Poetry

Understanding and Writing about Poetry

1)   Title, author, and date of poem

2)   Who is speaking in the poem? Is there a specific listener?
Any dialogue?

3)   What is the occasion, or what has caused the speaker to begin speaking?

4)   Setting. Outdoors or indoors? Summer or winter? Present or past?
City or country?

5)   What is the theme of the poem? What is it that the poet wants to communicate to the reader?

6)   What is the tone of the poem? Angry? Melancholy? Humorous?
Sad? Ironic?

7)   Find examples of figurative language, which is also called
“figures of speech,” or “imagery,” such as:

a)   Simile is the term used when one thing is compared
to something else using the words “like” or “as,” for example
when you say “ my love is like a red rose,” or “he fought
like a lion.”

b)   Metaphor is when one thing is another. For example ”my
love is a red rose,” or “She is an English rose.”

c)   Symbol  something concrete  - a person or an object
that is used to represent an abstract idea. A white dove is
a symbol of peace, and a red rose is the conventional
symbol of love.

The figurative language or imagery can be unusual, hence
be aware!

8)   Briefly research the author’s biography. Do you see any parallels between
the author’s life experiences and the poem?

9)   Technical tools:

a)   Alliteration: a figure of speech based on the repetition
of the same consonant sound, especially at the
beginning of nearby words in stressed syllables.

b)   Assonance: the repetition of identical or similar vowel
sounds within a line, at the end of one or more lines.

c)   Free verse: when a poem does not conform to a
pre-set pattern of metre. It usually lacks rhyme and
often has irregular line lengths. Example: “How I
learned English”

d)   Run on line: there is no full stop or comma at the end
of the line.

e)   Rhyme: the exact repetition of the final syllable at the end
of two or more lines.

f)    Stanza: a group of verse lines set off by a blank line.