thesis for a poem analysis

Poetry & Poets

Explore the beauty of poetry – discover the poet within

How To Write A Good Poetry Analysis

Understand the Poem’s Content

Before tackling the task of writing a poetry analysis, consider first the content of the poem. What is the poem about? What does it mean? Read the poem through multiple times, and jot down notes about the poem’s content and the poet’s purpose. Try to identify any literary devices or figurative language the poet has employed, and note any themes, moods, and images in the poem that stand out.

Researching the poet’s life can also be beneficial in understanding their poem; biographical information can often shed light on the poet’s intentions or provide a grounding context. Scan through interviews, diaries, and letters to pick up on any further information regarding the poem.

Map the Poem

Once an understanding of the poem’s content has been reached, draw a visual map of the poem’s structure. Use your notes to map out the order of the poem’s images, emotions, motifs, and themes. Visually representing the poem on paper can be extremely beneficial in piecing together your analysis and structuring your essay.

For further assistance, use a paragraph-by-paragraph analysis, breaking down the poem’s structure. Ask yourself questions about the poem’s speaker: Who is speaking? To whom? About what? Where are they? Consider the figurative language and imagery used, the sound and rhythm of the poem, and the various themes explored.

Develop a Thesis

The thesis of a poetry analysis is the main argument or interpretation that the essay will attempt to explain or prove. This argument should be clearly stated in the introduction section and should be supported throughout the essay with evidence from the poem. A thesis can focus on the author’s tone, imagery, diction, connotations, or any other feature of the poem that captures the reader’s interest.

Create an Outline

With a strong understanding of the poem and the thesis in mind, begin to craft an outline for the essay. An outline allows for a clear structure and will make organizing all the information and evidence much easier. The outline should include the introduction, body, and conclusion, with each section further divided into subheadings.

A poetry analysis should include a clear introduction, a thesis statement, and a poetry analysis body that includes evidence and explanations for each of the major points. The conclusion of a poetry analysis should effectively summarize the findings and implications of the essay.

Write the Essay

Use the outline as a roadmap for writing the essay. Begin the introduction with a hook statement, followed by background information on the poem and the poet. Make sure to also state the thesis of your essay. Explain the order of your essay’s body paragraphs in the introduction, and remember to fill the body with evidence and analysis. Conclude the essay with a brief summary of your findings and the implications of your analysis.

Include Secondary Sources

Including outside sources can increase the quality of an essay. Use secondary material to enhance your argument by drawing evidence from other experts in the field. However, be sure to use reliable sources from well-known publications, and cite all evidence properly.

Revise and Check for Accuracy

Revising the essay is an essential step in the process. Review the essay for accuracy and consistency in its arguments and evidence. Read the essay out loud, and consult any grammar tools to ensure grammatical accuracy. Lastly, proofread the essay for spelling and punctuation mistakes.

Show the Poem’s Artistic Merit

For a poetry analysis essay to be successful, the poet’s artistic merit should be evident throughout the essay. Dig deeper into the subtleties and stylistic features of the poem and consider their impact on the poem as a whole. Assess the poem in terms of its theme, structure, imagery, diction and alliteration. Also consider any possible historical, cultural or biographical context that could shed light on the poem’s context,

Draw Conclusions

Drawing conclusions and assessing the poem’s successes or shortcomings is integral to a poetry analysis essay. The conclusion should clearly and strongly communicate the essay’s conclusion, without simply summarizing the essay’s body paragraphs. Use the evidence in the essay to make a valid judgment about the poem’s effectiveness and suggest any possible improvements.

Engage with Multiple Perspectives

To make the essay more impactful, consider multiple perspectives of the poem. Engage with ideas and arguments other than your own and showcase different interpretations in order to add depth to your own argument. By taking a step back and engaging with varied interpretations, you will also be able to better explore why the poem’s content is significant and how it is personally relevant.

Analyze the Text’s Meaning in Relation to Context

Make sure to explore how the poem’s context and meaning relate to the greater world. Analyze how political, historical, or religious contexts influence the poet’s work and how the poem might be interpreted in different settings. Also consider how the poem reflects the poet’s personal experiences and how it might relate to the experiences of various readers.

Integrate Quotes into the Text

Including quotes is one way to back up your argument and add weight to the essay. Make sure to properly quote the lines and cite the poem according to standards. Be selective when integrating quotes and make sure they accurately reflect the essay’s argument. Too many quotes can make an essay appear choppy and disjointed.

Provide Real-World Examples

When writing a poetry analysis essay, try to address real world applications of the poem. Make an effort to connect the poem to current events, societal challenges, and real world issues. Consider how the poem fits into the literary context and how it reflects the author’s unique voice. Relating the poem to everyday issues can help the reader connect to the poem in a personal and meaningful way.

Minnie Walters

Minnie Walters is a passionate writer and lover of poetry. She has a deep knowledge and appreciation for the work of famous poets such as William Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and many more. She hopes you will also fall in love with poetry!

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How to Write a Poetry Essay: Step-By-Step-Guide

Table of contents

• 1 What Is A Poetry Analysis?
• 2 How to Choose a Poem for Analysis?
• 3.0.1 Introduction
• 3.0.2 Main Body
• 3.0.3 Conclusion
• 4.1 Title of the Poem
• 4.2 Poetry Background
• 4.3 Structure of the Poem
• 4.4 Tone and Intonation of the Poetry
• 4.5 Language Forms and Symbols of the Poetry
• 4.6 Poetic devices
• 4.7 Music of the Poem
• 4.8 Purpose of Poem
• 5 Poetry Analysis Template
• 6 Example of Poem Analysis

Edgar Allan Poe once said:

“Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.” 

The reader’s soul enjoys the beauty of the words masterfully expressed by the poet in a few lines. How much meaning is invested in these words, and even more lies behind them? For this reason, poetry is a constant object of scientific interest and the center of literary analysis.

As a university student, especially in literary specialties, you will often come across the need to write a poetry analysis essay. It may seem very difficult when you encounter such an essay for the first time. This is not surprising because even experienced students have difficulty performing such complex studies. This article will point you in the right direction and can be used as a poetry analysis worksheet.

What Is A Poetry Analysis?

Any poetry analysis consists in an in-depth study of the subject of study and the background details in which it is located. Poetry analysis is the process of decomposing a lyrical work into its smallest components for a detailed study of the independent elements. After that, all the data obtained are reassembled to formulate conclusions and write literary analysis . The study of a specific lyric poem also includes the study of the hidden meaning of the poem, the poet’s attitude and main idea, and the expression of individual impressions. After all, the lyrics aim to reach the heart of the reader.

The goal of the poetry analysis is to understand a literary work better. This type of scientific research makes it possible to study entire categories of art on the example of specific works, classify them as certain movements, and find similarities and differences with other poems representing the era.

A poetry analysis essay is a very common type of an essay for university programs, especially in literary and philological areas. Students are often required to have extensive knowledge as well as the ability of in-depth analysis. Such work requires immersion in the context and a high level of concentration.

How to Choose a Poem for Analysis?

You are a really lucky person if you have the opportunity to choose a poem to write a poetry analysis essay independently. After all, any scientific work is moving faster and easier if you are an expert and interested in the field of study. First of all, choose a poet who appeals to you. The piece is not just a set of sentences united by a common meaning. Therefore, it is primarily a reflection of the thoughts and beliefs of the author.

Also, choose a topic that is interesting and close to you. It doesn’t matter if it is an intimate sonnet, a patriotic poem, or a skillful description of nature. The main thing is that it arouses your interest. However, pay attention to the size of the work to make your work easier. The volume should be sufficient to conduct extensive analysis but not too large to meet the requirement for a poem analysis essay.

Well, in the end, your experience and knowledge of the poetry topic are important. Stop choosing the object of study that is within the scope of your competence. In this way, you will share your expert opinion with the public, as well as save yourself from the need for additional data searches required for better understanding.

Poem Analysis Essay Outline

A well-defined structure is a solid framework for your writing. Sometimes our thoughts come quite chaotically, or vice versa, you spend many hours having no idea where to start writing. In both cases, a poem analysis outline will come to your aid. Many students feel that writing an essay plan is a waste of time. However, you should reconsider your views on such a work strategy. And although it will take you time to make a poetry analysis essay outline, it will save you effort later on. While a perfect way out is to ask professionals to write your essays online , let’s still take a look at the key features of creating a paper yourself. Working is much easier and more pleasant when you understand what to start from and what to rely on. Let’s look at the key elements of a poem analysis essay structure.

The essence of a poetry essay outline is to structure and organize your thoughts. You must divide your essay into three main sections: introduction, body, and conclusions. Then list brainstormed ideas that you are going to present in each of these parts.

Introduction

Your essay should begin with an introductory paragraph . The main purpose of this section is to attract the attention of the reader. This will ensure interest in the research. You can also use these paragraphs to provide interesting data from the author of the poem and contextual information that directly relates to your poem but is not a part of the analysis yet.

Another integral part of the poem analysis essay introduction is the strong thesis statement . This technique is used when writing most essays in order to summarize the essence of the paper. The thesis statement opens up your narrative, giving the reader a clear picture of what your work will be about. This element should be short, concise, and self-explanatory.

The central section of a literary analysis essay is going to contain all the studies you’ve carried out. A good idea would be to divide the body into three or four paragraphs, each presenting a new idea. When writing an outline for your essay, determine that in the body part, you will describe:

• The central idea.
• Analysis of poetic techniques used by the poet.
• Your observations considering symbolism.
• Various aspects of the poem.

Make sure to include all of the above, but always mind the coherence of your poem literary analysis.

In the final paragraph , you have to list the conclusions to which your poetry analysis came. This is a paragraph that highlights the key points of the study that are worth paying attention to. Ensure that the information in the conclusion matches your goals set in the introduction. The last few lines of a poem usually contain the perfect information for you to wrap up your paper, giving your readers a ground for further thought.

Tips on How to Analyze a Poem

Now, having general theoretical information about what a poetry analysis essay is, what its components are, and how exactly you can make an outline, we are ready to move on to practical data. Let’s take a closer look at the key principles that you should rely on in the poetry analysis. As you might guess, just reading a poem will not be enough to make a comprehensive analysis. You have to pay attention to the smallest details to catch what other researchers have not noticed before you.

Title of the Poem

And although the poems do not always have a title, if the work you have chosen has a name, then this is a good basis for starting the poetry analysis. The title of the poetic work gives the understanding of what the poet considers to be the key ideas of his verse. In some cases, this element directly reflects the theme and idea of the poem. However, there are also common cases when the poet plays with the name, putting the opposite information into it. Look at the correlation between the title and the content of the poem. This may give you new clues to hidden meanings.

Poetry Background

To fully immerse yourself in the context of the verse, you need to study the prerequisites for its writing. Analyze poetry and pay attention to the period of the author’s life in which the work was written. Study what emotions prevailed in a given time. The background information will help you study the verse itself and what is behind it, which is crucial for a critical analysis essay . What was the poet’s motivation, and what sensations prompted him to express himself specifically in this form? Such in-depth research will give you a broad understanding of the author’s intent and make your poem analysis essay writing more solid.

This fragment of your poem analysis essay study also includes interpretations of all the difficult or little-known words. Perhaps the analyzed poem was written using obsolete words or has poetic terms. For a competent poem analysis, you need to have an enhanced comprehension of the concepts.

Structure of the Poem

Each lyrical work consists of key elements. The theory identifies four main components of a poem’s structure: stanza, rhyme, meter, and line break. Let’s clarify each of the terms separately so that you know exactly what you are supposed to analyze.

