what is the purpose of a poetry analysis essay

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!

Readers also enjoyed

WHY WAIT? PLACE AN ORDER RIGHT NOW!

Just fill out the form, press the button, and have no worries!

We use cookies to give you the best experience possible. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy.

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.

Problems with writing Your Poem Analysis Essay? Try our Essay Writer Service!

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.

Write a Poetry Analysis Essay with HandmadeWriting

You may have hundreds of reasons why you can’t write a brilliant poem analysis essay. In addition to the fact that it is one of the most complicated creative assignments, you can have some personal issues. It can be anything from lots of homework, a part-time job, personal problems, lack of time, or just the absence of motivation. In any case, your main task is not to let all these factors influence your reputation and grades. A perfect way out may be asking the real pros of essay writing for professional help.

There are a lot of benefits why you should refer to the professional writing agencies in case you are not in the mood for elaborating your poetry analysis essay. We will only state the most important ones:

• You can be 100% sure your poem analysis essay will be completed brilliantly. All the research processes, outlines, structuring, editing, and proofreading will be performed instead of you. 
• You will get an absolutely unique plagiarism-free piece of writing that deserves the highest score.
• All the authors are extremely creative, talented, and simply in love with poetry. Just tell them what poetry you would like to build your analysis on and enjoy a smooth essay with the logical structure and amazing content.
• Formatting will be done professionally and without any effort from your side. No need to waste your time on such a boring activity.

As you see, there are a lot of advantages to ordering your poetry analysis essay from HandmadeWriting . Having such a perfect essay example now will contribute to your inspiration and professional growth in future.

A life lesson in Romeo and Juliet taught by death

Due to human nature, we draw conclusions only when life gives us a lesson since the experience of others is not so effective and powerful. Therefore, when analyzing and sorting out common problems we face, we may trace a parallel with well-known book characters or real historical figures. Moreover, we often compare our situations with […]

Ethical Research Paper Topics

Writing a research paper on ethics is not an easy task, especially if you do not possess excellent writing skills and do not like to contemplate controversial questions. But an ethics course is obligatory in all higher education institutions, and students have to look for a way out and be creative. When you find an […]

Art Research Paper Topics

Students obtaining degrees in fine art and art & design programs most commonly need to write a paper on art topics. However, this subject is becoming more popular in educational institutions for expanding students’ horizons. Thus, both groups of receivers of education: those who are into arts and those who only get acquainted with art […]

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.

Our college essay writers are ready to help you anytime. If you are experiencing difficulties and do not know how to start a research paper or other type of work, just leave us your request and our authors will do everything in the best way.

Do You Need Some Help With Your poetry analysis?

Get help from our professional writing service.

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.

Need Poetry Analysis Essay Done Fast?

To pay for essay all you have to do is send us your rubric and one of our writers will craft you an original paper.

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.

If you don't have enough time, get some help from the experts who can write a custom poetry analysis essay for you!

'I want pay someone to write my research paper ' - we get such messages every day. Ask our analytical essay writing services for help anytime. Check out this free blog on WRITING A THESIS STATEMENT for some extra help.

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.

Have a Poem to Analyze and Feel Stumped?

Do not worry, reading Shakespeare can feel like trying to understand ancient hieroglyphics, especially if other assignments are taking up headspace. Use our " write my papers " service to get rid of that mental stress!

Related Articles

How to Write a Poem Analysis: 6 Steps for Students and New Reviewers

Elliot Riley

Emily Butler is a librarian and writer. You can discover more of their literary opinions on their YouTube channel, youtube.com/emilybutler, and follow them on Twitter @EmilyFButler1.

View All posts by Elliot Riley

If you’re a student or new reviewer first approaching the task, you may be wondering how to write a poem analysis. Fortunately, there are concrete steps you can take to analyze a poem or collection of poetry. Even if you do not plan on learning how to write a poem analysis essay, building a routine of analysis into your poetry reading can deepen your appreciation for the genre.

Poems have many layers of meaning. A particularly beautiful and well-crafted poem only becomes more enjoyable the more you increase your understanding of the decisions the poet made to craft it. The following steps outline the kinds of questions to ask yourself while writing a poem analysis.

Step 1: Read the Poem Aloud

Poetry has a long oral history. Poets often utilize sound techniques which are easier to detect when reading the poem aloud. Read it once without an analytical focus. Simply notice how you respond to the poem. Begin by asking yourself broad, simple questions such as: How did this make me feel? What do I think the poet is trying to say?

Jot some notes down about your initial impression. Analyzing a poem is a recursive process. You will read the poem several times, and these first impressions can provide interesting clues for what to focus on in your analysis.

Step 2: Identify the Type of Poem

There are several different types of poems, but all poems fall into three overarching categories: free verse, formal verse, and prose poems. Formal poetry itself comes in many more specific forms. Check out A Beginner’s Guide to Different Types of Poems.

There are certain analytical questions you can ask yourself depending on the type of the poem you’re reading. If this is a prose poem, ask yourself, what exactly makes this piece of writing a poem, as opposed to a short piece of prose? Recognizing a specific poetic form allows you to contextualize the poem in history. For example, if you’re reading a sonnet, consider how the poem you’re analyzing fits with or fights against the conventions of sonnets.

Step 3: Mark It Up

There is no one correct way to mark up a poem. You can underline lines which stand out to you. You can take notes in the margins identifying poetic techniques as you see them. You can scan the poem,  a method of marking stressed and unstressed syllables. You can circle words which seem important or stand out as surprising.

If you are reviewing an entire poetry collection, it’s a good idea to take notes in the margins about particular motifs or themes. That way, when you are finished with your first read, you can look for ideas which appeared in multiple poems.

Step 4: Consider Poetic Techniques

Read the poem several times, considering a single poetic technique at a time. For example, free verse and formal poems use line breaks. Read through the poem once, focusing on how the poet has broken lines, and the impact of those decisions. If the poem contains stanzas, do the same for stanzas. You can repeat this process with any poetic technique: similes, metaphors, imagery, assonance, consonance, alliteration. How do these poetic techniques support, enhance, or problematize the overall message of the poem? Your observations will prove crucial when you are ready to sit down and write a poem analysis.

Step 5: Pay Attention to the Turn(s)

In poetry, the term “volta,” sometimes called a “turn,” is a shift in the tone, meaning, or style of a poem. This is a common enough poetic technique that it warrants its own step in the analytic process. Nearly every sonnet contains a turn in the final two lines of the poem, but countless other types of poems contain some sort of shift.

Voltas are so common that if the poem you’re reading does not contain a volta, that is a decision worth incorporating into a poem analysis. You can always ask yourself whether or not a poem contains a turn, and how this impacts the poem overall. Focus on the final lines of a poem, since that is where the volta typically appears.

Step 6: Make an Argument

If you are reviewing an entire poetry collection you can use the above steps for each poem. Then consider the way that the poet has chosen to order the poems within the collection. Revisit the first and last poems, asking yourself how they might function as a kind of introduction and conclusion to the collection.

As with any other essay in the realm of literature, in order to write a poem analysis essay, you should formulate an argument and back it up with evidence. Different readers can have opposing ideas about how a poem or collection of poetry operates, and that’s okay, as long as both readers have evidence to support their claims. How do you back up your claims with evidence? Refer to your notes, especially your observations of poetic techniques. Whenever necessary, quote exact lines or stanzas and use them to support your argument.

Step 7: Consider the Audience

Writing a book review of a poetry collection is considerably different from writing an essay about it. That is because book reviews serve a different purpose than essays do. Individual readers, book buyers, and librarians read reviews in order to decide whether or not to purchase a book.

Ask yourself: what kind of reader might enjoy this collection? It’s always a good idea to compare and contrast to other collections of poetry. You can recommend the poetry collection you’re reviewing to fans of another poet, for example.

Book reviews tend to be considerably shorter than essays, often as short as two or three hundred words. For that reason, it’s important to be concise. Unlike reviewing fiction or nonfiction, you do not exactly need to “summarize” a poetry collection. Most poetry collections cannot be summarized the way that a novel or nonfiction book can. Instead, list some of the central thematic concerns of the collection and describe the poetic style. Tell your readers what kind of poems they will find in this collection. Are these prose poems, free verse, formal verse, or a combination? Are they simple, accessible poems, or complex poems with unusual syntax? Does the collection contain a lot of references?

In a book review, you will want to quote a line or two which represents some aspect of the poetry collection as a whole. Since you do not have a lot of space, choose something representative of the poet’s style. This will give readers an idea of whether or not this collection appeals to them. For more information about writing book reviews, check out How To Write a Book Review: Six Steps to Take .

You Might Also Like

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Introduction

You’ve been assigned a literary analysis paper—what does that even mean? Is it like a book report that you used to write in high school? Well, not really.

A literary analysis essay asks you to make an original argument about a poem, play, or work of fiction and support that argument with research and evidence from your careful reading of the text.

It can take many forms, such as a close reading of a text, critiquing the text through a particular literary theory, comparing one text to another, or criticizing another critic’s interpretation of the text. While there are many ways to structure a literary essay, writing this kind of essay follows generally follows a similar process for everyone

Crafting a good literary analysis essay begins with good close reading of the text, in which you have kept notes and observations as you read. This will help you with the first step, which is selecting a topic to write about—what jumped out as you read, what are you genuinely interested in? The next step is to focus your topic, developing it into an argument—why is this subject or observation important? Why should your reader care about it as much as you do? The third step is to gather evidence to support your argument, for literary analysis, support comes in the form of evidence from the text and from your research on what other literary critics have said about your topic. Only after you have performed these steps, are you ready to begin actually writing your essay.

Writing a Literary Analysis Essay

How to create a topic and conduct research:.

