Reading a Poem - a Few Hints

Reading a Poem – a Few Hints

Read the poem at least twice. It is very difficult to understand a poem on a first reading.

Keep a dictionary by you and use it.

Read so that you hear the sound of the words in your mind. Poetry is meant to be heard as its meanings are conveyed both through the sounds and print, so read it out loud where possible.

Pay careful attention to what the poem is saying, not only to understand its meaning, but to get a feel for its mood.

Think about the things you like and dislike about the poem, and why you think this way.

Poetry Analysis - Useful Terms

Theme: The subject about which the poet is writing

eg. war, love, death, mourning, mortality, society etc.

Subject Matter: What the poem is about…what happens, characters, time and places that together illuminate the theme.

Readings: The various meanings made by different groups who "read" the poem. Think about dominant, alternative and resistant readings and the possible responses of groups such as feminists, Marxists, Christians, Indigenous people.

Features of Poetry

Imagery: The mental pictures that a poem creates in the reader's mind.

Emotion: eg. anger, loneliness, despair, pity, rapture, grief. A poem may have one predominant emotion, or the emotions may change throughout the poem.

Rhythm: The poem's beat. Words are often, but not always, arranged so that the stresses fall in a regular pattern. It can be used to great effect in poetry. Free verse has no particular rhythm.

Rhyme: Usually the similarity in the sounds of words at the ends of lines. Sometimes rhyming patterns are formed. When describing a poem's rhyming pattern, the lines that rhyme are given the same letter of the alphabet eg. some common patterns are ABAB, ABBA, ABCB. Poems with no rhyme are known as Blank verse.

Tone: Refers to the writer's attitude toward the subject, audience and him/herself

eg. hostile, sarcastic, respectful, bitter, humorous.

Figures of Speech - The Images of Poetry that Appeal to the Imagination

Simile: Points out a similarity, and so a comparison, between one thing and another,