The stanza is also called a verse. This element is a group of lines joined together and separated from other lines by a gap. This component of the poem structure exists for the ordering of the poem and the logical separation of thoughts.

The next crucial element is rhyme. This is a kind of pattern of similar sounds that make up words. There are different types of a rhyme schemes that a particular poem can follow. The difference between the species lies in the spaces between rhyming words. Thus, the most common rhyme scheme in English literature is iambic pentameter.

The meter stands for a composite of stressed and unstressed syllables, following a single scheme throughout the poem. According to the common silabotonic theory, the poem’s rhythm determines the measure of the verse and its poetic form. In other words, this is the rhythm with which lyrical works are written.

Finally, the line break is a technique for distinguishing between different ideas and sentences within the boundaries of one work. Also, the separation serves the reader as a key to understanding the meaning, thanks to the structuring of thoughts. If the ideas went continuously, this would create an extraordinary load on perception, and the reader would struggle to understand the intended message.

Writing an essay about poetry requires careful attention and analysis. Poems, although short, can be intricate and require a thorough understanding to interpret them effectively. Some students may find it challenging to analyze poetry and may consider getting professional help or pay to do an assignment on poetry. Regardless of the approach, it is essential to create a well-structured essay that examines the poem’s meaning and provides relevant examples.

Tone and Intonation of the Poetry

The tone and intonation of the poem could be analyzed based on two variables, the speaker and the recipient. Considering these two sides of the narrative, you can reach a better overview of the analyzed poem.

The first direction is to dig deeper into the author’s ideas by analyzing thematic elements. Pay attention to any information about the poet that can be gleaned from the poem. What mood was the author in when he wrote it, what exactly he felt, and what he wanted to share? What could he be hiding behind his words? Why did the poet choose the exact literary form? Is it possible to trace a life position or ideology through analysis? All of this information will help you get a clue on how to understand a poem.

The analysis of the figure of the recipient is also going to uncover some crucial keys to coherent study. Analyze a poem and determine whether the poem was written for someone specific or not. Find out whether the poet put motivational value into his work or even called readers to action. Is the writer talking to one person or a whole group? Was the poem based on political or social interests?

Language Forms and Symbols of the Poetry

Having sufficiently analyzed the evident elements of the poem, it is time to pay attention to the images and symbols. This is also called the connotative meaning of the work. It can sometimes get challenging to interpret poems, so we will see which other poetic techniques you should consider in the poetry analysis essay.

To convey intricate ideas and display thoughts more vividly, poets often use figurative language. It mostly explains some terms without directly naming them. Lyrical expression works are rich in literary devices such as metaphor, epithet, hyperbole, personification, and others. It may sometimes get really tough to research those poem elements yourself, so keep in mind buying lit essay online. Descriptive language is also one of the techniques used in poems that requires different literary devices in order to make the story as detailed as possible.

To fully understand poetry, it is not enough just to describe its structure. It is necessary to analyze a poem, find the hidden meanings, multiple artistic means, references the poet makes, and the language of writing.

Poetic devices

Poetic devices, such as rhythm, rhyme, and sounds, are used to immerse the audience. The poets often use figurative techniques in various poems, discovering multiple possibilities for the readers to interpret the poem. To discover the composition dedicated to the precise verse, you need to read the poem carefully. Consider studying poetry analysis essay example papers to better understand the concepts. It is a certain kind of reader’s quest aimed at finding the true meaning of the metaphor the poet has hidden in the poem. Each literary device is always there for a reason. Try to figure out its purpose.

Music of the Poem

Many poems formed the basis of the songs. This does not happen by chance because each poem has its own music. Lyrical works have such elements as rhythm and rhyme. They set the pace for reading. Also, sound elements are often hidden in poems. The line break gives a hint about when to take a long pause. Try to pay attention to the arrangement of words. Perhaps this will reveal you a new vision of the analyzed poem.

Purpose of Poem

While you analyze a poem, you are supposed to search for the purpose. Each work has its purpose for writing. Perhaps this is just a process in which the author shares his emotions, or maybe it’s a skillful description of landscapes written under great impressions. Social lyrics illuminate the situation in society and pressing problems. Pay attention to whether the verse contains a call to action or an instructive context. Your task is to study the poem and analyze the motives for its writing. Understanding the general context, and especially the purpose of the poet will make your analysis unique.

Poetry Analysis Template

To make it easier for you to research, we have compiled a template for writing a poetry analysis essay. The best specialists of the our writing service have assembled the main guides that will serve as a layout for your essay. Choose a poem that suits you and analyze it according to this plan.

Introduction:

•     The title of the poem or sonnet
•     The name of the poet
•     The date the poem was first published
•     The background information and interesting facts about the poet and the poem
•     Identify the structure of the poem, and the main components
•     Find out the data about the speaker and recipient
•     State the purpose of the poem
•     Distinguish the topic and the idea of the verse

Figurative language:

•     Study the literary devices
•     Search for the hidden meanings

Following these tips, you will write a competitive poem analysis essay. Use these techniques, and you will be able to meet the basic requirements for quality work. However, don’t forget to add personality to your essay. Analyze both the choices of the author of the poem and your own vision. First of all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Do not limit yourself to dry analysis, add your own vision of the poem. In this way, you will get a balanced essay that will appeal to teachers.

Example of Poem Analysis

Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise,” is a powerful anthem of strength and resilience that has become an iconic piece of literature. The poem was written in the 1970s during the civil rights movement and was published in Angelou’s collection of poetry, “And Still I Rise,” in 1978. The structure of the poem is unique in that it is not divided into stanzas but is composed of a series of short phrases that are separated by semicolons. This creates a sense of continuity and momentum as the poem moves forward. The lack of stanzas also reflects the speaker’s determination to keep going, regardless of the obstacles she faces. The tone of the poem is confident and defiant, with a strong sense of pride in the speaker’s identity and heritage. The intonation is rhythmic and musical, with a repeated refrain that emphasizes the theme of rising above adversity. The language forms used in the poem are simple and direct. One of the most powerful symbols in the poem is the image of the rising sun… FULL POEM ANALYSIS

Our database is filled with a wide range of poetry essay examples that can help you understand how to analyze and write about poetry. Whether you are a student trying to improve your essay writing skills or a poetry enthusiast looking to explore different perspectives on your favorite poems, our collection of essays can provide valuable insights and inspiration. So take a look around and discover new ways to appreciate and interpret the power of poetry!

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Writing About Poetry

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Writing about poetry can be one of the most demanding tasks that many students face in a literature class. Poetry, by its very nature, makes demands on a writer who attempts to analyze it that other forms of literature do not. So how can you write a clear, confident, well-supported essay about poetry? This handout offers answers to some common questions about writing about poetry.

What's the Point?

In order to write effectively about poetry, one needs a clear idea of what the point of writing about poetry is. When you are assigned an analytical essay about a poem in an English class, the goal of the assignment is usually to argue a specific thesis about the poem, using your analysis of specific elements in the poem and how those elements relate to each other to support your thesis.

So why would your teacher give you such an assignment? What are the benefits of learning to write analytic essays about poetry? Several important reasons suggest themselves:

• To help you learn to make a text-based argument. That is, to help you to defend ideas based on a text that is available to you and other readers. This sharpens your reasoning skills by forcing you to formulate an interpretation of something someone else has written and to support that interpretation by providing logically valid reasons why someone else who has read the poem should agree with your argument. This isn't a skill that is just important in academics, by the way. Lawyers, politicians, and journalists often find that they need to make use of similar skills.
• To help you to understand what you are reading more fully. Nothing causes a person to make an extra effort to understand difficult material like the task of writing about it. Also, writing has a way of helping you to see things that you may have otherwise missed simply by causing you to think about how to frame your own analysis.
• To help you enjoy poetry more! This may sound unlikely, but one of the real pleasures of poetry is the opportunity to wrestle with the text and co-create meaning with the author. When you put together a well-constructed analysis of the poem, you are not only showing that you understand what is there, you are also contributing to an ongoing conversation about the poem. If your reading is convincing enough, everyone who has read your essay will get a little more out of the poem because of your analysis.

What Should I Know about Writing about Poetry?

Most importantly, you should realize that a paper that you write about a poem or poems is an argument. Make sure that you have something specific that you want to say about the poem that you are discussing. This specific argument that you want to make about the poem will be your thesis. You will support this thesis by drawing examples and evidence from the poem itself. In order to make a credible argument about the poem, you will want to analyze how the poem works—what genre the poem fits into, what its themes are, and what poetic techniques and figures of speech are used.

What Can I Write About?

Theme: One place to start when writing about poetry is to look at any significant themes that emerge in the poetry. Does the poetry deal with themes related to love, death, war, or peace? What other themes show up in the poem? Are there particular historical events that are mentioned in the poem? What are the most important concepts that are addressed in the poem?

Genre: What kind of poem are you looking at? Is it an epic (a long poem on a heroic subject)? Is it a sonnet (a brief poem, usually consisting of fourteen lines)? Is it an ode? A satire? An elegy? A lyric? Does it fit into a specific literary movement such as Modernism, Romanticism, Neoclassicism, or Renaissance poetry? This is another place where you may need to do some research in an introductory poetry text or encyclopedia to find out what distinguishes specific genres and movements.

Versification: Look closely at the poem's rhyme and meter. Is there an identifiable rhyme scheme? Is there a set number of syllables in each line? The most common meter for poetry in English is iambic pentameter, which has five feet of two syllables each (thus the name "pentameter") in each of which the strongly stressed syllable follows the unstressed syllable. You can learn more about rhyme and meter by consulting our handout on sound and meter in poetry or the introduction to a standard textbook for poetry such as the Norton Anthology of Poetry . Also relevant to this category of concerns are techniques such as caesura (a pause in the middle of a line) and enjambment (continuing a grammatical sentence or clause from one line to the next). Is there anything that you can tell about the poem from the choices that the author has made in this area? For more information about important literary terms, see our handout on the subject.

Figures of speech: Are there literary devices being used that affect how you read the poem? Here are some examples of commonly discussed figures of speech:

• metaphor: comparison between two unlike things
• simile: comparison between two unlike things using "like" or "as"
• metonymy: one thing stands for something else that is closely related to it (For example, using the phrase "the crown" to refer to the king would be an example of metonymy.)
• synecdoche: a part stands in for a whole (For example, in the phrase "all hands on deck," "hands" stands in for the people in the ship's crew.)
• personification: a non-human thing is endowed with human characteristics
• litotes: a double negative is used for poetic effect (example: not unlike, not displeased)
• irony: a difference between the surface meaning of the words and the implications that may be drawn from them

Cultural Context: How does the poem you are looking at relate to the historical context in which it was written? For example, what's the cultural significance of Walt Whitman's famous elegy for Lincoln "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed" in light of post-Civil War cultural trends in the U.S.A? How does John Donne's devotional poetry relate to the contentious religious climate in seventeenth-century England? These questions may take you out of the literature section of your library altogether and involve finding out about philosophy, history, religion, economics, music, or the visual arts.

What Style Should I Use?

It is useful to follow some standard conventions when writing about poetry. First, when you analyze a poem, it is best to use present tense rather than past tense for your verbs. Second, you will want to make use of numerous quotations from the poem and explain their meaning and their significance to your argument. After all, if you do not quote the poem itself when you are making an argument about it, you damage your credibility. If your teacher asks for outside criticism of the poem as well, you should also cite points made by other critics that are relevant to your argument. A third point to remember is that there are various citation formats for citing both the material you get from the poems themselves and the information you get from other critical sources. The most common citation format for writing about poetry is the Modern Language Association (MLA) format .

Literary Criticism

• Introduction
• Literary Theories
• Steps to Literary Criticism
• Find Resources
• Cite Sources
• thesis examples

SAMPLE THESIS STATEMENTS

These sample thesis statements are provided as guides, not as required forms or prescriptions.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The thesis may focus on an analysis of one of the elements of fiction, drama, poetry or nonfiction as expressed in the work: character, plot, structure, idea, theme, symbol, style, imagery, tone, etc.

In “A Worn Path,” Eudora Welty creates a fictional character in Phoenix Jackson whose determination, faith, and cunning illustrate the indomitable human spirit.

Note that the work, author, and character to be analyzed are identified in this thesis statement. The thesis relies on a strong verb (creates). It also identifies the element of fiction that the writer will explore (character) and the characteristics the writer will analyze and discuss (determination, faith, cunning).

Further Examples:

The character of the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet serves as a foil to young Juliet, delights us with her warmth and earthy wit, and helps realize the tragic catastrophe.

The works of ecstatic love poets Rumi, Hafiz, and Kabir use symbols such as a lover’s longing and the Tavern of Ruin to illustrate the human soul’s desire to connect with God.

The thesis may focus on illustrating how a work reflects the particular genre’s forms, the characteristics of a philosophy of literature, or the ideas of a particular school of thought.

“The Third and Final Continent” exhibits characteristics recurrent in writings by immigrants: tradition, adaptation, and identity.

Note how the thesis statement classifies the form of the work (writings by immigrants) and identifies the characteristics of that form of writing (tradition, adaptation, and identity) that the essay will discuss.

Further examples:

Samuel Beckett’s Endgame reflects characteristics of Theatre of the Absurd in its minimalist stage setting, its seemingly meaningless dialogue, and its apocalyptic or nihilist vision.

A close look at many details in “The Story of an Hour” reveals how language, institutions, and expected demeanor suppress the natural desires and aspirations of women.

The thesis may draw parallels between some element in the work and real-life situations or subject matter: historical events, the author’s life, medical diagnoses, etc.

In Willa Cather’s short story, “Paul’s Case,” Paul exhibits suicidal behavior that a caring adult might have recognized and remedied had that adult had the scientific knowledge we have today.

This thesis suggests that the essay will identify characteristics of suicide that Paul exhibits in the story. The writer will have to research medical and psychology texts to determine the typical characteristics of suicidal behavior and to illustrate how Paul’s behavior mirrors those characteristics.

Through the experience of one man, the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, accurately depicts the historical record of slave life in its descriptions of the often brutal and quixotic relationship between master and slave and of the fragmentation of slave families.

In “I Stand Here Ironing,” one can draw parallels between the narrator’s situation and the author’s life experiences as a mother, writer, and feminist.

SAMPLE PATTERNS FOR THESES ON LITERARY WORKS

1. In (title of work), (author) (illustrates, shows) (aspect) (adjective). 

Example: In “Barn Burning,” William Faulkner shows the characters Sardie and Abner Snopes struggling for their identity.

2. In (title of work), (author) uses (one aspect) to (define, strengthen, illustrate) the (element of work).

Example: In “Youth,” Joseph Conrad uses foreshadowing to strengthen the plot.

3. In (title of work), (author) uses (an important part of work) as a unifying device for (one element), (another element), and (another element). The number of elements can vary from one to four.

Example: In “Youth,” Joseph Conrad uses the sea as a unifying device for setting, structure and theme.

4. (Author) develops the character of (character’s name) in (literary work) through what he/she does, what he/she says, what other people say to or about him/her.

Example: Langston Hughes develops the character of Semple in “Ways and Means”…

5. In (title of work), (author) uses (literary device) to (accomplish, develop, illustrate, strengthen) (element of work).

Example: In “The Masque of the Red Death,” Poe uses the symbolism of the stranger, the clock, and the seventh room to develop the theme of death.

6. (Author) (shows, develops, illustrates) the theme of __________ in the (play, poem, story).

Example: Flannery O’Connor illustrates the theme of the effect of the selfishness of the grandmother upon the family in “A Good Man is Hard to Find.”

7. (Author) develops his character(s) in (title of work) through his/her use of language.

Example: John Updike develops his characters in “A & P” through his use of figurative language.

Perimeter College, Georgia State University,  http://depts.gpc.edu/~gpcltc/handouts/communications/literarythesis.pdf

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A Full Guide to Writing a Perfect Poem Analysis Essay

01 October, 2020

14 minutes read

Author:  Elizabeth Brown

Poem analysis is one of the most complicated essay types. It requires the utmost creativity and dedication. Even those who regularly attend a literary class and have enough experience in poem analysis essay elaboration may face considerable difficulties while dealing with the particular poem. The given article aims to provide the detailed guidelines on how to write a poem analysis, elucidate the main principles of writing the essay of the given type, and share with you the handy tips that will help you get the highest score for your poetry analysis. In addition to developing analysis skills, you would be able to take advantage of the poetry analysis essay example to base your poetry analysis essay on, as well as learn how to find a way out in case you have no motivation and your creative assignment must be presented on time.

What Is a Poetry Analysis Essay?

A poetry analysis essay is a type of creative write-up that implies reviewing a poem from different perspectives by dealing with its structural, artistic, and functional pieces. Since the poetry expresses very complicated feelings that may have different meanings depending on the backgrounds of both author and reader, it would not be enough just to focus on the text of the poem you are going to analyze. Poetry has a lot more complex structure and cannot be considered without its special rhythm, images, as well as implied and obvious sense.

While analyzing the poem, the students need to do in-depth research as to its content, taking into account the effect the poetry has or may have on the readers.

Preparing for the Poetry Analysis Writing

The process of preparation for the poem analysis essay writing is almost as important as writing itself. Without completing these stages, you may be at risk of failing your creative assignment. Learn them carefully to remember once and for good.

Thoroughly read the poem several times

The rereading of the poem assigned for analysis will help to catch its concepts and ideas. You will have a possibility to define the rhythm of the poem, its type, and list the techniques applied by the author.

While identifying the type of the poem, you need to define whether you are dealing with:

• Lyric poem – the one that elucidates feelings, experiences, and the emotional state of the author. It is usually short and doesn’t contain any narration;
• Limerick – consists of 5 lines, the first, second, and fifth of which rhyme with one another;
• Sonnet – a poem consisting of 14 lines characterized by an iambic pentameter. William Shakespeare wrote sonnets which have made him famous;
• Ode – 10-line poem aimed at praising someone or something;
• Haiku – a short 3-line poem originated from Japan. It reflects the deep sense hidden behind the ordinary phenomena and events of the physical world;
• Free-verse – poetry with no rhyme.

The type of the poem usually affects its structure and content, so it is important to be aware of all the recognized kinds to set a proper beginning to your poetry analysis.

Find out more about the poem background

Find as much information as possible about the author of the poem, the cultural background of the period it was written in, preludes to its creation, etc. All these data will help you get a better understanding of the poem’s sense and explain much to you in terms of the concepts the poem contains.

Define a subject matter of the poem

This is one of the most challenging tasks since as a rule, the subject matter of the poem isn’t clearly stated by the poets. They don’t want the readers to know immediately what their piece of writing is about and suggest everyone find something different between the lines.

What is the subject matter? In a nutshell, it is the main idea of the poem. Usually, a poem may have a couple of subjects, that is why it is important to list each of them.

In order to correctly identify the goals of a definite poem, you would need to dive into the in-depth research.

Check the historical background of the poetry. The author might have been inspired to write a poem based on some events that occurred in those times or people he met. The lines you analyze may be generated by his reaction to some epoch events. All this information can be easily found online.

Choose poem theories you will support

In the variety of ideas the poem may convey, it is important to stick to only several most important messages you think the author wanted to share with the readers. Each of the listed ideas must be supported by the corresponding evidence as proof of your opinion.

The poetry analysis essay format allows elaborating on several theses that have the most value and weight. Try to build your writing not only on the pure facts that are obvious from the context but also your emotions and feelings the analyzed lines provoke in you.

How to Choose a Poem to Analyze?

If you are free to choose the piece of writing you will base your poem analysis essay on, it is better to select the one you are already familiar with. This may be your favorite poem or one that you have read and analyzed before. In case you face difficulties choosing the subject area of a particular poem, then the best way will be to focus on the idea you feel most confident about. In such a way, you would be able to elaborate on the topic and describe it more precisely.

Now, when you are familiar with the notion of the poetry analysis essay, it’s high time to proceed to poem analysis essay outline. Follow the steps mentioned below to ensure a brilliant structure to your creative assignment.

Best Poem Analysis Essay Topics

• Mother To Son Poem Analysis
• We Real Cool Poem Analysis
• Invictus Poem Analysis
• Richard Cory Poem Analysis
• Ozymandias Poem Analysis
• Barbie Doll Poem Analysis
• Caged Bird Poem Analysis
• Ulysses Poem Analysis
• Dover Beach Poem Analysis
• Annabelle Lee Poem Analysis
• Daddy Poem Analysis
• The Raven Poem Analysis
• The Second Coming Poem Analysis
• Still I Rise Poem Analysis
• If Poem Analysis
• Fire And Ice Poem Analysis
• My Papa’S Waltz Poem Analysis
• Harlem Poem Analysis
• Kubla Khan Poem Analysis
• I Too Poem Analysis
• The Juggler Poem Analysis
• The Fish Poem Analysis
• Jabberwocky Poem Analysis
• Charge Of The Light Brigade Poem Analysis
• The Road Not Taken Poem Analysis
• Landscape With The Fall Of Icarus Poem Analysis
• The History Teacher Poem Analysis
• One Art Poem Analysis
• The Wanderer Poem Analysis
• We Wear The Mask Poem Analysis
• There Will Come Soft Rains Poem Analysis
• Digging Poem Analysis
• The Highwayman Poem Analysis
• The Tyger Poem Analysis
• London Poem Analysis
• Sympathy Poem Analysis
• I Am Joaquin Poem Analysis
• This Is Just To Say Poem Analysis
• Sex Without Love Poem Analysis
• Strange Fruit Poem Analysis
• Dulce Et Decorum Est Poem Analysis
• Emily Dickinson Poem Analysis
• The Flea Poem Analysis
• The Lamb Poem Analysis
• Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night Poem Analysis
• My Last Duchess Poetry Analysis

Poem Analysis Essay Outline

As has already been stated, a poetry analysis essay is considered one of the most challenging tasks for the students. Despite the difficulties you may face while dealing with it, the structure of the given type of essay is quite simple. It consists of the introduction, body paragraphs, and the conclusion. In order to get a better understanding of the poem analysis essay structure, check the brief guidelines below.

Introduction

This will be the first section of your essay. The main purpose of the introductory paragraph is to give a reader an idea of what the essay is about and what theses it conveys. The introduction should start with the title of the essay and end with the thesis statement.

The main goal of the introduction is to make readers feel intrigued about the whole concept of the essay and serve as a hook to grab their attention. Include some interesting information about the author, the historical background of the poem, some poem trivia, etc. There is no need to make the introduction too extensive. On the contrary, it should be brief and logical.

Body Paragraphs

The body section should form the main part of poetry analysis. Make sure you have determined a clear focus for your analysis and are ready to elaborate on the main message and meaning of the poem. Mention the tone of the poetry, its speaker, try to describe the recipient of the poem’s idea. Don’t forget to identify the poetic devices and language the author uses to reach the main goals. Describe the imagery and symbolism of the poem, its sound and rhythm.

Try not to stick to too many ideas in your body section, since it may make your essay difficult to understand and too chaotic to perceive. Generalization, however, is also not welcomed. Try to be specific in the description of your perspective.

Make sure the transitions between your paragraphs are smooth and logical to make your essay flow coherent and easy to catch.

In a nutshell, the essay conclusion is a paraphrased thesis statement. Mention it again but in different words to remind the readers of the main purpose of your essay. Sum up the key claims and stress the most important information. The conclusion cannot contain any new ideas and should be used to create a strong impact on the reader. This is your last chance to share your opinion with the audience and convince them your essay is worth readers’ attention.

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Poem Analysis Essay Examples 

A good poem analysis essay example may serve as a real magic wand to your creative assignment. You may take a look at the structure the other essay authors have used, follow their tone, and get a great share of inspiration and motivation.

Check several poetry analysis essay examples that may be of great assistance:

• https://study.com/academy/lesson/poetry-analysis-essay-example-for-english-literature.html
• https://www.slideshare.net/mariefincher/poetry-analysis-essay

Writing Tips for a Poetry Analysis Essay

If you read carefully all the instructions on how to write a poetry analysis essay provided above, you have probably realized that this is not the easiest assignment on Earth. However, you cannot fail and should try your best to present a brilliant essay to get the highest score. To make your life even easier, check these handy tips on how to analysis poetry with a few little steps.

• In case you have a chance to choose a poem for analysis by yourself, try to focus on one you are familiar with, you are interested in, or your favorite one. The writing process will be smooth and easy in case you are working on the task you truly enjoy.
• Before you proceed to the analysis itself, read the poem out loud to your colleague or just to yourself. It will help you find out some hidden details and senses that may result in new ideas.
• Always check the meaning of words you don’t know. Poetry is quite a tricky phenomenon where a single word or phrase can completely change the meaning of the whole piece. 
• Bother to double check if the conclusion of your essay is based on a single idea and is logically linked to the main body. Such an approach will demonstrate your certain focus and clearly elucidate your views. 
• Read between the lines. Poetry is about senses and emotions – it rarely contains one clearly stated subject matter. Describe the hidden meanings and mention the feelings this has provoked in you. Try to elaborate a full picture that would be based on what is said and what is meant.

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Poetry Analysis: How to Analyze a Poem

Every author and poet has their own unique style that cannot be replicated. Based on how they think or what they are trying to portray, they create various poems to explore several ideas or theories that were on their mind.

By mastering how to analyze poetry, you also learn how to ask questions, see multiple meanings in simple things, and develop figurative thinking. Let’s give your brain a boost! Discover how to write poetry analysis from EssayPro service - custom dissertation writing .

What Is a Poetry Analysis?

Poetry analysis is the process of reviewing the multiple artistic, functional, and structural pieces that make up a poem. Typically, this review is conducted and recorded within the structure of a literary analysis essay.

The nature of poetry is expressing complex feelings, which usually makes multiple meanings. To understand them, you must examine not only words, but also rhythm, images, obvious meaning, and implied meaning.

Writing a poem analysis essay requires one to take a more in-depth look at both the choices that a poet made and the overall effects of those choices. These papers need a detailed analysis of all of the parts that were used to form a work of poetry.

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4 Pre-Writing Steps to Take

Read the poem carefully.

It is essential to reread the analyzed poetry several times to get a full grasp of the numerous ideas and concepts. This also gives you an opportunity to make a note of the rhyme scheme (if there is one), the type of poem (limerick, ode, sonnet, lyric, haiku, free verse, etc.) and other poetic techniques that the poet used (such as enjambment, meter, end-stopped lines, figurative language, etc.).

• Limerick: Limerick is a stanza of five lines, with the first, second and fifth rhyming with one another and having three feet of three syllables each; and the shorter third and fourth lines also rhyme with each other, but having only two feet of three syllables.
• Ode: Its structure — 10-line stanzas rhyming, with the 8th line iambic trimeter and all the others iambic pentameter
• Sonnet: A fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter. Was made famous by non-other than Shakespeare! (Shakespeare invented the word "swag"... just saying)
• Lyric: A lyric poem is a comparatively short, non-narrative poem in which a single speaker presents a state of mind or an emotional state. Rather than tell a story, the speaker talks about his thoughts using a specific rhyming style.
• Haiku: Invented by the Japanese, a haiku is a three-line poem with seventeen syllables, written in a 5/7/5 syllable count.
• Free-Verse: Rather simple, free verse is poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular rhythm.

All of those elements of the poem are essential to know when one is writing a poetry analysis essay because they are a part of the poem’s structure and can affect the content.

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Learn About the Background of the Poem

This means that you can find it beneficial to look up the poet, the date that the poem was written, and the cultural context of the work. All of that information typically gives the reader a more in-depth understanding of the poem, and it seems self-explanatory that one who has an enhanced comprehension of the poem would have an easier time analyzing that poem.

Define a Composition Dedicated to the Subject Matter of the Poem

This can be analyzed during the reader’s quest to determine the theme, tone, mood, and meaning of the poem. The subject matter — and the thematic elements that support the intended message behind the subject — is often an interpretive minefield.

Pick a Side Among the Various Theories That You Have Created

Often, people have different ideas about what a poet is trying to say by their use of a subject, so unless the message is implicitly stated, it is best to report multiple possibilities about what the poet may have meant and included evidence for these theories.

The amateur writer can try to elaborate on several existing ideas and theories. Be careful not to mistake this with choosing a popular opinion or biased one. They should be defending the one that carries the most weight or offers the most validation. As the essay is supposed to be an analysis, try to avoid opinions in favor of facts and conjectures that are backed by evidence from work.

How to Choose a Poem to Analyze?

A great way to choose a topic for a poetry analysis essay is to decide on one that would deal with information that you are already familiar with. For example, if the choice of the poem to analyze is up to you, then it may be beneficial for you to choose a poem that you have encountered before. If the choice is to be made between different subject areas within a poem, then you could find it easier to choose to focus on writing about an area that plays to your strengths, so that the statements made in the essay are conveyed clearly and confidently.

A poem analysis essay may seem like a daunting writing assignment at first, but if the topic, outline, and paper are composed following the steps mentioned above, the paper will no doubt, turn out very well.

Poetry Analysis Essay Outline

An outline for a poetry analysis essay can be very simple. It is merely a guideline for the writer to build upon. Put the title of the paper at the top of the page, then place the number one (1) underneath, just before the word “Introduction.” Under this, you can list brainstormed ideas for the introduction paragraph of the paper. The final portion of this section should be dedicated to the thesis statement of the paper.

Need a poetry analysis essay outline? Here is a basic structure to follow for your outline:

Following an outline for a poetry research essay is recommended to make sure you organize all your thoughts and statements you want to say. No matter whether you know how to write poetry — an outline will help identify areas that need to be explored in the analysis.

Introduction

Starting with the title for the analysis can be something very basic or a clever quote, a statement from the piece. Moving onto the introduction to poetry analysis, this should open with a “hook” to get the reader's attention. Follow up with the Authors name and title for the piece. Add some interesting trivia or background info that is not known to the audience, but try to keep it short. To finish off the introduction to a poetry analysis, state your thesis.

The bulk of ideas and comparisons need to be explored here in a clear, focused way. When writing a poetry analysis, each paragraph should be devoted to one point or feature you are comparing. You can divide each point by using the corresponding letter from the outline. Try to make it a coherent and specific about what is being compared (example: when stating your ideas about what the poetic devices do to the piece check whether you state each one and do not generalize). Using transition words and phrases will keep the paragraphs flowing well and more helpful to read.

It's important when looking at how to analyze a poem to finish with a set-out conclusion. Firstly, start by restating the thesis in different words. Summarize the most important findings to prove the thesis. From this, you can draw up your own opinions and take a step back and say what it all means with one key idea. Lastly, try to leave the reader with something memorable to take away with them (a thought-provoking sentence or question about the poem).

Tips for a Poetry Analysis

We have put together some handy tips to help you with when writing a poetry analysis essay:

• If possible, choose a poem that you would like to write about. This seems like a simple enough idea but very relevant. If you have the choice pick a poem you enjoy.
• Try reading the poem to a colleague or friend and even just out loud to yourself. This will help discover any hidden information from the sound, and it’s always good to get a second opinion or extra ideas.
• Don’t be scared to double-check the meanings of words and phrases. This is vital to know how to write a poem analysis essay and to the best, you can. Some words may have had different meanings, cultural references and places all should be looked up if only half certain.
• Check if the conclusion has one clear central idea or theme. Do not put in many confusing ideas or conclusions as this will look like you have not evaluated the work with focus. To go beyond a simple poetry analysis for middle school, try to show how it links to broader themes and the outside world.
• Always try to look beyond the words themselves. Hunt for hidden meanings and any little clues upon which to build a picture. Anybody could know how to write a poem but to explore the hidden meanings within poetry takes time, skill, and a lot of research.

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Poetry Analysis Essay Example

Read also a very fascinating article the Divine Comedy summary . Our readers find it very informative.

Ballad of Birmingham is the author of the poem that revolves around a little girl who would like to go downtown to take part in a freedom protest. Her mother, however, says that she cannot go because of the dangerous conditions outside. Her mother instead tells her to go to church despite the little girl's constant explanations that she would not be alone. Defeated and in a show of respect for her mother, the little girl gets dressed and goes to church. Her mother is contented that she would be fine at the church. Sooner her mother hears of an explosion that sets her racing downtown in search of her daughter. Unfortunately, she finds her daughters dress and shoes in the piles and rubbles. She is left wondering where her daughter is.

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is an expert in nursing and healthcare, with a strong background in history, law, and literature. Holding advanced degrees in nursing and public health, his analytical approach and comprehensive knowledge help students navigate complex topics. On EssayPro blog, Adam provides insightful articles on everything from historical analysis to the intricacies of healthcare policies. In his downtime, he enjoys historical documentaries and volunteering at local clinics.

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2.6–Sample Analysis of a Poem

R. Paul Cooper

How to Read this Section

This section contains two parts. First, you will find the prompt. The prompt is a very important element in any writing assignment. Don’t be fooled by the fact it is short! Even though it is a short document, it highlights and makes clear every element you will need to complete the given assignment effectively. When writing an essay, the prompt is where you will both begin and end. Seriously. Before you begin, familiarize yourself with the prompt, and before you submit your final draft, give the prompt one final read over, making sure you have not left anything out. When you visit the University Writing Center and Libraries, they can better help if you bring along the prompt. Both the Writing Center [1] and the Libraries [2] provide indispensable tools to aid students, so take advantage of their services.

The second part of this section contains a simulated student essay—the essay is not an actual student essay, but an essay written to demonstrate a strong student essay. The essay in this section is not meant to represent a “perfect” essay; it has its faults. However, this essay is an effective response to the given prompt. The “student” essay will be represented in a wide column on the left, and the grader’s commentary will be represented in a smaller column on the right. Use the example and the comments to help you think about how you might organize your own essay, to think about whether you will make similar—or different—choices.

Sample Prompt

Assignment Description: This essay is a thesis-driven close reading that employs research to add historical, cultural, biographical, or other contextual information. A good thesis is not only original and compelling, but also specific, grounded in fact, and, above all, argumentative. The thesis should also offer the reader a sense of the organization of the essay. As a close reading, this essay will pay more attention to the text itself, effectively skirting any direct scholarship about the given poem in favor of an analysis that focuses on the form and content of a particular poem.

Content: Regarding content, the essay must not stray from the text (so no personal reflections, no political commentary, etc.) Regarding form, the essay should demonstrate a working knowledge of the craft elements of poetry—figurative language, word choice, punctuation, meter, etc. These specific terms can be found in the current version of the OER.

Research Expectations: For research, use less than 3 sources, including the primary source. Secondary sources should be scholarly. We do not expect you to enter into the scholarly conversation around the poem, a facet that will be addressed in later chapters of the OER. For now, it is enough to build up the necessary context, historical or otherwise, to understand the chosen poem. In short, I want to read YOUR well-developed, insightful, and articulate analysis, not someone else’s.

Format: All research should be cited using the current MLA format. The essay as a whole should be formatted in MLA style, and

Scope/Page Count: Should be in the range of 900–1200 words (3–4 pages). A Works Cited page is required.

Attribution:

Cooper, R. Paul. “Poetry: Sample Analysis of a Poem.” In Surface and Subtext: Literature, Research, Writing . 3rd ed. Edited by Claire Carly-Miles, Sarah LeMire, Kathy Christie Anders, Nicole Hagstrom-Schmidt, R. Paul Cooper, and Matt McKinney. College Station: Texas A&M University, 2024. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License .

Mensah, Korku [pseud.]. “Poetry: ‘One Deathblow’: Claude McKay on Resisting Oppression.” In Surface and Subtext: Literature, Research, Writing . 3rd ed. Edited by Claire Carly-Miles, Sarah LeMire, Kathy Christie Anders, Nicole Hagstrom-Schmidt, R. Paul Cooper, and Matt McKinney. College Station: Texas A&M University, 2024. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License .

• University Writing Center, Texas A&M University, 2021, https://writingcenter.tamu.edu/. ↵
• Texas A&M University Libraries, Texas A&M University, 2021, https://library.tamu.edu/. ↵

2.6--Sample Analysis of a Poem Copyright © 2024 by R. Paul Cooper is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

A Guide to Poetry Analysis: Understanding Poetry Terms & Techniques

• The Albert Team
• Last Updated On: February 16, 2024

What We Review

 Introduction to the Art of Poetry Analysis

Poetry analysis is a multi-step process of building and understanding of and appreciation for a poetic work. As a result, poems are not meant to be skimmed over or only read in part. Rather, in the words of Billy Collins, poets want readers to “take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide or press an ear against its hive.” True poetry analysis treats the poem as a work of art to be inspected up close while also appreciating the beauty in the form.

Poetry Terms: A Glossary for Poem Analysis

There are several poetry terms that are essential knowledge when it comes to poem analysis. Some of these poetry terms are: form, structure, line, stanza, pattern, rhyme scheme, poetic devices, sound devices, imagery, metaphor, simile, and symbolism to name a few. Albert has entire posts dedicated to defining each of these poetry terms in detail, and those can be found here.

Step-by-Step Guide to Analyzing a Poem

When analyzing a poem, there are several key steps to the process. This is why teachers will often ask students to read a poem multiple times, each time looking out for a different key element.

First, in a poem analysis it is helpful to identify the poem’s form and structure. What is the rhyme scheme? What is the rhythmic pattern?

Next, the reader should examine the language and imagery in the poem, including the poet’s diction or word choice and the breadth of poetic devices and imagery, including but not limited to similes, metaphors, and symbolism to name a few.

Once the reader has established the poetic form and structure as well as taken note of the different types of poetic language in the poem, this will allow the reader then to establish the theme and tone of the poem. Often, the theme reflects the poem’s historical and cultural context, while the tone reflects the poet’s personal and cultural connection to the poem. 

Identifying the Poem’s Structure and Form

First, it is helpful to identify the poem’s form and structure. You can accomplish this by asking a series of questions such as:

• What is the rhyme scheme or rhythmic pattern?
• How many stanzas are in the poem?
• Do any of the lines or stanzas break from the established pattern in the poem?

All of these are important questions to consider when identifying the poem’s structure and form. Some poetry forms, such as sonnets, are typically written on the topic of love. If the poem you are analyzing is written in the form of a sonnet, you can safely anticipate that the subject will be love.

It is also helpful to note that when a poet decides to divert from an established pattern in a poem, it is on purpose. Typically poets break from a normal pattern in a poem when they want to indicate a shift, whether a shift in tone, mood, or topic. 

Examining the Language and Imagery by Looking for Symbolism and Metaphors

Next, readers should look for the poetic devices chosen by the writer. For example, how does the author incorporate imagery into his or her poem: is it through primarily metaphors, or is it through primarily similes, or, is it an even mixture of both?

Sometimes students new to analyzing poetry want to take a poem at face value without considering poetry terms. However, in poetry one thing almost always stands for or symbolizes something else.

For example, Maya Angelou’s “Caged Bird” poem isn’t really about a bird; it’s about our experience as humans as feeling trapped or contained in circumstances that we do not want to be in. We can see others living and experiencing life in ways that we wish we could, but it is seemingly always out of reach. 

Understanding the Poem’s Theme and Tone

Once you have a basic understanding of what poetic devices are used and how these devices are used to represent something greater, you can determine both poem themes as well as the author’s tone. The poet’s choice of words clearly determines their tone.

If a poet uses words like “harsh” or “cruel” to describe their subject, the poem clearly has an offended or unhappy tone. However, if a poet uses words like “dream-like” or “fantastical”, their tone is imaginative.

The theme is the message that the author wants to convey within the poem. It can derived from everything that the reader has established so far, from the structure of the poem, the use of poetic devices within the poem, and the tone of the author.

Going back to Billy Collins and his poem, “Introduction to Poetry”, Collin’s theme or message to the reader is to never analyze poetry so intensely that you forget to enjoy the beauty of the work. Even though Collins begins his poem with the beautiful imagery of holding a poem up to the light like a color slide, he ends his poem with a very harsh image of the reader “tie[ing] the poem to a chair with rope and tortur[ing] a confession out of it.” This stark contrast serves a warning to the reader that true poem analysis seeks meaning without ignoring the artistry of the work. 

Considering the Poem’s Historical and Cultural Context

It would seem that poetry analysis could stop at determining the theme; however, every poem that was ever written and will be written was created within a moment in time, and these moments in time influence a poet’s work whether a poet intends for it to or not.

For example, Walt Whitman’s poem, “O Captain! My Captain!” is a response to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865. The tone of the poem indicates that Abraham Lincoln was highly respected by his fellow Americans, and his loss was considered a great tragedy. 

Interpreting the Poem’s Personal and Universal Significance

Not only do poems carry deep personal significance to the author, but as humans we also experience many of the same emotions or struggles in our lives. Consequently, this allows poems to carry universal significance, even across centuries.

For example, consider Maya Angelou’s “Caged Bird.” Even though Angelou wrote this poem about her personal experience, her poem is still appreciated several decades later by readers who can relate to her experiences of feeling trapped in her circumstances. 

Case Studies: Applying Analysis to Famous Poems | Ode to a Nightingale

Let’s apply what we’ve learned about poetry analysis to the poem, “Ode to a Nightingale” by John Keats. Remember to keep in mind what you have learned about poetry terms.

Analyzing the Poetic Structure

First, let’s determine the form and structure of this poem. In this poem, Keats listens to the immortal song of a nightingale and bemoans the frailty of human life.

Here is the first stanza to analyze: 

“My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains          My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains          One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk: ‘Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,          But being too happy in thine happiness,—                 That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees                         In some melodious plot          Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,                 Singest of summer in full-throated ease.”

The poetic structure follows an ABABCDECDE format. Additionally, the rhythmic structure is primarily iambic pentameter with some minor variations in certain lines. 

Interpreting Symbolism and Metaphor in “Ode to A Nightingale “

Next, let’s look for examples of poetic language and interpret these devices. The second stanza is highly imaginative and uses devices such as alliteration, allusion, symbolism, and personification to express the narrator’s desire to leave his life behind to follow the nightingale into immortality.

“O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been          Cool’d a long age in the deep-delved earth, Tasting of Flora and the country green,          Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth! O for a beaker full of the warm South,          Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,                 With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,                         And purple-stained mouth;          That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,                 And with thee fade away into the forest dim.” 

Keats uses alliteration to describe the unique and special nature of this “vintage” or wine he wishes to drink. This wine clearly has supernatural powers as indicated by the allusion to the Greek Hippocrene, a mythological fountain that gives the one who drinks from it poetic inspiration.

This wine is also symbolized as the “warm South”, a drink promising to provide comfort to whoever drinks it. Lastly, the wine is personified as having “beaded bubbles winking at the brim” and as having a “purple-stained mouth”. This drink that he imagines is tempting him and luring him to forget his human life and follow the nightingale to a better existence.

Unraveling the Tone and Mood of a Poem

As seen above, the author’s tone is highly imaginative, but his tone is also melancholy, especially when he looks back at how quickly men grow old and die in this life. The third stanza shifts to this mournful tone: 

“Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget          What thou among the leaves hast never known, The weariness, the fever, and the fret          Here, where men sit and hear each other groan; Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,          Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;                 Where but to think is to be full of sorrow                         And leaden-eyed despairs,          Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,                 Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.”

As you can see, the speaker clearly despises his current state, claiming that “to think is to be full of sorrow”. The mood of the poem is also revealed through these shifting stanzas: while the forest where the nightingale sings is full of flowers and music and magical creatures, his personal life is full of pain, old age, and disappointment. 

Exploring Themes in “Ode to a Nightingale “

By contrasting these two moods, Keats underlines the vanity of human imagination and pursuit of the unattainable. This is the theme of Keats’ poem: as hard as we try, ultimately, we all grow old and pass away. Myths are merely myths, and fairy tales are merely sprung from someone’s imagination and have no place in reality. 

Conclusion: Enhancing Appreciation through Poetry Analysis

Even though poetry analysis can be a time-consuming task, it is often a rewarding one. So much thought and effort go into the formation of a poem, so it is only natural that as readers we would likewise engage thought and effort into understanding these poems. 

For more practice analyzing poetry, check out our Poetry course! Albert’s Poetry course offers questions about poetry terms, poem themes, and much more. Use our practice questions with detailed explanations to grow in your understanding and appreciation of poetry!

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Poetry Analysis Essay for Everyone

This guide aims to provide readers with the tools and insights needed to undertake an upscale poetry analysis confidently. It demystifies the complexities of poetry analysis, making it more approachable and empowering individuals to articulate their interpretations effectively. The guide is designed to elevate analytical skills and provide practical tips to navigate the intricacies of poetry analysis.

It aims to be a companion on the journey towards crafting an impactful poem analysis essay and instilling a lasting appreciation for the art of poetry. Successful engagement with examples of poetry analysis essays sharpens analytical abilities and deepens understanding of the complexities of artistic expression.

Prepare for Writing an Essay on Poetry Analysis

To choose a poem for a poetry analysis essay, consider personal connections, complexity, depth, and cultural and historical context. Analyze poems by reading various poems, considering length and form, and choosing from diverse poets to broaden your understanding of different voices, styles, and cultural perspectives.

Research the poet’s background by researching their biography, understanding their influences, and identifying their motivations for writing. Explore their literary, cultural, and philosophical influences and their motivations for writing, such as personal experiences, social commentary, or language experimentation.

Explore the poet’s style and themes by reading various works, examining the overarching themes that characterize their body of work, and noting stylistic elements. Pay attention to the poet’s use of language, tone, and poetic devices to gain a more nuanced analysis of the selected poem.