Writing an Analysis of a Poem, Story, or Play

If you are taking a literature course, it is important that you know how to write an analysis—sometimes called an interpretation or a literary analysis or a critical reading or a critical analysis—of a story, a poem, and a play. Your instructor will probably assign such an analysis as part of the course assessment. On your mid-term or final exam, you might have to write an analysis of one or more of the poems and/or stories on your reading list. Or the dreaded “sight poem or story” might appear on an exam, a work that is not on the reading list, that you have not read before, but one your instructor includes on the exam to examine your ability to apply the active reading skills you have learned in class to produce, independently, an effective literary analysis.You might be asked to write instead or, or in addition to an analysis of a literary work, a more sophisticated essay in which you compare and contrast the protagonists of two stories, or the use of form and metaphor in two poems, or the tragic heroes in two plays.

You might learn some literary theory in your course and be asked to apply theory—feminist, Marxist, reader-response, psychoanalytic, new historicist, for example—to one or more of the works on your reading list. But the seminal assignment in a literature course is the analysis of the single poem, story, novel, or play, and, even if you do not have to complete this assignment specifically, it will form the basis of most of the other writing assignments you will be required to undertake in your literature class. There are several ways of structuring a literary analysis, and your instructor might issue specific instructions on how he or she wants this assignment done. The method presented here might not be identical to the one your instructor wants you to follow, but it will be easy enough to modify, if your instructor expects something a bit different, and it is a good default method, if your instructor does not issue more specific guidelines.You want to begin your analysis with a paragraph that provides the context of the work you are analyzing and a brief account of what you believe to be the poem or story or play’s main theme. At a minimum, your account of the work’s context will include the name of the author, the title of the work, its genre, and the date and place of publication. If there is an important biographical or historical context to the work, you should include that, as well.Try to express the work’s theme in one or two sentences. Theme, you will recall, is that insight into human experience the author offers to readers, usually revealed as the content, the drama, the plot of the poem, story, or play unfolds and the characters interact. Assessing theme can be a complex task. Authors usually show the theme; they don’t tell it. They rarely say, at the end of the story, words to this effect: “and the moral of my story is…” They tell their story, develop their characters, provide some kind of conflict—and from all of this theme emerges. Because identifying theme can be challenging and subjective, it is often a good idea to work through the rest of the analysis, then return to the beginning and assess theme in light of your analysis of the work’s other literary elements.Here is a good example of an introductory paragraph from Ben’s analysis of William Butler Yeats’ poem, “Among School Children.”

“Among School Children” was published in Yeats’ 1928 collection of poems The Tower. It was inspired by a visit Yeats made in 1926 to school in Waterford, an official visit in his capacity as a senator of the Irish Free State. In the course of the tour, Yeats reflects upon his own youth and the experiences that shaped the “sixty-year old, smiling public man” (line 8) he has become. Through his reflection, the theme of the poem emerges: a life has meaning when connections among apparently disparate experiences are forged into a unified whole.

In the body of your literature analysis, you want to guide your readers through a tour of the poem, story, or play, pausing along the way to comment on, analyze, interpret, and explain key incidents, descriptions, dialogue, symbols, the writer’s use of figurative language—any of the elements of literature that are relevant to a sound analysis of this particular work. Your main goal is to explain how the elements of literature work to elucidate, augment, and develop the theme. The elements of literature are common across genres: a story, a narrative poem, and a play all have a plot and characters. But certain genres privilege certain literary elements. In a poem, for example, form, imagery and metaphor might be especially important; in a story, setting and point-of-view might be more important than they are in a poem; in a play, dialogue, stage directions, lighting serve functions rarely relevant in the analysis of a story or poem.

The length of the body of an analysis of a literary work will usually depend upon the length of work being analyzed—the longer the work, the longer the analysis—though your instructor will likely establish a word limit for this assignment. Make certain that you do not simply paraphrase the plot of the story or play or the content of the poem. This is a common weakness in student literary analyses, especially when the analysis is of a poem or a play.

Here is a good example of two body paragraphs from Amelia’s analysis of “Araby” by James Joyce.

Within the story’s first few paragraphs occur several religious references which will accumulate as the story progresses. The narrator is a student at the Christian Brothers’ School; the former tenant of his house was a priest; he left behind books called The Abbot and The Devout Communicant. Near the end of the story’s second paragraph the narrator describes a “central apple tree” in the garden, under which is “the late tenant’s rusty bicycle pump.” We may begin to suspect the tree symbolizes the apple tree in the Garden of Eden and the bicycle pump, the snake which corrupted Eve, a stretch, perhaps, until Joyce’s fall-of-innocence theme becomes more apparent.

The narrator must continue to help his aunt with her errands, but, even when he is so occupied, his mind is on Mangan’s sister, as he tries to sort out his feelings for her. Here Joyce provides vivid insight into the mind of an adolescent boy at once elated and bewildered by his first crush. He wants to tell her of his “confused adoration,” but he does not know if he will ever have the chance. Joyce’s description of the pleasant tension consuming the narrator is conveyed in a striking simile, which continues to develop the narrator’s character, while echoing the religious imagery, so important to the story’s theme: “But my body was like a harp, and her words and gestures were like fingers, running along the wires.”

The concluding paragraph of your analysis should realize two goals. First, it should present your own opinion on the quality of the poem or story or play about which you have been writing. And, second, it should comment on the current relevance of the work. You should certainly comment on the enduring social relevance of the work you are explicating. You may comment, though you should never be obliged to do so, on the personal relevance of the work. Here is the concluding paragraph from Dao-Ming’s analysis of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.

First performed in 1895, The Importance of Being Earnest has been made into a film, as recently as 2002 and is regularly revived by professional and amateur theatre companies. It endures not only because of the comic brilliance of its characters and their dialogue, but also because its satire still resonates with contemporary audiences. I am still amazed that I see in my own Asian mother a shadow of Lady Bracknell, with her obsession with finding for her daughter a husband who will maintain, if not, ideally, increase the family’s social status. We might like to think we are more liberated and socially sophisticated than our Victorian ancestors, but the starlets and eligible bachelors who star in current reality television programs illustrate the extent to which superficial concerns still influence decisions about love and even marriage. Even now, we can turn to Oscar Wilde to help us understand and laugh at those who are earnest in name only.

Dao-Ming’s conclusion is brief, but she does manage to praise the play, reaffirm its main theme, and explain its enduring appeal. And note how her last sentence cleverly establishes that sense of closure that is also a feature of an effective analysis.

You may, of course, modify the template that is presented here. Your instructor might favour a somewhat different approach to literary analysis. Its essence, though, will be your understanding and interpretation of the theme of the poem, story, or play and the skill with which the author shapes the elements of literature—plot, character, form, diction, setting, point of view—to support the theme.

Academic Writing Tips : How to Write a Literary Analysis Paper. Authored by: eHow. Located at: https://youtu.be/8adKfLwIrVk. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube license

BC Open Textbooks: English Literature Victorians and Moderns: https://opentextbc.ca/englishliterature/back-matter/appendix-5-writing-an-analysis-of-a-poem-story-and-play/

Literary Analysis

The challenges of writing about english literature.

Writing begins with the act of reading . While this statement is true for most college papers, strong English papers tend to be the product of highly attentive reading (and rereading). When your instructors ask you to do a “close reading,” they are asking you to read not only for content, but also for structures and patterns. When you perform a close reading, then, you observe how form and content interact. In some cases, form reinforces content: for example, in John Donne’s Holy Sonnet 14, where the speaker invites God’s “force” “to break, blow, burn and make [him] new.” Here, the stressed monosyllables of the verbs “break,” “blow” and “burn” evoke aurally the force that the speaker invites from God. In other cases, form raises questions about content: for example, a repeated denial of guilt will likely raise questions about the speaker’s professed innocence. When you close read, take an inductive approach. Start by observing particular details in the text, such as a repeated image or word, an unexpected development, or even a contradiction. Often, a detail–such as a repeated image–can help you to identify a question about the text that warrants further examination. So annotate details that strike you as you read. Some of those details will eventually help you to work towards a thesis. And don’t worry if a detail seems trivial. If you can make a case about how an apparently trivial detail reveals something significant about the text, then your paper will have a thought-provoking thesis to argue.

Common Types of English Papers Many assignments will ask you to analyze a single text. Others, however, will ask you to read two or more texts in relation to each other, or to consider a text in light of claims made by other scholars and critics. For most assignments, close reading will be central to your paper. While some assignment guidelines will suggest topics and spell out expectations in detail, others will offer little more than a page limit. Approaching the writing process in the absence of assigned topics can be daunting, but remember that you have resources: in section, you will probably have encountered some examples of close reading; in lecture, you will have encountered some of the course’s central questions and claims. The paper is a chance for you to extend a claim offered in lecture, or to analyze a passage neglected in lecture. In either case, your analysis should do more than recapitulate claims aired in lecture and section. Because different instructors have different goals for an assignment, you should always ask your professor or TF if you have questions. These general guidelines should apply in most cases:

