pound’s Hugh Selwyn Mauberley: Life and Contacts? Why?
Use of the Senses in the Poem
Does the poem stress sense impressions — for example, taste, touch, smell, sound, or sight? Are these impressions pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral?
Does the poet concentrate on a single sense or a burst of sensation, as in Wallace Stevens’s “Peter Quince at the Clavier” or Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Fish”?
Imagery in the Poem
Are there concrete images or pictures that the poet wants readers to see?
Are the pictures created by means of comparisons — for instance, metaphor or simile? Do inanimate objects take on human traits (personification)? Does the speaker talk to inanimate objects or to such abstract ideas as freedom?
Language of the Poem
Does the poet stress certain sounds, such as pleasant sounds (euphony) or harsh letter combinations (cacophony), as demonstrated by Wendy Rose’s title “Academic Squaw”?
Are certain sounds repeated (alliteration, sibilance), as in the insistent a sounds in Amiri Baraka’s “A Poem for Willie Best”?
Are words linked by approximate rhyme, like “seem/freeze,” or by real rhyme, such as “least/feast”? Is there a rhyme scheme or sound pattern at the ends of lines, as with the interlocking rhymes of Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”? Does rhyming occur within a line (internal rhyme), as in “black flak” in Randall Jarrell’s “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”?
Is there onomatopoeia, or words that make a sound that imitates their meaning, such as swoosh, ping pong, ricochet, clangor, plash, wheeze, clack, boom, tingle, slip, fumble, or clip-clop, as with the verb “soar” in Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “On Thought in Harness”?
Supplemental Materials
Has the editor included any preface, explanatory notes, or concluding comments and questions; for example, T. S. Eliot’s dedication of The Waste Land or Wendy Rose’s use of epigraphs?
Are there notes and comments in a biography, poet’s letters and essays, critical analyses, Web site, or anthology, such as biographical footnotes to Anne Sexton’s “Sylvia’s Death” and the many commentaries on Hart Crane’s The Bridge?
Is there an electronic version, such as the poet reading original verse on the Internet? Are there notes on the record jacket, cassette box, or CD booklet, as found on recordings of Adrienne Rich’s feminist verse?
Drawing Conclusions
After answering the questions presented in this introduction, readers should paraphrase or restate the poem in everyday words, as though talking to someone on the telephone. A summary of the poem should emphasize a pattern of details, sounds, or rhythm. For example, do various elements of the poem lead readers to believe that the poet is describing an intense experience? Is the poet defining something, such as parenthood, risking a life, curiosity, marriage, religious faith, or aging, as in Denise Levertov’s “A Woman Alone”? Is the poet telling a story event by event? Does the poet want to sway the reader’s opinion, as Louise Bogan does in “Evening in the Sanitarium”?
Before reaching a conclusion about the meaning of a poem, readers should summarize their personal responses. Are they emotionally moved or touched by the poem? Are they entertained or repulsed, terrified or stirred to agree? Do words and phrases stick in their memory? How has the poet made an impression? And most important, why?
Sonnet Characteristics
A sonnet is simply a poem written in a certain format. You can identify a sonnet if the poem has the following characteristics:
- 14 lines. All sonnets have 14 lines which can be broken down into four sections called quatrains.
- A strict rhyme scheme. The rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet is ABAB / CDCD / EFEF / GG (note the four distinct sections in the rhyme scheme).
- Written in iambic Pentameter. Sonnets are written in iambic pentameter, a poetic meter with 10 beats per line made up of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables.