Reference no: EM133370058
Questions:
Examples and Evidence from the Text & Analysis:
What kind of diction the poet used?
Are there specialized uses of language in a poem?
How does the poet mix concrete and abstract words?
What connotations do the words evoke beyond their denotations?
How does the order of the words, the punctuation, and the syntax enhance the meaning of the poem?
Reading for Voice
What is the speaker's predominant tone in the poem (joyful, mournful, bewildered, confused?) and how does it help convey the poem's meaning?
Who is the speaker in the poem, and why has the poet chosen to use this persona?
What does the persona allow the poet to represent more clearly?
What is the poet's attitude toward the speaker in the poem?
Is irony used to establish the speaker's attitude toward the subject?
Reading for Images and Symbols
What senses (sight, sound, touch, smell, taste) has the poet evoked with an image?
What kinds of words are used to make the image vivid?
What associations (meanings) do you connect with those word choices?
Is the title a tip-off to a centrally important image, one that is likely to be a symbol?
Does the poem focus on a particular image?
Is an image repeated and returned to in a poem? If so, it is likely to be a symbol.
How is that symbolic image used? The description will point to its deeper meaning.
Pay attention to common associations
Reading for Sound, Rhyme, and Rhythm
What kinds of words has the poet chosen (monosyllabic, polysyllabic, harsh, or melodious)?
Has the poet used the repetition of consonant or vowel sounds in the poem?
Do words in the poem sound like what they represent?
Is rhyme used in the poem?
How do sounds work together in a line to make a rhythm of stressed and unstressed syllables?
For poems in English, how are the stressed and unstressed syllables grouped together in a line?
What is the meter of the line?
Is there inconsistent meter (metrical variation) in the poem?
Reading for Fixed Form
How is the poem broken up visually?
Are there fourteen lines in the poem?
Is the poem only a few lines?
Are lines repeated?
What is the tone of the poem?
Reading for Open Form
Is there repetition in the poem?
Is there grammatical variation in the poem?
Are there organized patterns of imagery?
How does the line itself make a rhythmical unit?
How is a line arranged? Where does it break to make its own visual effect?
Reading for Figures of Speech
Look for the words like or as that show a comparison is being used for illustration.
Look for comparisons that merge two unlike objects to make a more vivid association.
Look for objects or ideas used to represent a larger whole.
Consider who (or what) is being described or addressed by the speaker.
Ask yourself if comparisons that seem to contradict each other are used to trigger a fresh understanding, or if they are merely confusing.
Does the description make a point through exaggeration or restraint?