• A close reading of a single text: Depending on the length of the text, you will need to be more or less selective about what you choose to consider. In the case of a sonnet, you will probably have enough room to analyze the text more thoroughly than you would in the case of a novel, for example, though even here you will probably not analyze every single detail. By contrast, in the case of a novel, you might analyze a repeated scene, image, or object (for example, scenes of train travel, images of decay, or objects such as or typewriters). Alternately, you might analyze a perplexing scene (such as a novel’s ending, albeit probably in relation to an earlier moment in the novel). But even when analyzing shorter works, you will need to be selective. Although you might notice numerous interesting details as you read, not all of those details will help you to organize a focused argument about the text. For example, if you are focusing on depictions of sensory experience in Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale,” you probably do not need to analyze the image of a homeless Ruth in stanza 7, unless this image helps you to develop your case about sensory experience in the poem.
• A theoretically-informed close reading. In some courses, you will be asked to analyze a poem, a play, or a novel by using a critical theory (psychoanalytic, postcolonial, gender, etc). For example, you might use Kristeva’s theory of abjection to analyze mother-daughter relations in Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved. Critical theories provide focus for your analysis; if “abjection” is the guiding concept for your paper, you should focus on the scenes in the novel that are most relevant to the concept.
• A historically-informed close reading. In courses with a historicist orientation, you might use less self-consciously literary documents, such as newspapers or devotional manuals, to develop your analysis of a literary work. For example, to analyze how Robinson Crusoe makes sense of his island experiences, you might use Puritan tracts that narrate events in terms of how God organizes them. The tracts could help you to show not only how Robinson Crusoe draws on Puritan narrative conventions, but also—more significantly—how the novel revises those conventions.
• A comparison of two texts When analyzing two texts, you might look for unexpected contrasts between apparently similar texts, or unexpected similarities between apparently dissimilar texts, or for how one text revises or transforms the other. Keep in mind that not all of the similarities, differences, and transformations you identify will be relevant to an argument about the relationship between the two texts. As you work towards a thesis, you will need to decide which of those similarities, differences, or transformations to focus on. Moreover, unless instructed otherwise, you do not need to allot equal space to each text (unless this 50/50 allocation serves your thesis well, of course). Often you will find that one text helps to develop your analysis of another text. For example, you might analyze the transformation of Ariel’s song from The Tempest in T. S. Eliot’s poem, The Waste Land. Insofar as this analysis is interested in the afterlife of Ariel’s song in a later poem, you would likely allot more space to analyzing allusions to Ariel’s song in The Waste Land (after initially establishing the song’s significance in Shakespeare’s play, of course).
• A response paper A response paper is a great opportunity to practice your close reading skills without having to develop an entire argument. In most cases, a solid approach is to select a rich passage that rewards analysis (for example, one that depicts an important scene or a recurring image) and close read it. While response papers are a flexible genre, they are not invitations for impressionistic accounts of whether you liked the work or a particular character. Instead, you might use your close reading to raise a question about the text—to open up further investigation, rather than to supply a solution.
• A research paper. In most cases, you will receive guidance from the professor on the scope of the research paper. It is likely that you will be expected to consult sources other than the assigned readings. Hollis is your best bet for book titles, and the MLA bibliography (available through e-resources) for articles. When reading articles, make sure that they have been peer reviewed; you might also ask your TF to recommend reputable journals in the field.

Harvard College Writing Program: https://writingproject.fas.harvard.edu/files/hwp/files/bg_writing_english.pdf

In the same way that we talk with our friends about the latest episode of Game of Thrones or newest Marvel movie, scholars communicate their ideas and interpretations of literature through written literary analysis essays. Literary analysis essays make us better readers of literature.

Only through careful reading and well-argued analysis can we reach new understandings and interpretations of texts that are sometimes hundreds of years old. Literary analysis brings new meaning and can shed new light on texts. Building from careful reading and selecting a topic that you are genuinely interested in, your argument supports how you read and understand a text. Using examples from the text you are discussing in the form of textual evidence further supports your reading. Well-researched literary analysis also includes information about what other scholars have written about a specific text or topic.

Literary analysis helps us to refine our ideas, question what we think we know, and often generates new knowledge about literature. Literary analysis essays allow you to discuss your own interpretation of a given text through careful examination of the choices the original author made in the text.

ENG134 – Literary Genres Copyright © by The American Women's College and Jessica Egan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

Poem Analysis Essay Guide: Outline, Template, Structure

Poetry analysis, which is similar to poetry review, involves analyzing the language and figures of speech used by a poet. It also entails sharing personal views regarding the poem and breaking down the poetic instruments utilized by the said poet. However, it’s not just about the words used (Headrick, 2014). It entails reading between the lines and understanding what made the poet come up with a particular poem. So it may require some background research on the author and history behind the creation of the poem.

Do not worry; we can take care of your academic needs! If you do not have enough time to complete the assignment, get help from EssayService. Our " pay for essay " service has vast experience with this type of work. We have a wide range of free guides and blogs to help you so that you will have more time for the important things.

What Is A Poetry Analysis?

Poetry analysis may define as a critical review given on a poem, a reflection on the depth and gravity of a poem. It revolves around multiple aspects of a poem starting from the subject of a poem, its theme (meaning), tone, literary devices or speech figures, form to the feeling of the poet to how a reader feels about the poem. It is not only the analysis of techniques used in a poem, but poetry analysis provides a broader and wider picture of the poem, its reality, its hidden meanings between the lines, a study of poet’s mind, feeling and intention behind a poem. Different techniques used in poetry analysis are helpful tools in investigating and reviewing the poem. Behind every review or analysis vital research on poet (author), era (time frame), possible reasons, the background behind the conceptualization poem is vital.

If you have been asked to write a poem analysis essay, then it means to examine the piece and further dissect it into key elements including its form, techniques used and historical value. Then further appreciating the poem and highlighting to others these points, and gaining a better understanding.

It is also important to show as many ideas as possible that relate to the poem and then create conclusions on this.

To start writing a poetry analysis essay let's look at the prewriting stage.

How to Choose a Topic for a Poetry Analysis Essay?

• In the subject of the poem we mainly focus on the reasons such as why is the poem written or what is it all about?
• What is the context, the central content of the poem?
• Who wrote the poem and why?
• When and where the poet did write the poem, what or who has influenced the poet and what are the key features of the poem?

A topic should be chosen based on the theme you want to write. The theme is the message that the poem is trying to convey. You need to look therefore for concepts and notions that pop up in the poem and come up with an appropriate theme based on those perceptions or "feelings". If you can’t still figure out what topic you should choose for your analysis, it is recommended that you go through other poems similar poems and get a suitable topic for your analysis. Don’t also forget to cite your poem well. And also use in-text citations while quoting from the poem.

Poem Analysis Essay Outline

To create a good essay, it is needed to plan out the structure of a poem analysis essay so the writing stage will be easier and faster.

Here is an outline of a poem analysis essay to use:

Opening paragraph - Introduce the Poem, title, author and background.

Body of text - Make most of the analysis, linking ideas and referencing to the poem.

Conclusion - State one main idea, feelings and meanings.

Poem Analysis Essay Introduction

To start an introduction to a poem analysis essay, include the name of the poem and the author . Other details like the date of when it was published can also be stated. Then some background information and interesting facts or trivia regarding the poem or author can also be included here.

Poem Analysis Essay Body

When writing the main body of text keep in mind you have to reference all ideas to the poem so include a quotation to back up the sentence, otherwise, it will be a wasted comparison and not count. Be clear with your statements.

Poem Analysis Essay Conclusion

Now, this is where you should take a step back from analyzing the individual elements of the poem and work out its meaning as a whole. Combine the different elements of the analysis and put forward one main idea.

What is the poet trying to say, and how is it enforced and with what feeling? Then look at the meaning and what timeframe does this evolve over?

For example, is it obvious from the start, or does it gradually change towards the end? The last few lines can be very significant within a poem and so should be included in the poem analysis essay conclusion and commented on the impact on the piece.

Remember that you can always send us a " write an essay for me " text and have your assignment done for you.

How to Analyze a Poem?

Before even thinking about your first draft, read the poem as much as possible. If it's possible, listen to it in the original form. This depends on many factors which include if the poet is still alive?

Also reading aloud can help identify other characteristics that could be missed and even to a friend or colleague will give a chance to more insight. It is important to remember that poetry is a form of art painted with only words, this said it could take time to fully appreciate the piece. So take note of any first thoughts you have about the poem, even if they are negative.

Your opinions can change over time but still mark these first thoughts down.

So that to analyze a poem properly, you have to pay attention to the following aspects:

Title of the Poem

So let's go deeper into the poem analysis essay and look at the title. The poet may have spent a lot of time thinking about naming the piece so what can be observed from this and what further questions can be asked?

• What are your expectations? For example, the poem could be titled “Alone” written by Edgar Allan Poe and from this it is natural to assume it will be sad. After reading further does the reality turn out to be different?
• What is the literature style used? So for example, the work could be called “His last sonnet” by John Keats. From appearance, it is possible to deduce that it could be in sonnet form and if not why did the poet choose to mislead the audience?
• What is the poem about? In the poem, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways” by Elizabeth Barrett, it already states what could be included and what to expect but if it differs from the title what would this suggest?

Literal Meaning of the Poetry

According to our  to fully appreciate a piece, it is needed to understand all the words used. So, for example, get a good dictionary and look up all the unknown words. Then go through partly known words and phrases and check these too. Also, maybe check the meaning of words that are used a lot, but remember some text may have had a different meaning a century ago, so use the internet to look up anything that is not clear. Furthermore, people and places and any cultural relevance of the time should be researched too to get a deeper look at the poet's attitude towards the piece. Patterns might become visible at this point and maybe the theme of the poem.

Structure of the Poem

When looking at the structure of the piece this will reveal more information so pay close attention to this. Look at the organization and sections, this will unlock more questions:

• What does each part discuss?
• How do the parts relate to each other?
• Can you see formal separations?
• What logical sense does it have?
• Is there emotional sense that can be evaluated?
• Does having a strict format say anything about the poet?
• Also failing to have a strict structure does this reveal something?

Once you have observed the structure, it is possible to go deeper into the poem analysis essay and investigate how the speaker communicates the poem to the reader.

Tone and Intonation of the Poetry

So now it is possible to look at the poet and see what details can be obtained from them. Is it possible to see the gender or age of the speaker? Is there some race or religious references to pick up on? Then can we see if the speaker is directly communicating their thoughts and ideas to the reader? If not, what is the character the poet has created to convey the ideas or messages? Does the poet's persona differ to the character created and what can be analyzed from this? Also the mood of the speaker could be available now, are they happy or sad, and how can you find out this from the poem?

Once the poet is understood it is possible to move onto who or what the poem is designed for. Then you can see the purpose of the poetry, what does the poet want from the reader? It is also possible that the poet does not desire a response from the audience and is simply making a statement or expressing themselves.

For example, a poem about spring could just be a happy statement that winter has ended. Looking from the other side, this could be an attempt to attract someone's attention or maybe just an instruction to plow the field.

Purpose of the Poem

The subject of the poem can help identify the purpose, as this usually will be what the poet is describing. Then the theme can be identified also, and what does it say about the work? Are there any links between the theme and the subject and what can analyzed from that? The timeframe is also an important factor to consider, for example, the poet's goal back when it was written, may have changed and why? Furthermore, has the original purpose survived the test of time and can it be said to be the best indicator of success?

