1. Forget what the poem may or may not mean, or what it may be about.
2. Look at just the title and WRITE DOWN about half a dozen things that it suggests to you. Give literal meanings as well as other associations.
3. Read the poem once quickly, and then several times more slowly. Try to hear the poem aloud in your head. DO NOT recite the poem aloud in class; if you must hear it aloud, read it quietly to yourself.
4. WRITE DOWN a list of all those things in the poem that force their attention on you or which catch your interest for any particular reason. This includes unusual/odd/striking words, rhymes, or repetitions/patterns/contrasts, etc.
5. WRITE DOWN any features of figurative language in the poem: metaphors, similes, personification, alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, symbolism, etc.
6. WRITE DOWN groups of words that may be thematically similar (for example, that all similes make reference to animals/death/plants, etc., or all the first words of lines are conjunction words, etc.). Don't worry about whether your groups of words seem silly or improbable; look at what you have observed and ask yourself: what is its significance?
7. Look at your lists, notes, and groups. Do you see any pattern taking shape? If so, WRITE DOWN this pattern.
8. Read the poem again and WRITE DOWN your intelligent guesses of what the poem may mean.
9. Answer the following questions:
a) Who is "speaking" in the poem? Is it the POET or a PERSONA?
b) Who is the poem "spoken" to? In other words, who is the audience for this poem? Is it to a particular person, to the poet himself (reflective) or to the public in general?
c) What is the speaker's attitude to this audience? Is it angry, sincere, joking, teasing, etc.?
d) What is the POET's attitude to this audience? (This may be different from the speaker.)
e) Why is the poem organized in the way that it is?
f) What is the EFFECT of all the things you have written down in Steps 2-8?
10. WRITE DOWN your guess at the poet's intent: what do you think the poet hoped to accomplish in writing this poem?
This is very helpful, if you follow these steps you just might become a poet yourself...
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I agree with you that this ten step process is very good and useful as in allows us to understand the poem much better and it also helps us find the key points and keywords in the poem. It also helps to find wahat the poet is trying to tell the reader through the poem.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this guide is helpful for us to analyze a poem. Although part of the steps are hard to follow, I still think that this steps are useful in helping us analyze a poem.
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