By carefully selecting a poem and immersing yourself in the poet’s background and work, you can create a comprehensive and insightful poetry analysis essay. This initial preparation allows for a more nuanced understanding of the poet’s intentions and sets the stage for a thoughtful exploration of the chosen literary work.

What Is a Poetry Analysis Essay – Key Details

Analyzing poetry is a transformative process that reveals layers of meaning, enhances critical thinking skills, connects with emotions and expression, develops language appreciation, explores cultural and historical context, and encourages personal reflection. Poetry often encapsulates multiple layers of meaning, requiring careful analysis to uncover hidden nuances and subtle messages. Delving into the intricacies of metaphor, symbolism, and imagery enables readers to uncover the depth and complexity beneath a poem’s surface.

Cultivating critical thinking skills involves questioning and interpreting the poet’s intentions, choices, and broader cultural or historical context. This process encourages a more discerning and thoughtful approach to literature, fostering a habit of critical inquiry applicable to various aspects of life.

Connecting with emotions and expression is another benefit of poetry analysis essays. Examining the poet’s use of language, tone, and rhythm facilitates a deeper understanding of the emotional landscape, allowing readers to empathize with the human experience portrayed.

Breaking Down the Poem

Breaking down a poem involves examining its layers, uncovering hidden meanings, literary devices, and structural nuances. This process begins with summarizing the poem by identifying key events or turning points, highlighting shifts in tone, mood, or perspective, and condensing the narrative into a brief yet comprehensive overview.

The central theme is crucial in understanding the intended message of the poetry analysis essay examples, as it goes beyond a surface-level understanding. It involves identifying recurring symbols, motifs, or images, considering the emotional and intellectual impact of the poem, and formulating a concise statement encapsulating the central theme.

Literary devices like symbolism, metaphors, and similes are essential for crafting rich and layered imagery, and their use is crucial in unraveling deeper meanings. Identifying instances where these devices are employed and discussing their symbolic meanings is essential in understanding the overall tone and message.

The structural elements of a poem, including stanzas, rhyme scheme, and overall organization, play a significant role in shaping the reader’s experience. Analyzing these elements provides insights into the poet’s intentional choices, and understanding the poem’s rhythm and meter allows for a deeper appreciation of its intended cadence.

Breaking down a poem is a meticulous process that needs a keen eye for detail and an appreciation for the nuances of language. By approaching each element systematically, readers can unlock the poet’s craftsmanship and immerse themselves in a more profound understanding of the literary work.

How to Start a Poetry Analysis Essay: Best Tips

A strong thesis statement is crucial in poetry analysis as it is the linchpin, anchoring the entire essay. It articulates the main point and the essence of the poet’s work and the insights derived from the analysis. A strong thesis guides the reader, establishes analytical intentions, and creates coherence throughout the poem analysis essay.

Formulating a powerful thesis requires a thoughtful approach beyond a mere summary. The steps to crafting an impactful thesis statement include identifying central themes, highlighting literary devices, considering structural elements, and expressing a unique perspective.

The thesis statement should synthesize key elements identified during the poem analysis, succinctly encapsulating the poet’s intentions, significant themes, and literary devices contributing to the poem’s richness. By incorporating these elements, the thesis becomes a focal point that propels the poetry analysis essay into a nuanced exploration of the poet’s craft.

In subsequent sections of the poem analysis essay, each paragraph should align with and contribute to the overarching thesis, thoroughly examining the elements previewed in this critical statement. A well-crafted thesis statement becomes the cornerstone for a compelling and insightful exploration of the chosen poetic work.

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How to Write a Poetry Analysis Essay Body

The essay’s body should be organized logically, with paragraphs starting with a topic sentence introducing the main idea. The theme-based organization should allow in-depth exploration of specific themes or literary devices. Depending on the poem’s nature, chronological or structural order should be discussed. Transition sentences should guide the reader smoothly from one paragraph to the next, creating a cohesive narrative. Cohesion should be maintained by highlighting connections between paragraphs.

Providing textual evidence is crucial, with quotes and relevant lines chosen to support the points. Key passages should be selected, focusing on quotes that encapsulate the essence of the theme or illustrate the effective use of a literary device. An in-depth analysis of quotes should accompany each quote, explaining their significance in relation to the thesis and how they contribute to the poem’s overall meaning and the poet’s artistic intent.

Interpreting quotes within the analysis should establish the connection between quoted lines and the overarching themes or ideas discussed in the poem analysis essay. Analyzing the use of literary devices within the quoted lines, illustrating how they enhance the poem’s impact, and discussing the poet’s choice of language, imagery, or symbolism evident in the selected quotes is essential.

In conclusion, meticulous organization and the incorporation of textual evidence are paramount in developing the essay’s body. By structuring paragraphs effectively and providing insightful quotes with thorough analysis, the essay creates a robust foundation for presenting a nuanced interpretation of the poem.

How to Write a Conclusion

To write a compelling conclusion for an upscale poetry analysis essay, follow these steps:

• Summarize the Key Points: Identify core themes explored throughout the essay, aligning with the central argument presented in the thesis.
• Recap Literary Devices and Structural Elements: Summarize the literary devices and structural elements discussed in the essay’s body and provide a concise overview of their impact on the poem.
• Highlight Significant Observations: Showcase the most significant observations or insights from the analysis, revisiting key moments contributing to a deeper understanding of the poet’s work.
• Restate the Thesis: Restate the thesis statement, ensuring it is presented slightly nuancedly.
• Connect to the Analysis: Illustrate how each section of the essay has contributed to supporting and expanding the thesis.
• Emphasize the Personal Contribution to the Analysis: Reflect on personal insights or realizations that emerged during the analysis process, express a connection with the poem, and encourage further exploration.
• End with a Thoughtful Closing Statement and Echo the Poem’s Significance: End with a thoughtful statement that echoes the poem’s significance, reflecting on the enduring power of poetry or a final commentary on the impact of the poet’s work.
• Leave a Lasting Impression: Craft a conclusion that leaves a lasting impression on the reader, aiming for closure while inviting further contemplation.

In conclusion, a well-crafted conclusion ties together the threads of your analysis, leaving the reader with a sense of fulfillment and a deeper appreciation for the poem.

The Role of a Poetry Analysis Essay Outline

The poetry analysis essay outline includes an introduction, thesis statement, poem overview, detailed analysis, themes and motifs, thesis development, body paragraphs, critical perspectives, and conclusion. The introduction concisely introduces the poem, outlining its title, poet, and initial thoughts or emotions. The thesis statement serves as the guiding thread throughout the essay, offering readers insight into the focal point of the exploration. The poem overview includes the title, poet’s name, publication date, historical context, initial impressions and emotions, and a detailed analysis of structural elements, literary devices, themes, tone, and mood. The thesis development involves the following:

• Revisiting the initial thesis;
• Incorporating insights from the detailed analysis;
• Refining the thesis for coherence.

Body paragraphs focus on distinct elements, with topic sentences introducing main points, supporting evidence through quotations, and analysis and interpretation of quotes. Critical perspectives include researching scholarly opinions, incorporating different interpretations, and balancing external perspectives with personal insights. The conclusion summarizes vital points, restates the thesis, and concludes with thoughts on the poem’s significance. Revision and proofreading are essential for clarity, coherence, and consistency. The essay concludes with a closing statement on the poem’s lasting impact.

Revision and Proofreading

Revision and proofreading are crucial steps in writing, particularly for a poetry analysis essay. They allow for refining the analytical process, enhancing clarity and precision, and addressing structural issues. It is essential to ensure a logical progression from one point to the next during revision, maintaining a coherent and organized flow.

Checking for coherence and consistency is crucial, with a logical flow between paragraphs, consistent argumentation, thematic consistency, smooth transitions, and proofreading for grammar and style. It involves thorough proofreading for grammar and syntax errors, checking for consistent verb tenses throughout essays on poem, reviewing punctuation and mechanical elements, maintaining a consistent writing style and tone, and eliminating redundancy.

Revision and proofreading are the final layers of refinement in the writing process, ensuring your analysis is insightful and presented with clarity, coherence, and a polished style. These meticulous steps contribute to the overall effectiveness of your analytical essay on poetry.

In summary, revision and proofreading are essential steps in writing, allowing for refining thoughts and interpretations and deepening the overall analysis. You can create a more engaging analysis by addressing structural issues, ensuring a logical flow between paragraphs, consistency in argumentation, and smooth transitions.

Additional Tips and Resources

This text provides additional tips and resources for poetry analysis essays. It suggests exploring similar poets, diversifying genres and periods, engaging with anthologies, and using online resources such as literary journals, educational platforms, and online literary forums.

Recommended readings include exploring reputable literary journals and magazines that publish poetry analysis, critiques, and reviews. Educational platforms like Coursera, edX, and Khan Academy offer courses or lectures on poetry analysis, while online literary forums provide spaces for readers and scholars to discuss and analyze poetry.

Tips for effective peer review include:

• Providing constructive feedback;
• Focusing on critical elements;
• Considering alternative interpretations;
• Ensuring clarity and coherence;
• Encouraging revision.

These tips help enhance analytical skills, broaden literary horizons, and provide valuable insights from both scholarly and peer perspectives.

Incorporating these additional tips and resources into your poetry analysis essay journey can enhance analytical skills, broaden your literary horizons, and provide valuable insights from both scholarly and peer perspectives. Remember that exploring poetry is a continual process of learning and discovery. Following these recommendations can write poetry analysis essay of exceptional quality, broaden your literary horizons, and gain valuable insights from scholarly and peer perspectives.

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12.14: Sample Student Literary Analysis Essays

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• Page ID 40514

• Heather Ringo & Athena Kashyap
• City College of San Francisco via ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative

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The following examples are essays where student writers focused on close-reading a literary work.

While reading these examples, ask yourself the following questions:

• What is the essay's thesis statement, and how do you know it is the thesis statement?
• What is the main idea or topic sentence of each body paragraph, and how does it relate back to the thesis statement?
• Where and how does each essay use evidence (quotes or paraphrase from the literature)?
• What are some of the literary devices or structures the essays analyze or discuss?
• How does each author structure their conclusion, and how does their conclusion differ from their introduction?

Example 1: Poetry

Victoria Morillo

Instructor Heather Ringo

3 August 2022

How Nguyen’s Structure Solidifies the Impact of Sexual Violence in “The Study”

Stripped of innocence, your body taken from you. No matter how much you try to block out the instance in which these two things occurred, memories surface and come back to haunt you. How does a person, a young boy , cope with an event that forever changes his life? Hieu Minh Nguyen deconstructs this very way in which an act of sexual violence affects a survivor. In his poem, “The Study,” the poem's speaker recounts the year in which his molestation took place, describing how his memory filters in and out. Throughout the poem, Nguyen writes in free verse, permitting a structural liberation to become the foundation for his message to shine through. While he moves the readers with this poignant narrative, Nguyen effectively conveys the resulting internal struggles of feeling alone and unseen.

The speaker recalls his experience with such painful memory through the use of specific punctuation choices. Just by looking at the poem, we see that the first period doesn’t appear until line 14. It finally comes after the speaker reveals to his readers the possible, central purpose for writing this poem: the speaker's molestation. In the first half, the poem makes use of commas, em dashes, and colons, which lends itself to the idea of the speaker stringing along all of these details to make sense of this time in his life. If reading the poem following the conventions of punctuation, a sense of urgency is present here, as well. This is exemplified by the lack of periods to finalize a thought; and instead, Nguyen uses other punctuation marks to connect them. Serving as another connector of thoughts, the two em dashes give emphasis to the role memory plays when the speaker discusses how “no one [had] a face” during that time (Nguyen 9-11). He speaks in this urgent manner until the 14th line, and when he finally gets it off his chest, the pace of the poem changes, as does the more frequent use of the period. This stream-of-consciousness-like section when juxtaposed with the latter half of the poem, causes readers to slow down and pay attention to the details. It also splits the poem in two: a section that talks of the fogginess of memory then transitions into one that remembers it all.

In tandem with the fluctuating nature of memory, the utilization of line breaks and word choice help reflect the damage the molestation has had. Within the first couple of lines of the poem, the poem demands the readers’ attention when the line breaks from “floating” to “dead” as the speaker describes his memory of Little Billy (Nguyen 1-4). This line break averts the readers’ expectation of the direction of the narrative and immediately shifts the tone of the poem. The break also speaks to the effect his trauma has ingrained in him and how “[f]or the longest time,” his only memory of that year revolves around an image of a boy’s death. In a way, the speaker sees himself in Little Billy; or perhaps, he’s representative of the tragic death of his boyhood, how the speaker felt so “dead” after enduring such a traumatic experience, even referring to himself as a “ghost” that he tries to evict from his conscience (Nguyen 24). The feeling that a part of him has died is solidified at the very end of the poem when the speaker describes himself as a nine-year-old boy who’s been “fossilized,” forever changed by this act (Nguyen 29). By choosing words associated with permanence and death, the speaker tries to recreate the atmosphere (for which he felt trapped in) in order for readers to understand the loneliness that came as a result of his trauma. With the assistance of line breaks, more attention is drawn to the speaker's words, intensifying their importance, and demanding to be felt by the readers.

Most importantly, the speaker expresses eloquently, and so heartbreakingly, about the effect sexual violence has on a person. Perhaps what seems to be the most frustrating are the people who fail to believe survivors of these types of crimes. This is evident when he describes “how angry” the tenants were when they filled the pool with cement (Nguyen 4). They seem to represent how people in the speaker's life were dismissive of his assault and who viewed his tragedy as a nuisance of some sorts. This sentiment is bookended when he says, “They say, give us details , so I give them my body. / They say, give us proof , so I give them my body,” (Nguyen 25-26). The repetition of these two lines reinforces the feeling many feel in these scenarios, as they’re often left to deal with trying to make people believe them, or to even see them.

It’s important to recognize how the structure of this poem gives the speaker space to express the pain he’s had to carry for so long. As a characteristic of free verse, the poem doesn’t follow any structured rhyme scheme or meter; which in turn, allows him to not have any constraints in telling his story the way he wants to. The speaker has the freedom to display his experience in a way that evades predictability and engenders authenticity of a story very personal to him. As readers, we abandon anticipating the next rhyme, and instead focus our attention to the other ways, like his punctuation or word choice, in which he effectively tells his story. The speaker recognizes that some part of him no longer belongs to himself, but by writing “The Study,” he shows other survivors that they’re not alone and encourages hope that eventually, they will be freed from the shackles of sexual violence.

Works Cited

Nguyen, Hieu Minh. “The Study” Poets.Org. Academy of American Poets, Coffee House Press, 2018, https://poets.org/poem/study-0 .

Example 2: Fiction

Todd Goodwin

Professor Stan Matyshak

Advanced Expository Writing

Sept. 17, 20—

Poe’s “Usher”: A Mirror of the Fall of the House of Humanity

Right from the outset of the grim story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Edgar Allan Poe enmeshes us in a dark, gloomy, hopeless world, alienating his characters and the reader from any sort of physical or psychological norm where such values as hope and happiness could possibly exist. He fatalistically tells the story of how a man (the narrator) comes from the outside world of hope, religion, and everyday society and tries to bring some kind of redeeming happiness to his boyhood friend, Roderick Usher, who not only has physically and psychologically wasted away but is entrapped in a dilapidated house of ever-looming terror with an emaciated and deranged twin sister. Roderick Usher embodies the wasting away of what once was vibrant and alive, and his house of “insufferable gloom” (273), which contains his morbid sister, seems to mirror or reflect this fear of death and annihilation that he most horribly endures. A close reading of the story reveals that Poe uses mirror images, or reflections, to contribute to the fatalistic theme of “Usher”: each reflection serves to intensify an already prevalent tone of hopelessness, darkness, and fatalism.

It could be argued that the house of Roderick Usher is a “house of mirrors,” whose unpleasant and grim reflections create a dark and hopeless setting. For example, the narrator first approaches “the melancholy house of Usher on a dark and soundless day,” and finds a building which causes him a “sense of insufferable gloom,” which “pervades his spirit and causes an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart, an undiscerned dreariness of thought” (273). The narrator then optimistically states: “I reflected that a mere different arrangement of the scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps annihilate its capacity for sorrowful impression” (274). But the narrator then sees the reflection of the house in the tarn and experiences a “shudder even more thrilling than before” (274). Thus the reader begins to realize that the narrator cannot change or stop the impending doom that will befall the house of Usher, and maybe humanity. The story cleverly plays with the word reflection : the narrator sees a physical reflection that leads him to a mental reflection about Usher’s surroundings.

The narrator’s disillusionment by such grim reflection continues in the story. For example, he describes Roderick Usher’s face as distinct with signs of old strength but lost vigor: the remains of what used to be. He describes the house as a once happy and vibrant place, which, like Roderick, lost its vitality. Also, the narrator describes Usher’s hair as growing wild on his rather obtrusive head, which directly mirrors the eerie moss and straw covering the outside of the house. The narrator continually longs to see these bleak reflections as a dream, for he states: “Shaking off from my spirit what must have been a dream, I scanned more narrowly the real aspect of the building” (276). He does not want to face the reality that Usher and his home are doomed to fall, regardless of what he does.

Although there are almost countless examples of these mirror images, two others stand out as important. First, Roderick and his sister, Madeline, are twins. The narrator aptly states just as he and Roderick are entombing Madeline that there is “a striking similitude between brother and sister” (288). Indeed, they are mirror images of each other. Madeline is fading away psychologically and physically, and Roderick is not too far behind! The reflection of “doom” that these two share helps intensify and symbolize the hopelessness of the entire situation; thus, they further develop the fatalistic theme. Second, in the climactic scene where Madeline has been mistakenly entombed alive, there is a pairing of images and sounds as the narrator tries to calm Roderick by reading him a romance story. Events in the story simultaneously unfold with events of the sister escaping her tomb. In the story, the hero breaks out of the coffin. Then, in the story, the dragon’s shriek as he is slain parallels Madeline’s shriek. Finally, the story tells of the clangor of a shield, matched by the sister’s clanging along a metal passageway. As the suspense reaches its climax, Roderick shrieks his last words to his “friend,” the narrator: “Madman! I tell you that she now stands without the door” (296).

Roderick, who slowly falls into insanity, ironically calls the narrator the “Madman.” We are left to reflect on what Poe means by this ironic twist. Poe’s bleak and dark imagery, and his use of mirror reflections, seem only to intensify the hopelessness of “Usher.” We can plausibly conclude that, indeed, the narrator is the “Madman,” for he comes from everyday society, which is a place where hope and faith exist. Poe would probably argue that such a place is opposite to the world of Usher because a world where death is inevitable could not possibly hold such positive values. Therefore, just as Roderick mirrors his sister, the reflection in the tarn mirrors the dilapidation of the house, and the story mirrors the final actions before the death of Usher. “The Fall of the House of Usher” reflects Poe’s view that humanity is hopelessly doomed.

Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Fall of the House of Usher.” 1839. Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library . 1995. Web. 1 July 2012. < http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/PoeFall.html >.

Example 3: Poetry

Amy Chisnell

Professor Laura Neary

Writing and Literature

April 17, 20—

Don’t Listen to the Egg!: A Close Reading of Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky”

“You seem very clever at explaining words, Sir,” said Alice. “Would you kindly tell me the meaning of the poem called ‘Jabberwocky’?”

“Let’s hear it,” said Humpty Dumpty. “I can explain all the poems that ever were invented—and a good many that haven’t been invented just yet.” (Carroll 164)

In Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass , Humpty Dumpty confidently translates (to a not so confident Alice) the complicated language of the poem “Jabberwocky.” The words of the poem, though nonsense, aptly tell the story of the slaying of the Jabberwock. Upon finding “Jabberwocky” on a table in the looking-glass room, Alice is confused by the strange words. She is quite certain that “ somebody killed something ,” but she does not understand much more than that. When later she encounters Humpty Dumpty, she seizes the opportunity at having the knowledgeable egg interpret—or translate—the poem. Since Humpty Dumpty professes to be able to “make a word work” for him, he is quick to agree. Thus he acts like a New Critic who interprets the poem by performing a close reading of it. Through Humpty’s interpretation of the first stanza, however, we see the poem’s deeper comment concerning the practice of interpreting poetry and literature in general—that strict analytical translation destroys the beauty of a poem. In fact, Humpty Dumpty commits the “heresy of paraphrase,” for he fails to understand that meaning cannot be separated from the form or structure of the literary work.

Of the 71 words found in “Jabberwocky,” 43 have no known meaning. They are simply nonsense. Yet through this nonsensical language, the poem manages not only to tell a story but also gives the reader a sense of setting and characterization. One feels, rather than concretely knows, that the setting is dark, wooded, and frightening. The characters, such as the Jubjub bird, the Bandersnatch, and the doomed Jabberwock, also appear in the reader’s head, even though they will not be found in the local zoo. Even though most of the words are not real, the reader is able to understand what goes on because he or she is given free license to imagine what the words denote and connote. Simply, the poem’s nonsense words are the meaning.

Therefore, when Humpty interprets “Jabberwocky” for Alice, he is not doing her any favors, for he actually misreads the poem. Although the poem in its original is constructed from nonsense words, by the time Humpty is done interpreting it, it truly does not make any sense. The first stanza of the original poem is as follows:

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogroves,

An the mome raths outgrabe. (Carroll 164)

If we replace, however, the nonsense words of “Jabberwocky” with Humpty’s translated words, the effect would be something like this:

’Twas four o’clock in the afternoon, and the lithe and slimy badger-lizard-corkscrew creatures

Did go round and round and make holes in the grass-plot round the sun-dial:

All flimsy and miserable were the shabby-looking birds

with mop feathers,

And the lost green pigs bellowed-sneezed-whistled.

By translating the poem in such a way, Humpty removes the charm or essence—and the beauty, grace, and rhythm—from the poem. The poetry is sacrificed for meaning. Humpty Dumpty commits the heresy of paraphrase. As Cleanth Brooks argues, “The structure of a poem resembles that of a ballet or musical composition. It is a pattern of resolutions and balances and harmonizations” (203). When the poem is left as nonsense, the reader can easily imagine what a “slithy tove” might be, but when Humpty tells us what it is, he takes that imaginative license away from the reader. The beauty (if that is the proper word) of “Jabberwocky” is in not knowing what the words mean, and yet understanding. By translating the poem, Humpty takes that privilege from the reader. In addition, Humpty fails to recognize that meaning cannot be separated from the structure itself: the nonsense poem reflects this literally—it means “nothing” and achieves this meaning by using “nonsense” words.

Furthermore, the nonsense words Carroll chooses to use in “Jabberwocky” have a magical effect upon the reader; the shadowy sound of the words create the atmosphere, which may be described as a trance-like mood. When Alice first reads the poem, she says it seems to fill her head “with ideas.” The strange-sounding words in the original poem do give one ideas. Why is this? Even though the reader has never heard these words before, he or she is instantly aware of the murky, mysterious mood they set. In other words, diction operates not on the denotative level (the dictionary meaning) but on the connotative level (the emotion(s) they evoke). Thus “Jabberwocky” creates a shadowy mood, and the nonsense words are instrumental in creating this mood. Carroll could not have simply used any nonsense words.