Language and Imagery of the Poetry

Until this point it was only possible to analyze the literal information available which is the denotative meaning.’ Now let's look at the imagery, symbolism and figures of speech, this is the connotative meaning.

This is where you should look for pictures described within the text and analyze why they have been depicted? So for example, if the poet thas decided to describe the moon this could set the time in the work or maybe the mood of the poem. Also look for groups of images described and patterns within this, what can be deducted from that?

So when looking for symbolism within the text this could be an event or physical object, including people and places that represent non-physical entities like an emotion or concept. For example, a bird flying through the air can be seen as freedom and escaping usual conforms.

Poetic devices

In your analysis you will look at techniques like metaphors, similes, personification and alliteration to include just a few. It's important to identify the actual device used and why it was chosen. For example, when comparing something within the text using a metaphor then look at how they are connected and in what way they are expressed? Try to use all available clues to gain better insight into the mind of the poet.

Music of the Poem

Poetry and music have deep connections and can be compared together due to the history and uses throughout the ages.

Here are some things to look out for to help with those comparisons:

• Meter - This can be available to investigate in different ways, for example, iambic pentameter has a strict five beats per line just like a musical score if used what does it say?
• Rhythm - Just like with music, poem can have a rhythm but if there is no given meter, it is needed to look closer and observe what this does to the work. For example, a particular beat that is fast could make the poem happy.
• Special effects - Looking for not so obvious signs where the poet has written in a way so you take longer to pronounce words. Also it is possible to grab your attention in other ways, for what reason has the writer done that?
• Rhyme - There are many different types of rhyming techniques used within poetry, once identified look at how it impacts on the work like make it humorous for example? Be careful to look for unusual patterns for example rhymes within the lines and not just at the end of the sentences, even reading out aloud might help find these and then what does it this say about the poem?
• Sound effects - The depiction of different sounds can be powerful and also using different voices, look at what impact this has on the piece and why?
• Breaking Rules - Rhyme and meter for example can have very specific rules but what if the poet decided to break these conventional techniques and make something new, what does this add to the work and why

How to Write a Poem Analysis Essay?

Below you will find a compelling guide on how to analyze poetry with handy writing tips:

• Choose a suitable poem - If possible, before you start, pick the main subject of your essay, a poem that you would like to analyze. The more you find it interesting, the easier it will be to handle the task.
• Read it fully - If you are wondering how to analyse poetry, the first step you can’t go without is carefully reading the chosen poem multiple times and, preferably, out loud.
• Always double-check the meanings - When reading a poem, don’t forget to check for the meanings of unknown (and known as well) words and phrases.
• Collect all the details you need - To write a compelling essay, you need to study the poem’s structure, contents, main ideas, as well as other background details.
• Explore hidden meanings - When analyzing poem, be sure to look beyond the words. Instead, focus on finding broader, hidden ideas that the author wanted to share through his piece.
• Make an outline - Once you have analyzed poem, outline your essay and write it following the plan.
• Proofread and edit - Finally, once your essay is ready, take your time to revise and polish it carefully.

Poetry Analysis Template

To write a winning poem analysis essay, use the template below or order an essay from our professionals.

Introduction

• Name of Poem
• Name of Poet
• Date of Publication
• Background or any relevant information

Form of poem

• Structure of poem
• Rhyme of poem

Meaning of poem

• Overall meaning
• How can we relate the poem to our life

Poetic Techniques

• Literary devices

Form of the Poem

Poems are written in some ways, here one need to identify which structure the poet has used for the poem. The forms of poems broadly are stanzas, rhythm, punctuation and rhymes. Carefully analyze the length and number of stanzas , does the rhythm impacts the meaning of the poem, is there many punctuations or little, either the rhyme is consistent, or it’s breaking and what is the rhyme contributing to the meaning of the poem or is it random.

Theme, Meaning or Message of the Poem

In this part, we focus on the topic, main issue or idea of the poem. There are layers of meaning hidden in a poem.

• Meaning: surface meaning that what is actually or physically happening in the poem which a reader can sense.
• Deeper Meaning: the central idea of the poem or what is it actually about.
• Theme: in poetry, there is always a hidden meaning in every line, which depicts the message about life.

Numerous topics can be covered in poems such as love, life, death, birth, nature, memory, war, age, sexuality, experience, religion, race, faith, creator and many others.

Tone of the Poem

The tone of the poem shows attitude or mood of the language used by the poet. Analyze the different shades of the language used in the poem for example; is it formal, judgmental, informal, critical, positive, bitter, reflective, solemn, frustrated, optimistic, ironic, scornful, regretful or morbid.

Literary Device used in the Poem

Find out what the different literary devices are or what sort of figures of speech is used by the poet . Analyze these techniques and suggest their use in the poem by the poet. The poem can contain a symbol, similes, metaphor, alliteration, allegories, oxymoron, assonances, dissonances, repetition, hyperbole, irony.

Conclusion or Feel of the Poem

Lastly, analyze the emotions and feelings linked with the poem; of the poet and what do you feel when you read the poem. This is the very critical part of reviewing a poem because we analyze the inner depth of the poem, the intention & feelings of the poet, the targeted audience, does the poem reflect the poet’s persona, perspective or it does not match with the poet.

Poetry Analysis Essay Example

Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe’s Poem “Annabel Lee”

Written in 1849 and first published after the author’s death, Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe is a beautiful story of true love that goes beyond life. In the poem, the author is commemorating the girl named Annabel Lee, whom he knew since childhood. Despite the young age, the love between the narrator and Annabel was so deep and true that even angels were jealous, and, according to Edgar Allan Poe, their jealousy was so severe that they killed the love of his life. The poem ends with young Annabel Lee being buried in a tomb, leaving the readers with a feeling that the author kept holding on to his love for her for many years after her death.

The two evident topics in the poem are love and loss. The entire narration revolves around the author’s agonizing memory, at the same time demonstrating to the readers the purity and power of true love that makes him cherish the memory of his beloved one even after she is gone. Apart from that, Edgar Allan Poe also discusses such issues of love as jealousy and envy. The author states that the love of the two teens was so strong that even angels in heaven were not half as happy as Annabel and Edgar, which caused them to invade the teens’ romantic “kingdom by the sea” and kill the girl.

The topics discussed in the poem, as well as the style of narration itself, give the poem a very romantic atmosphere. It follows the main principles of the romantic era in poetry in the 18th and 19th centuries, which Edgar Allan Poe was representing. At the same time, the author also gives his poem a sense of musicality and rhythm. The poem’s rhyme scheme puts emphasis on the words “Lee”, “me”, and “sea”. The repetition of these words gives the poem a song-like sound.

A significant role in Edgar Allan Poe’s poem is played by imagery, which emphasizes the author’s unique style. The main imagery used by Allan Poe in Annabel Lee is the Kingdom. The author uses this imagery to set the right tone for his poem and give it a sort of a fairytale feel. At the same time, this imagery is used to take the reader to a different place, though not specifying what exactly this place is. To confirm this - the author uses the phrase “the kingdom by the sea” multiple times in his piece, never specifying its meaning. This trick enables the readers to leave this to their own imagination.

Apart from the Kingdom, the author also operates with the imagery of angels and demons. The narrator blames them for their envy for their deep love, which resulted in the death of Annable Lee. Thus, the author gives a negative attitude towards this imagery. This brings us to another big topic of good and evil discussed in the poem.

Nevertheless, even though the angels’ intervention seems to be clear to the reader from what the author says, Poe’s choice of words doesn’t directly implicate their responsibility for the girl’s death. The narrator blames everybody for his loss. However, he does this in a very tactical and covert way.

In conclusion, it becomes clear that the narrator in Annabel Lee did not only pursue a goal to share his pain and loss. He also emphasizes that true love is everlasting by stating that his love for the gone girl lives with him after all these years. With all its deep topics, imagery, and musicality, Annabel Lee is now considered one of the best works by Edgar Allan Poe.

Frequently asked questions

She was flawless! first time using a website like this, I've ordered article review and i totally adored it! grammar punctuation, content - everything was on point

This writer is my go to, because whenever I need someone who I can trust my task to - I hire Joy. She wrote almost every paper for me for the last 2 years

Term paper done up to a highest standard, no revisions, perfect communication. 10s across the board!!!!!!!

I send him instructions and that's it. my paper was done 10 hours later, no stupid questions, he nailed it.

Sometimes I wonder if Michael is secretly a professor because he literally knows everything. HE DID SO WELL THAT MY PROF SHOWED MY PAPER AS AN EXAMPLE. unbelievable, many thanks

You Might Also Like

New Posts to Your Inbox!

Stay in touch

How to Write a Poem Analysis in 4 Steps

This post may contains affiliate links. If you click and buy we may make a commission, at no additional charge to you. Please see our disclosure policy for more details.

Poetry is a form of writing that touches a reader’s soul and evokes many emotions. The poet beautifully expresses a story or thought in a few lines that convey deep meanings.

People who love to read poetry prefer to research and write an in-depth analysis of the written piece to understand the whole idea behind the poem.

However, there is a process to write an analysis of a poem.

If you are wondering how to write a poem analysis, then you are in the right place. This article will discuss the necessary things to consider while analyzing a poem and list the 4 essential steps to follow to write a poetry analysis.

Check out the post to learn more.

Table of Contents

What is Poetry Analysis?

In literature, poetry is a type of writing that uses style, sound, and rhythm to stir a reader’s emotions, ideas, and imagination.

Poetry analysis is the process of decoding a poem to understand the overall message it is trying to convey. It includes examining the elements, word usage, content, format, tone, etc.

Analyzing a poem helps to comprehend the written piece, its context, themes, and ideas. Interpreting the poem leads to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the written work.

This type of writing explores ideas universally and covers many emotions so the readers become aware of their own sentiments and feel a more profound connection

How to Analyze a Poem?

Before you begin writing a poetry analysis, you need to know how to analyze a poem. You must thoroughly decipher the entire poem for an in-depth understanding of the subject and its background details.

The very first step is to read the poem aloud. Read it slowly and carefully.

I have listed some of the mandatory things to take into consideration for writing a well-articulated poem analysis essay.

Title of the Poem

Most poems have a dedicated title, and you must start from here. A poet chooses a title that aligns with the inner meaning of the poem, and decoding the connection will help to understand the overall message.

The title might tell the basic idea of the poem, so always look for a relation between the title and the content of the written work. You can find the hidden inner meanings.

Although a few poets play with the name of the poem, so ensure to catch the intention.

Background of the Poem

A thorough analysis of a poem needs a background study. The written work must have some story behind its creation, and determining it can help to understand the poem in detail.

Background study includes the period when the poem was written, the topic it is discussing, the author’s story or situation at that time, the motivation behind it, etc.

Maybe the poet was suffering and wrote a poem related to his experience, or he particularly wrote about world issues, war, or love.

This research will give you an idea about the poet’s intent and the poem’s overall meaning.

Structure of the Poem

The structure of the poem is also essential. The components of a structure are verse, rhyme, meter, and line break. Each poem has these elements in a different style.

The author decides the poem’s structure. A poem analysis includes an explanation of the structure, so it is necessary to understand the types before analyzing.

The tone of poems differs according to the mood or intention of the poets. Its analysis depends on the speaker and the recipient..

Language and Symbols

Poets use figurative language, symbols, and other techniques to make a poem more imaginative and descriptive.

Using metaphor, simile, personification, etc., is a way to make the poem realistic and give it an in-depth meaning so that readers can relate to it personally.

Various language forms and symbols convey intricate thoughts and experiences. The reader must know about these forms and techniques to understand the meaning in detail.

In poetic terms, music means the rhyme and rhythm of the written piece. All components of a poem, such as rhyme, line breaks, meter, rhythm, sound elements, words, etc., contribute together to give the poem a music of its own.

Observe these elements while analyzing to get a vision of the written work.

Purpose of the Poem

You cannot leave the motive behind writing a poem. Every piece is written for a particular purpose; as a reader, you must learn to find it.

The purpose of a poem can be to discuss societal issues, share life experiences, express deep emotions, and more. Reading and understanding the purpose will help to enhance the analysis.

How to Write a Poem Analysis in 4 Simple Steps

After analyzing the poem, you can now easily write a poem analysis. Following a structure will help to write a well-organized and detailed essay. Check out the 4 steps provided below for writing a poem analysis.

• Step 1 : Read the poem
• Step 2 : Analyze the poem thoroughly and note the necessary details
• Title and Author
• A thesis statement. Key elements to be analyzed
• Background and theme
• Detailed meaning of the poem
• Structure and Tone 
• Language forms
• Symbols 
• Sound Effects
• Step 4 : Rectify any errors

Following these steps, you can write a good poetry analysis; however, adding your personal opinion about the poem is essential.

I hope this article on how to write a poem analysis will help you to create a well-detailed analysis of your favorite poem. 

Poems are a beautiful way to express emotions, and as readers, we enjoy reading beautiful poetry from famous poets. 

What is your favorite poem?

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Writing About Poetry

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

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 .

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!

Interested in a school license?​

Popular posts.

AP® Score Calculators

Simulate how different MCQ and FRQ scores translate into AP® scores

AP® Review Guides

The ultimate review guides for AP® subjects to help you plan and structure your prep.

Core Subject Review Guides

Review the most important topics in Physics and Algebra 1 .

SAT® Score Calculator

See how scores on each section impacts your overall SAT® score

ACT® Score Calculator

See how scores on each section impacts your overall ACT® score

Grammar Review Hub

Comprehensive review of grammar skills

AP® Posters

Download updated posters summarizing the main topics and structure for each AP® exam.

beginner's guide to literary analysis

Understanding literature & how to write literary analysis.

Literary analysis is the foundation of every college and high school English class. Once you can comprehend written work and respond to it, the next step is to learn how to think critically and complexly about a work of literature in order to analyze its elements and establish ideas about its meaning.

If that sounds daunting, it shouldn’t. Literary analysis is really just a way of thinking creatively about what you read. The practice takes you beyond the storyline and into the motives behind it. 

While an author might have had a specific intention when they wrote their book, there’s still no right or wrong way to analyze a literary text—just your way. You can use literary theories, which act as “lenses” through which you can view a text. Or you can use your own creativity and critical thinking to identify a literary device or pattern in a text and weave that insight into your own argument about the text’s underlying meaning. 

Now, if that sounds fun, it should , because it is. Here, we’ll lay the groundwork for performing literary analysis, including when writing analytical essays, to help you read books like a critic. 

What Is Literary Analysis?

As the name suggests, literary analysis is an analysis of a work, whether that’s a novel, play, short story, or poem. Any analysis requires breaking the content into its component parts and then examining how those parts operate independently and as a whole. In literary analysis, those parts can be different devices and elements—such as plot, setting, themes, symbols, etcetera—as well as elements of style, like point of view or tone. 

When performing analysis, you consider some of these different elements of the text and then form an argument for why the author chose to use them. You can do so while reading and during class discussion, but it’s particularly important when writing essays. 

Literary analysis is notably distinct from summary. When you write a summary , you efficiently describe the work’s main ideas or plot points in order to establish an overview of the work. While you might use elements of summary when writing analysis, you should do so minimally. You can reference a plot line to make a point, but it should be done so quickly so you can focus on why that plot line matters . In summary (see what we did there?), a summary focuses on the “ what ” of a text, while analysis turns attention to the “ how ” and “ why .”

While literary analysis can be broad, covering themes across an entire work, it can also be very specific, and sometimes the best analysis is just that. Literary critics have written thousands of words about the meaning of an author’s single word choice; while you might not want to be quite that particular, there’s a lot to be said for digging deep in literary analysis, rather than wide. 

Although you’re forming your own argument about the work, it’s not your opinion . You should avoid passing judgment on the piece and instead objectively consider what the author intended, how they went about executing it, and whether or not they were successful in doing so. Literary criticism is similar to literary analysis, but it is different in that it does pass judgement on the work. Criticism can also consider literature more broadly, without focusing on a singular work. 

Once you understand what constitutes (and doesn’t constitute) literary analysis, it’s easy to identify it. Here are some examples of literary analysis and its oft-confused counterparts: 

Summary: In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the narrator visits his friend Roderick Usher and witnesses his sister escape a horrible fate.  

Opinion: In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Poe uses his great Gothic writing to establish a sense of spookiness that is enjoyable to read. 

Literary Analysis: “Throughout ‘The Fall of the House of Usher,’ Poe foreshadows the fate of Madeline by creating a sense of claustrophobia for the reader through symbols, such as in the narrator’s inability to leave and the labyrinthine nature of the house. 

In summary, literary analysis is:

• Breaking a work into its components
• Identifying what those components are and how they work in the text
• Developing an understanding of how they work together to achieve a goal 
• Not an opinion, but subjective 
• Not a summary, though summary can be used in passing 
• Best when it deeply, rather than broadly, analyzes a literary element

Literary Analysis and Other Works

As discussed above, literary analysis is often performed upon a single work—but it doesn’t have to be. It can also be performed across works to consider the interplay of two or more texts. Regardless of whether or not the works were written about the same thing, or even within the same time period, they can have an influence on one another or a connection that’s worth exploring. And reading two or more texts side by side can help you to develop insights through comparison and contrast.

For example, Paradise Lost is an epic poem written in the 17th century, based largely on biblical narratives written some 700 years before and which later influenced 19th century poet John Keats. The interplay of works can be obvious, as here, or entirely the inspiration of the analyst. As an example of the latter, you could compare and contrast the writing styles of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Edgar Allan Poe who, while contemporaries in terms of time, were vastly different in their content. 

Additionally, literary analysis can be performed between a work and its context. Authors are often speaking to the larger context of their times, be that social, political, religious, economic, or artistic. A valid and interesting form is to compare the author’s context to the work, which is done by identifying and analyzing elements that are used to make an argument about the writer’s time or experience. 

For example, you could write an essay about how Hemingway’s struggles with mental health and paranoia influenced his later work, or how his involvement in the Spanish Civil War influenced his early work. One approach focuses more on his personal experience, while the other turns to the context of his times—both are valid. 

Why Does Literary Analysis Matter? 

Sometimes an author wrote a work of literature strictly for entertainment’s sake, but more often than not, they meant something more. Whether that was a missive on world peace, commentary about femininity, or an allusion to their experience as an only child, the author probably wrote their work for a reason, and understanding that reason—or the many reasons—can actually make reading a lot more meaningful. 

Performing literary analysis as a form of study unquestionably makes you a better reader. It’s also likely that it will improve other skills, too, like critical thinking, creativity, debate, and reasoning. 

At its grandest and most idealistic, literary analysis even has the ability to make the world a better place. By reading and analyzing works of literature, you are able to more fully comprehend the perspectives of others. Cumulatively, you’ll broaden your own perspectives and contribute more effectively to the things that matter to you. 

Literary Terms to Know for Literary Analysis 

There are hundreds of literary devices you could consider during your literary analysis, but there are some key tools most writers utilize to achieve their purpose—and therefore you need to know in order to understand that purpose. These common devices include: 

• Characters: The people (or entities) who play roles in the work. The protagonist is the main character in the work. 
• Conflict: The conflict is the driving force behind the plot, the event that causes action in the narrative, usually on the part of the protagonist
• Context : The broader circumstances surrounding the work political and social climate in which it was written or the experience of the author. It can also refer to internal context, and the details presented by the narrator 
• Diction : The word choice used by the narrator or characters 
• Genre: A category of literature characterized by agreed upon similarities in the works, such as subject matter and tone
• Imagery : The descriptive or figurative language used to paint a picture in the reader’s mind so they can picture the story’s plot, characters, and setting 
• Metaphor: A figure of speech that uses comparison between two unlike objects for dramatic or poetic effect
• Narrator: The person who tells the story. Sometimes they are a character within the story, but sometimes they are omniscient and removed from the plot. 
• Plot : The storyline of the work
• Point of view: The perspective taken by the narrator, which skews the perspective of the reader 
• Setting : The time and place in which the story takes place. This can include elements like the time period, weather, time of year or day, and social or economic conditions 
• Symbol : An object, person, or place that represents an abstract idea that is greater than its literal meaning 
• Syntax : The structure of a sentence, either narration or dialogue, and the tone it implies
• Theme : A recurring subject or message within the work, often commentary on larger societal or cultural ideas
• Tone : The feeling, attitude, or mood the text presents

How to Perform Literary Analysis

Step 1: read the text thoroughly.