For example, let us change the “dark,” “ominous” words of the first stanza to “lighter,” more “comic” words:

’Twas mearly, and the churly pells

Did bimble and ringle in the tink;

All timpy were the brimbledimps,

And the bip plips outlink.

Shifting the sounds of the words from dark to light merely takes a shift in thought. To create a specific mood using nonsense words, one must create new words from old words that convey the desired mood. In “Jabberwocky,” Carroll mixes “slimy,” a grim idea, “lithe,” a pliable image, to get a new adjective: “slithy” (a portmanteau word). In this translation, brighter words were used to get a lighter effect. “Mearly” is a combination of “morning” and “early,” and “ringle” is a blend of “ring” and "dingle.” The point is that “Jabberwocky’s” nonsense words are created specifically to convey this shadowy or mysterious mood and are integral to the “meaning.”

Consequently, Humpty’s rendering of the poem leaves the reader with a completely different feeling than does the original poem, which provided us with a sense of ethereal mystery, of a dark and foreign land with exotic creatures and fantastic settings. The mysteriousness is destroyed by Humpty’s literal paraphrase of the creatures and the setting; by doing so, he has taken the beauty away from the poem in his attempt to understand it. He has committed the heresy of paraphrase: “If we allow ourselves to be misled by it [this heresy], we distort the relation of the poem to its ‘truth’… we split the poem between its ‘form’ and its ‘content’” (Brooks 201). Humpty Dumpty’s ultimate demise might be seen to symbolize the heretical split between form and content: as a literary creation, Humpty Dumpty is an egg, a well-wrought urn of nonsense. His fall from the wall cracks him and separates the contents from the container, and not even all the King’s men can put the scrambled egg back together again!

Through the odd characters of a little girl and a foolish egg, “Jabberwocky” suggests a bit of sage advice about reading poetry, advice that the New Critics built their theories on. The importance lies not solely within strict analytical translation or interpretation, but in the overall effect of the imagery and word choice that evokes a meaning inseparable from those literary devices. As Archibald MacLeish so aptly writes: “A poem should not mean / But be.” Sometimes it takes a little nonsense to show us the sense in something.

Brooks, Cleanth. The Well-Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry . 1942. San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1956. Print.

Carroll, Lewis. Through the Looking-Glass. Alice in Wonderland . 2nd ed. Ed. Donald J. Gray. New York: Norton, 1992. Print.

MacLeish, Archibald. “Ars Poetica.” The Oxford Book of American Poetry . Ed. David Lehman. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006. 385–86. Print.

Attribution

• Sample Essay 1 received permission from Victoria Morillo to publish, licensed Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International ( CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 )
• Sample Essays 2 and 3 adapted from Cordell, Ryan and John Pennington. "2.5: Student Sample Papers" from Creating Literary Analysis. 2012. Licensed Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported ( CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 )

Thetis Summary & Analysis by Carol Ann Duffy

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis
• Poetic Devices
• Vocabulary & References
• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme
• Line-by-Line Explanations

Carol Ann Duffy published "Thetis" in The World's Wife , her 1999 collection of dramatic monologues that retell famous stories and myths from the perspectives of female characters. In Greek mythology, Thetis was a sea nymph who was forced to marry the mortal Peleus, with whom she had a son (Achilles, the great hero of the Trojan War). In Duffy's poem, Thetis describes her attempts to evade Peleus's persistent advances by transforming herself into a series of animals and natural elements. Yet whatever form Thetis takes, Peleus finds a way to capture her. Through Thetis's transformations and Peleus's relentless pursuit, the poem illustrates women's adaptability as well as the pervasive nature of patriarchal oppression.

• Read the full text of “Thetis”

The Full Text of “Thetis”

“thetis” summary, “thetis” themes.

Women's Adaptability vs. Patriarchy's Persistence

• Lines 46-48

Humankind's Destruction of the Environment

• Lines 11-12
• Lines 16-18
• Lines 23-24
• Lines 25-26
• Lines 29-30
• Lines 31-33
• Lines 34-35
• Lines 37-38
• Lines 40-42
• Lines 43-44
• Lines 44-45

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Thetis”

I shrank myself ... ... of his fist.

Then I did ... ... a crossbow's eye.

Lines 13-18

So I shopped ... ... at my nape.

Lines 19-24

Next I was ... ... the gun. Twelve-bore.

Lines 25-30

I sank through ... ... and his sinker.

Lines 31-36

I changed my ... ... Stuff that.

Lines 37-42

I was wind, ... ... a fighter plane.

Lines 43-48

Then my tongue ... ... child burst out.

“Thetis” Symbols

• Lines 1-2: “I shrank myself / to the size of a bird”
• Lines 7-8: “Then I did this: / shouldered the cross of an albatross”
• Lines 13-14: “So I shopped for a suitable shape / Size 8. Snake.”
• Lines 19-22: “Next I was roar, claw, 50 lb paw, / jungle-floored, meateater, raw, / a zebra's gore / in my lower jaw.”
• Lines 25-28: “I sank through the floor of the earth / to swim in the sea. / Mermaid, me, big fish, eel, dolphin, / whale, the ocean's opera singer.”
• Lines 31-33: “I changed my tune / to racoon, skunk, stoat, / to weasel, ferret, bat, mink, rat.”
• Lines 37-39: “I was wind, I was gas, / I was all hot air, trailed / clouds for hair.”
• Lines 43-44: “Then my tongue was flame / and my kisses burned,”
• Lines 46-48: “So I changed, I learned, / turned inside out—or that's / how it felt when the child burst out.”

• Lines 4-6: “Sweet, sweet, was the small song / that I sang, / till I felt the squeeze of his fist.”
• Lines 11-12: “But I felt my wings / clipped by the squint of a crossbow's eye.”
• Lines 16-18: “Coiled in my charmer's lap, / I felt the grasp of his strangler's clasp / at my nape.”
• Lines 23-24: “But my gold eye saw / the guy in the grass with the gun. Twelve-bore.”
• Lines 29-30: “Over the waves the fisherman came / with his hook and his line and his sinker.”
• Lines 34-35: “The taxidermist sharpened his knives. / I smelled the stink of formaldehyde.”
• Lines 40-42: “I scrawled my name with a hurricane, / when out of the blue / roared a fighter plane.”
• Line 45: “but the groom wore asbestos.”

“Thetis” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

Alliteration.

• Line 4: “Sweet,” “sweet,” “small,” “song”
• Line 5: “sang”
• Line 6: “squeeze”
• Line 12: “clipped,” “crossbow's”
• Line 13: “So,” “shopped,” “suitable,” “shape”
• Line 14: “Size,” “Snake”
• Line 23: “gold”
• Line 24: “guy,” “grass,” “gun”
• Line 25: “sank”
• Line 26: “swim,” “sea”
• Line 28: “ocean's”
• Line 29: “Over”
• Line 30: “his,” “hook,” “his,” “his”
• Line 32: “skunk,” “stoat”
• Line 35: “smelled,” “stink”
• Line 36: “Stuff”
• Lines 7-12: “Then I did this: / shouldered the cross of an albatross / up the hill of the sky. / Why? To follow a ship. / But I felt my wings / clipped by the squint of a crossbow's eye.”
• Line 2: “a bird in the hand”
• Line 8: “shouldered the cross”
• Line 30: “his hook and his line and his sinker.”
• Line 31: “I changed my tune”
• Lines 1-2: “myself / to”
• Lines 2-3: “hand / of”
• Lines 4-5: “song / that”
• Lines 8-9: “albatross / up”
• Lines 11-12: “wings / clipped”
• Lines 13-14: “shape / Size”
• Lines 17-18: “clasp / at”
• Lines 21-22: “gore / in”
• Lines 23-24: “saw / the”
• Lines 25-26: “earth / to”
• Lines 29-30: “came / with”
• Lines 31-32: “tune / to”
• Lines 38-39: “trailed / clouds”
• Lines 41-42: “blue / roared”
• Lines 43-44: “flame / and”
• Lines 47-48: “that's / how”
• Lines 19-22: “roar, claw, 50 lb paw, / jungle-floored, meateater, raw, / a zebra's gore / in my lower jaw.”
• Lines 27-28: “Mermaid, me, big fish, eel, dolphin, / whale, the ocean's opera singer.”
• Lines 32-33: “to racoon, skunk, stoat, / to weasel, ferret, bat, mink, rat.”
• Lines 46-47: “So I changed, I learned, / turned inside out”
• Line 2: “hand”
• Line 3: “man”
• Line 8: “cross,” “albatross”
• Line 9: “sky”
• Line 10: “Why,” “ship”
• Line 12: “clipped,” “by,” “squint,” “crossbow's,” “eye”
• Line 13: “shape”
• Line 14: “8,” “Snake”
• Line 15: “Mistake”
• Line 16: “lap”
• Line 17: “grasp,” “strangler's,” “clasp”
• Line 18: “nape”
• Line 19: “roar,” “claw,” “paw”
• Line 20: “floored,” “raw”
• Line 21: “gore”
• Line 22: “lower,” “jaw”
• Line 23: “gold,” “eye,” “saw”
• Line 24: “guy,” “bore”
• Line 26: “sea”
• Line 27: “me,” “eel”
• Line 28: “ocean's,” “opera,” “singer”
• Line 29: “Over,” “waves,” “came”
• Line 30: “sinker”
• Line 31: “tune”
• Line 32: “racoon”
• Line 33: “bat,” “rat”
• Line 34: “knives”
• Line 35: “formaldehyde”
• Line 36: “that”
• Line 38: “air,” “trailed”
• Line 39: “hair”
• Line 40: “name,” “hurricane”
• Line 42: “plane”
• Line 43: “flame”
• Line 44: “burned”
• Line 46: “changed,” “learned”
• Line 47: “out”
• Line 48: “out”

“Thetis” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Shouldered the cross
• Twelve-bore
• Taxidermist
• Formaldehyde
• (Location in poem: Line 8: “shouldered the cross of an albatross”)

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Thetis”

Rhyme scheme, “thetis” speaker, “thetis” setting, literary and historical context of “thetis”, more “thetis” resources, external resources.

On Thetis — Learn more about Thetis's role in Greek mythology from this reference entry, courtesy of Britannica. 

Carol Ann Duffy's Biography — Learn more about the poet's life and work from this brief biography, courtesy of the Poetry Foundation.

The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis — Take a closer look at Joachim Wtewael's famous painting, "The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis," courtesy of the National Gallery of Art.

An Interview with Carol Ann Duffy — Listen to Duffy discuss The World's Wife and her perspective on poetry in this interview with the Lincoln Review.

What Is Ecofeminism? — Learn more about the relationship between feminism and environmentalism.

LitCharts on Other Poems by Carol Ann Duffy

A Child's Sleep

Anne Hathaway

Before You Were Mine

Death of a Teacher

Education For Leisure

Elvis's Twin Sister

Head of English

In Mrs Tilscher’s Class

In Your Mind

Little Red Cap

Mrs Lazarus

Mrs Sisyphus

Pilate's Wife

Pygmalion's Bride

Queen Herod

Recognition

Standing Female Nude

The Darling Letters

The Dolphins

The Good Teachers

Warming Her Pearls

War Photographer

We Remember Your Childhood Well

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