Literary analysis begins with the literature itself, which means performing a close reading of the text. As you read, you should focus on the work. That means putting away distractions (sorry, smartphone) and dedicating a period of time to the task at hand. 

It’s also important that you don’t skim or speed read. While those are helpful skills, they don’t apply to literary analysis—or at least not this stage. 

Step 2: Take Notes as You Read  

As you read the work, take notes about different literary elements and devices that stand out to you. Whether you highlight or underline in text, use sticky note tabs to mark pages and passages, or handwrite your thoughts in a notebook, you should capture your thoughts and the parts of the text to which they correspond. This—the act of noticing things about a literary work—is literary analysis. 

Step 3: Notice Patterns 

As you read the work, you’ll begin to notice patterns in the way the author deploys language, themes, and symbols to build their plot and characters. As you read and these patterns take shape, begin to consider what they could mean and how they might fit together. 

As you identify these patterns, as well as other elements that catch your interest, be sure to record them in your notes or text. Some examples include: 

• Circle or underline words or terms that you notice the author uses frequently, whether those are nouns (like “eyes” or “road”) or adjectives (like “yellow” or “lush”).
• Highlight phrases that give you the same kind of feeling. For example, if the narrator describes an “overcast sky,” a “dreary morning,” and a “dark, quiet room,” the words aren’t the same, but the feeling they impart and setting they develop are similar. 
• Underline quotes or prose that define a character’s personality or their role in the text.
• Use sticky tabs to color code different elements of the text, such as specific settings or a shift in the point of view. 

By noting these patterns, comprehensive symbols, metaphors, and ideas will begin to come into focus.  

Step 4: Consider the Work as a Whole, and Ask Questions

This is a step that you can do either as you read, or after you finish the text. The point is to begin to identify the aspects of the work that most interest you, and you could therefore analyze in writing or discussion. 

Questions you could ask yourself include: 

• What aspects of the text do I not understand?
• What parts of the narrative or writing struck me most?
• What patterns did I notice?
• What did the author accomplish really well?
• What did I find lacking?
• Did I notice any contradictions or anything that felt out of place?  
• What was the purpose of the minor characters?
• What tone did the author choose, and why? 

The answers to these and more questions will lead you to your arguments about the text. 

Step 5: Return to Your Notes and the Text for Evidence

As you identify the argument you want to make (especially if you’re preparing for an essay), return to your notes to see if you already have supporting evidence for your argument. That’s why it’s so important to take notes or mark passages as you read—you’ll thank yourself later!

If you’re preparing to write an essay, you’ll use these passages and ideas to bolster your argument—aka, your thesis. There will likely be multiple different passages you can use to strengthen multiple different aspects of your argument. Just be sure to cite the text correctly! 

If you’re preparing for class, your notes will also be invaluable. When your teacher or professor leads the conversation in the direction of your ideas or arguments, you’ll be able to not only proffer that idea but back it up with textual evidence. That’s an A+ in class participation. 

Step 6: Connect These Ideas Across the Narrative

Whether you’re in class or writing an essay, literary analysis isn’t complete until you’ve considered the way these ideas interact and contribute to the work as a whole. You can find and present evidence, but you still have to explain how those elements work together and make up your argument. 

How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay

When conducting literary analysis while reading a text or discussing it in class, you can pivot easily from one argument to another (or even switch sides if a classmate or teacher makes a compelling enough argument). 

But when writing literary analysis, your objective is to propose a specific, arguable thesis and convincingly defend it. In order to do so, you need to fortify your argument with evidence from the text (and perhaps secondary sources) and an authoritative tone. 

A successful literary analysis essay depends equally on a thoughtful thesis, supportive analysis, and presenting these elements masterfully. We’ll review how to accomplish these objectives below. 

Step 1: Read the Text. Maybe Read It Again. 

Constructing an astute analytical essay requires a thorough knowledge of the text. As you read, be sure to note any passages, quotes, or ideas that stand out. These could serve as the future foundation of your thesis statement. Noting these sections now will help you when you need to gather evidence. 

The more familiar you become with the text, the better (and easier!) your essay will be. Familiarity with the text allows you to speak (or in this case, write) to it confidently. If you only skim the book, your lack of rich understanding will be evident in your essay. Alternatively, if you read the text closely—especially if you read it more than once, or at least carefully revisit important passages—your own writing will be filled with insight that goes beyond a basic understanding of the storyline. 

Step 2: Brainstorm Potential Topics 

Because you took detailed notes while reading the text, you should have a list of potential topics at the ready. Take time to review your notes, highlighting any ideas or questions you had that feel interesting. You should also return to the text and look for any passages that stand out to you. 

When considering potential topics, you should prioritize ideas that you find interesting. It won’t only make the whole process of writing an essay more fun, your enthusiasm for the topic will probably improve the quality of your argument, and maybe even your writing. Just like it’s obvious when a topic interests you in a conversation, it’s obvious when a topic interests the writer of an essay (and even more obvious when it doesn’t). 

Your topic ideas should also be specific, unique, and arguable. A good way to think of topics is that they’re the answer to fairly specific questions. As you begin to brainstorm, first think of questions you have about the text. Questions might focus on the plot, such as: Why did the author choose to deviate from the projected storyline? Or why did a character’s role in the narrative shift? Questions might also consider the use of a literary device, such as: Why does the narrator frequently repeat a phrase or comment on a symbol? Or why did the author choose to switch points of view each chapter? 

Once you have a thesis question , you can begin brainstorming answers—aka, potential thesis statements . At this point, your answers can be fairly broad. Once you land on a question-statement combination that feels right, you’ll then look for evidence in the text that supports your answer (and helps you define and narrow your thesis statement). 

For example, after reading “ The Fall of the House of Usher ,” you might be wondering, Why are Roderick and Madeline twins?, Or even: Why does their relationship feel so creepy?” Maybe you noticed (and noted) that the narrator was surprised to find out they were twins, or perhaps you found that the narrator’s tone tended to shift and become more anxious when discussing the interactions of the twins.

Once you come up with your thesis question, you can identify a broad answer, which will become the basis for your thesis statement. In response to the questions above, your answer might be, “Poe emphasizes the close relationship of Roderick and Madeline to foreshadow that their deaths will be close, too.” 

Step 3: Gather Evidence 

Once you have your topic (or you’ve narrowed it down to two or three), return to the text (yes, again) to see what evidence you can find to support it. If you’re thinking of writing about the relationship between Roderick and Madeline in “The Fall of the House of Usher,” look for instances where they engaged in the text. 

This is when your knowledge of literary devices comes in clutch. Carefully study the language around each event in the text that might be relevant to your topic. How does Poe’s diction or syntax change during the interactions of the siblings? How does the setting reflect or contribute to their relationship? What imagery or symbols appear when Roderick and Madeline are together? 

By finding and studying evidence within the text, you’ll strengthen your topic argument—or, just as valuably, discount the topics that aren’t strong enough for analysis. 

Step 4: Consider Secondary Sources 

In addition to returning to the literary work you’re studying for evidence, you can also consider secondary sources that reference or speak to the work. These can be articles from journals you find on JSTOR, books that consider the work or its context, or articles your teacher shared in class. 

While you can use these secondary sources to further support your idea, you should not overuse them. Make sure your topic remains entirely differentiated from that presented in the source. 

Step 5: Write a Working Thesis Statement

Once you’ve gathered evidence and narrowed down your topic, you’re ready to refine that topic into a thesis statement. As you continue to outline and write your paper, this thesis statement will likely change slightly, but this initial draft will serve as the foundation of your essay. It’s like your north star: Everything you write in your essay is leading you back to your thesis. 

Writing a great thesis statement requires some real finesse. A successful thesis statement is: 

• Debatable : You shouldn’t simply summarize or make an obvious statement about the work. Instead, your thesis statement should take a stand on an issue or make a claim that is open to argument. You’ll spend your essay debating—and proving—your argument. 
• Demonstrable : You need to be able to prove, through evidence, that your thesis statement is true. That means you have to have passages from the text and correlative analysis ready to convince the reader that you’re right. 
• Specific : In most cases, successfully addressing a theme that encompasses a work in its entirety would require a book-length essay. Instead, identify a thesis statement that addresses specific elements of the work, such as a relationship between characters, a repeating symbol, a key setting, or even something really specific like the speaking style of a character. 

Example: By depicting the relationship between Roderick and Madeline to be stifling and almost otherworldly in its closeness, Poe foreshadows both Madeline’s fate and Roderick’s inability to choose a different fate for himself. 

Step 6: Write an Outline 

You have your thesis, you have your evidence—but how do you put them together? A great thesis statement (and therefore a great essay) will have multiple arguments supporting it, presenting different kinds of evidence that all contribute to the singular, main idea presented in your thesis. 

Review your evidence and identify these different arguments, then organize the evidence into categories based on the argument they support. These ideas and evidence will become the body paragraphs of your essay. 

For example, if you were writing about Roderick and Madeline as in the example above, you would pull evidence from the text, such as the narrator’s realization of their relationship as twins; examples where the narrator’s tone of voice shifts when discussing their relationship; imagery, like the sounds Roderick hears as Madeline tries to escape; and Poe’s tendency to use doubles and twins in his other writings to create the same spooky effect. All of these are separate strains of the same argument, and can be clearly organized into sections of an outline. 

Step 7: Write Your Introduction

Your introduction serves a few very important purposes that essentially set the scene for the reader: 

• Establish context. Sure, your reader has probably read the work. But you still want to remind them of the scene, characters, or elements you’ll be discussing. 
• Present your thesis statement. Your thesis statement is the backbone of your analytical paper. You need to present it clearly at the outset so that the reader understands what every argument you make is aimed at. 
• Offer a mini-outline. While you don’t want to show all your cards just yet, you do want to preview some of the evidence you’ll be using to support your thesis so that the reader has a roadmap of where they’re going. 

Step 8: Write Your Body Paragraphs

Thanks to steps one through seven, you’ve already set yourself up for success. You have clearly outlined arguments and evidence to support them. Now it’s time to translate those into authoritative and confident prose. 

When presenting each idea, begin with a topic sentence that encapsulates the argument you’re about to make (sort of like a mini-thesis statement). Then present your evidence and explanations of that evidence that contribute to that argument. Present enough material to prove your point, but don’t feel like you necessarily have to point out every single instance in the text where this element takes place. For example, if you’re highlighting a symbol that repeats throughout the narrative, choose two or three passages where it is used most effectively, rather than trying to squeeze in all ten times it appears. 

While you should have clearly defined arguments, the essay should still move logically and fluidly from one argument to the next. Try to avoid choppy paragraphs that feel disjointed; every idea and argument should feel connected to the last, and, as a group, connected to your thesis. A great way to connect the ideas from one paragraph to the next is with transition words and phrases, such as: 

• Furthermore 
• In addition
• On the other hand
• Conversely 

Step 9: Write Your Conclusion 

Your conclusion is more than a summary of your essay's parts, but it’s also not a place to present brand new ideas not already discussed in your essay. Instead, your conclusion should return to your thesis (without repeating it verbatim) and point to why this all matters. If writing about the siblings in “The Fall of the House of Usher,” for example, you could point out that the utilization of twins and doubles is a common literary element of Poe’s work that contributes to the definitive eeriness of Gothic literature. 

While you might speak to larger ideas in your conclusion, be wary of getting too macro. Your conclusion should still be supported by all of the ideas that preceded it. 

Step 10: Revise, Revise, Revise

Of course you should proofread your literary analysis essay before you turn it in. But you should also edit the content to make sure every piece of evidence and every explanation directly supports your thesis as effectively and efficiently as possible. 

Sometimes, this might mean actually adapting your thesis a bit to the rest of your essay. At other times, it means removing redundant examples or paraphrasing quotations. Make sure every sentence is valuable, and remove those that aren’t. 

Other Resources for Literary Analysis 

With these skills and suggestions, you’re well on your way to practicing and writing literary analysis. But if you don’t have a firm grasp on the concepts discussed above—such as literary devices or even the content of the text you’re analyzing—it will still feel difficult to produce insightful analysis. 

If you’d like to sharpen the tools in your literature toolbox, there are plenty of other resources to help you do so: 

• Check out our expansive library of Literary Devices . These could provide you with a deeper understanding of the basic devices discussed above or introduce you to new concepts sure to impress your professors ( anagnorisis , anyone?). 
• This Academic Citation Resource Guide ensures you properly cite any work you reference in your analytical essay. 
• Our English Homework Help Guide will point you to dozens of resources that can help you perform analysis, from critical reading strategies to poetry helpers. 
• This Grammar Education Resource Guide will direct you to plenty of resources to refine your grammar and writing (definitely important for getting an A+ on that paper). 

Of course, you should know the text inside and out before you begin writing your analysis. In order to develop a true understanding of the work, read through its corresponding SuperSummary study guide . Doing so will help you truly comprehend the plot, as well as provide some inspirational ideas for your analysis.

• school Campus Bookshelves
• menu_book Bookshelves
• perm_media Learning Objects
• login Login
• how_to_reg Request Instructor Account
• hub Instructor Commons

Margin Size

• Download Page (PDF)
• Download Full Book (PDF)
• Periodic Table
• Physics Constants
• Scientific Calculator
• Reference & Cite
• Tools expand_more
• Readability

selected template will load here

This action is not available.

6.5: Why Analyze Poetry?

• Last updated
• Save as PDF
• Page ID 40428

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

\( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \)

\( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \)

\( \newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)

( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\)

\( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\)

\( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\)

\( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\)

\( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)

\( \newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\)

\( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\)

\( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\)

\( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\)

\( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\)

\( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\)

\( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\)

\( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\)

\( \newcommand{\vectorA}[1]{\vec{#1}}      % arrow\)

\( \newcommand{\vectorAt}[1]{\vec{\text{#1}}}      % arrow\)

\( \newcommand{\vectorB}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \)

\( \newcommand{\vectorC}[1]{\textbf{#1}} \)

\( \newcommand{\vectorD}[1]{\overrightarrow{#1}} \)

\( \newcommand{\vectorDt}[1]{\overrightarrow{\text{#1}}} \)

\( \newcommand{\vectE}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash{\mathbf {#1}}}} \)

Analyzing Poetry

Image from Pixabay

What is the point of analyzing poetry? One simple answer is that the more we know about anything the more interesting it becomes: listening to music or looking at paintings with someone who can tell us a little about what we hear or see–or what we‘re reading–is one way of increasing our understanding and pleasure. That may mean learning something about the people who produced the writing, music, painting that we are interested in, and why they produced it. But it may also mean understanding why one particular form was chosen rather than another: why, for example, did the poet choose to write a sonnet rather than an ode , a ballad , or a villanelle ? To appreciate the appropriateness of one form, we need to be aware of a range of options available to that particular writer at that particular time. In the same way, we also need to pay attention to word choice. Why was this particular word chosen from a whole range of words that might have said much the same? Looking at manuscript drafts can be really enlightening, showing how much effort was expended in order to find the most appropriate or most evocative expression.

Exercise 6.5.1

Click on the link below to read and compare the two versions of William Blake's "Tyger." The one on the left is a draft, the other is the final published version.

William Blake's "Tyger"

What are the differences between the two versions?

The most obvious difference between the two is that stanza 4 of the draft does not survive in the published version, and an entirely new stanza, "When the stars threw down their spears," appears in the finished poem. Significantly this introduces the idea of "the Lamb," a dramatic contrast to the tiger, as well as the idea of a "he" who made the lamb. One similarity between draft and final version is that each is made up entirely of unanswered questions. But if you look at the manuscript stanza 5, you can see revisions from "What" to "Where," and the struggle with the third line, where Blake eventually decided that the idea of an arm was redundant, subsumed in the notions of grasping and clasping. The two rhyme words are decided–grasp/clasp–but in which order should they come? "Clasp" is a less aggressive word than "grasp"; "clasp" is not quite as gentle as an embrace, but it is closer to embracing than "grasp" is – so it must be for deliberate effect that we end up with "What dread grasp/Dare its deadly terrors clasp?"

It is rare to have manuscript drafts to examine in this way, but I hope that this convinces you of the kind of attention writers pay to word choice.

Let us take one more example. Think about this first stanza of Thomas Hardy's "Neutral Tones" (1867); what do you notice about the word choice in the last line?

We stood by a pond that winter day,

And the sun was white, as though chidden of God,

And a few leaves lay on the starving sod;

– They had fallen from an ash, and were gray.

(Gibson, 1976, p. 12)

Notice that, in the last line, "oak" or "elm" would work just as well as far as the rhythm or music of the line is concerned, but "ash" has extra connotations of greyness, of something burnt out, dead, finished ("ashes to ashes," too, perhaps?), all of which contribute to the mood that Hardy conveys in a way that "oak" or "elm" wouldn't.

To return to my original question then, "What is the point of analyzing poetry?", one answer is that only an analytical approach can help us arrive at an informed appreciation and understanding of the poem. Whether we like a poem or not, we should be able to recognize the craftsmanship that has gone into making it, the ways in which stylistic techniques and devices have worked to create meaning. General readers may be entirely happy to find a poem pleasing, or unsatisfactory, without stopping to ask why. But studying poetry is a different matter and requires some background understanding of what those stylistic techniques might be, as well as an awareness of constraints and conventions within which poets have written throughout different periods of history.

You may write poetry yourself. If so, you probably know only too well how difficult it is to produce something you feel really expresses what you want to convey. Writing an essay presents enough problems – a poem is a different matter, but certainly no easier. Thinking of poetry as a discipline and a craft which, to some extent, can be learned, is another useful way of approaching analysis. After all, how successful are emotional outpourings on paper? Words one might scribble down in the heat of an intense moment may have some validity in conveying that intensity, but in general might they not be more satisfactory if they were later revised? My own feeling is that a remark Wordsworth made 200 years ago has become responsible for a number of misconceptions about what poetry should do. In the Preface to a volume of poems called Lyrical Ballads (1802) he wrote that "all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Owens and Johnson, 1998, p.85,11.105–6). The second time he uses the same phrase he says something that I think is often forgotten today: "poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings; it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity " (my italics) (ibid., p. 95, ll.557–8). Notice the significant time lapse implied there – the idea that, however powerful or spontaneous the emotion, it needs to be carefully considered before you start writing. He goes on:

The emotion is contemplated till, by a species of reaction, the tranquillity gradually disappears, and an emotion kindred to that which was before the subject of contemplation is gradually reproduced, and does itself actually exist in the mind. In this mood successful composition generally begins.

You don't have to agree with Wordsworth about what poetry is or how best to achieve it. (Would you always want a poem to express powerful emotion, for example? I referred to Hardy's "Neutral Tones" above, where the whole point is that neither of the two characters described feels anything much at all.) But the idea of contemplation is a useful and important one: it implies distance, perhaps detachment, but above all re-creation, not the thing itself. And if we try to re-create something, we must choose our methods and our words carefully in order to convey what we experienced as closely as possible. A word of warning though: writers do not always aim to express personal experiences; often a persona is created (see discussion of "Voice").

The poet Ezra Pound offered this advice to other poets in an essay written in 1913: "Use no superfluous word, no adjective, which does not reveal something" (Gray, 1990, p. 56). And in the 1950s William Carlos Williams advised, "cut and cut again whatever you write." In his opinion, the "test of the artist is to be able to revise without showing a seam" (loc. cit.). That sewing image he uses appeals to me particularly because it stresses the notion of skilled craftsmanship. Pound and Williams were American, writing long after Wordsworth, but, as you can see, like countless other poets they too reflected very seriously on their own poetic practice. I hope this helps convince you that as students we owe it to the poems we read to give them close analytical attention.

Elements of Poetry

In what follows, section headings like "Rhyme," "Rhythm," "Line lengths and line endings," "Alliteration," and so on are intended to act as signposts to help you use this course (if terms are unfamiliar, look them up in the glossary at the end of this free course). But these headings indicate only the main technique being discussed. While it is something we need to attempt, it is very difficult to try to isolate devices in this way – to separate out, for example, the effects of rhythm from rhyme. This doesn't mean that we shouldn't look for particular techniques at work in a poem, but we need to be aware that they will be interdependent and the end product effective or not because of the way such elements work together.

If you are working on a poem, it can be a good idea to print it, maybe even enlarge it, and then write anything you find particularly striking in the margins. Use highlighters or coloured pens to underline repetitions and link rhyme words. Patterns may well emerge that will help you understand the way the poem develops. Make the poems your own in this way, and then, if you are the kind of person who doesn't mind writing in books, you can insert notes in a more restrained way in the margins of your book.

If you prefer to work on your computer, you can do a similar thing by using an annnotation tool on your word processor.

Whatever you do, always ask yourself what the effect of a particular technique that you identify is. Noticing an unusual choice of words, a particular rhyme scheme or use of alliteration (see section on alliteration) is an important first step, but you need to take another one. Unless you go on to say why what you have noticed is effective, what it contributes to the rest of the poem, how it endorses or changes things, then you are doing less than half the job. Get into the habit of asking yourself questions, even if you can't always answer them satisfactorily.

Contributors and Attributions

• Adapted from Approaching Poetry by Dr. Sue Asbee. Provided by OpenLearn, The Open University. License: CC-NC-SA
• Adapted from Naming the Unnameable: An Approach to Poetry for New Generations by Michelle Bonczek Evory under the license CC BY-NC-SA

+61 481607654

Poetry Analysis Essay: How to Become a Pro at It?

Table Of Contents

Poetry analysis essay: an insight into it.

• How to Write a Poetry Analysis Essay? [X Steps]

How to Analyze a Poem & Write About It in Essay?

2 poem analysis examples for college students, who can provide poetry essay help to me “we can”.

There are mountains and valleys far somewhere,

And there are clouds and rain that seem so near,

I feel mixed emotions like a smile on my face or a silent tear,

Every time I think of the God who created all this, and I fear ,

From h ow could He do so much and all we return is more pain to b ear…

This simple poem has an in-depth meaning that can or cannot be understood by all. But usually, when students are studying Literature, they come across some tasks such as poetry analysis essay writing where they are needed to read the write-ups, understand the essence and then conduct an in-depth analysis and write an essay based on it. But if you are new to this concept and have no idea what this is all about, then keep reading this blog for more details!

The simple 3-word term- Poetry Analysis Essay is a piece of writing that students, especially those from a Literature background, are asked to write and submit to the professor to get their degree. It includes:

• Critically review a poem
• Reflecting on the poem’s depth
• Presents the subject of the poem
• Introduces the theme and tone
• Explains the poet’s feelings and perspective

More to this contributes to finally presenting one's understanding of a poem in the form of an essay. Wondering how to write one? Read the below section!

How to Write a Poetry Analysis Essay? [3 Steps]

If you are planning to write a poetry analysis essay, then simply follow the three-step process suggested by the best cheap essay writing service  . Assignment Prime:

Step 1: Choose a Topic

The first step of writing an impressive essay is choosing a topic of your interest. This is crucial because if you make any mistake here, you will get in trouble. So, to help you make this step an easy-going process, here are a few examples:

• Features of Prose
• Sylvia Plath’s Poetry
• Shakespeare’s Sonnets
• Brief on Japanese Haiku
• Relation of Poetry & Feminism

Step 2: Prepare an Outline

The second step of this process is to prepare an outline of the essay to have a clear path to follow. This will thus help you keep away from any distractions that can impact the essay. Here's the ideal outline you should follow:

• Introduction: In this section, you give a brief on the poem's title and introduce the poet.
• Body: This section is for the actual analysis, references, and supporting evidence on the whole poem.
• Conclusion: In this section, you summarize your analysis and mention the key points.

Step 3: Write the Essay

Now that you have a clear title and a set outline to follow, here you start the actual writing process. It includes:

• Read & Analyse the Poem

Begin with reading the whole poem multiple times to understand what the poet is trying to convey through this poem to the audience. Then, analyze the poem from multiple perspectives to get the best and satisfactory outcome.

• Write It Using Simple Language

Once you get what you want from that poem, it's time to present your understanding of that poem to readers. So, go for a simple and easy-to-understand language that can clearly convey your perspective to the audience without any hassle.

• Edit and Proofread It Before Submission

This is the final stage where you go through your essay one last time for errors before submission. The mistakes can be spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, typos, and so on, which hamper the actual meaning of the sentences.

A student should follow three simple steps when drafting a poetry analysis essay. If you are new here and have no idea how to analyze a poem, read the below section to know in detail!

You need to analyze a poem closely and in-depth when writing an essay on it. And while doing that, you need to follow the below-mentioned steps:

Step 1: What Are the Things You Need to Consider for Analyzing a Poem?

• What is the theme of the poetry?
• What language is used in the poem?
• What sound & rhythm are followed in it?
• What is the final framework used in the poem?
• What is the actual context of the poem?

Step 2: What Are the Steps You Need to Follow When Analyzing a Poem?

When you are drafting an analysis on any poem, then you should make sure to follow these simple steps:

• Read the Poem - The first step in this process is to read the poem. Do this multiple times to get better at it every time and get a clear understanding.
• Understand the Title - Often, students ignore this but focus on the title and what it is trying to convey to the audience.
• Know the Speaker - A very important step is to know the speaker and look into his previous works to better understand his thinking and perspective.
• Observe Mood & Tone - It is important to understand the tone of the poem and explain the mood set for this piece of writing.
• Get the Poem Theme - See the big picture and understand the actual theme of this poem.

Step 3: What to Include in Which Section When Writing a Poetry Analysis?

Since you have all the information about the subject and theme ready, it's time you write the essay, and for the same, you need to know which section of the essay should include what information. So, here's everything about it:

• Introduction - You provide a brief of the poem, poet, and theme in the essay's introduction section.
• About the Poem - You include the poem like theme, mood, tone, similes used, and other details in the first section and provide evidence of the same in the second section of the body part in an essay.
• About the Poet - You can include some basic details of the poet, like his name, previous works, his perspective, approach, etc., in the third section of the essay.
• Your Understanding - You can dedicate one last section of the essay to understanding the poem and the poet. This is to present your genuine opinion.
• Take-Away - The conclusion of your essay highlights key points and includes any takeaway from the whole poem for the reader.

These are the three simple steps to analyze a poem for writing a poetry analysis essay. If you are still facing any trouble or doubts, go through the examples mentioned in the below section!

If you are a college-going student who is asked to draft an analysis essay on poetry, then you would be wondering what to do and how to write one, right? In that case, read this blog while considering the poem analysis example ideas below, and you will get a clear picture of the whole process that can help you!

• “Bean Eaters” by Gwendolyn Brooks

• “The Mother” by Gwendolyn Brooks

These are the two top examples that you can refer to whenever you are in need of motivation. But if you are still facing any issue or running out of time, you can seek experts' help online; surprised? Wondering who can help you? Read below!

One common query of students when it comes to a poetry analysis essay is, "Who will provide essay help if I get stuck?" If you also have a similar query or are struggling with a similar thing, turn to Assignment Prime's subject experts. We have a professional team with years of experience who deliver top-notch quality work. Our writers, researchers, editors, proofreaders, and quality analysts deliver flawless and plagiarism-free work right on time and at the most affordable prices.

We understand the struggles of students, thus to help them, we provide amazing discounts, exciting offers, and interesting freebies like free title selection, free reference page, free editing and proofreading, free Plagiarism report, and so on. So, what are you waiting for? Reach out to our experts at the earliest to not miss any amazing offers and get the best quality essay delivered to you. All the best!

You may also like to read

"How to Write a Personal Statement?" Here's What Experts Have to Say!

Permutation Vs. Combination: So Similar But Yet So Different!

25+ Creative Writing Prompts to Help You Break Your Writer Block!

Proven Ways on How to Write an Essay Under 15 Minutes!

To Make Your Work Original

Check your work against paraphrasing & get a free Plagiarism report!

Check your work against plagiarism & get a free Plagiarism report!

Get citations & references in your document in the desired style!

Make your content free of errors in just a few clicks for free!

Generate plagiarism-free essays as per your topic’s requirement!

FREE Features

• Topic Creation USD 4.04 FREE
• Outline USD 9.75 FREE
• Unlimited Revisions USD 21.6 FREE
• Editing/Proofreading USD 29.26 FREE
• Formatting USD 8.36 FREE
• Bibliography USD 7.66 FREE

Get all these features for

USD 84.3 FREE

Thesis Statement Writing: How Crucial is it? How to Write? & More

All About Short Essay Writing [Examples Included]

How to Write a Letter of Reference with Templates?

Experts' Guidance on How to Conduct Nike’s SWOT Analysis

Avail the Best Assignment Writing Services in Just One Tap!

Add "5% extra off on app"

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Know more

Please rotate your device

We don't support landscape mode yet. Please go back to portrait mode for the best experience

TPCASTT Poetry Analysis: A Step-by-Step Guide

TPCASTT is a seven-step poetry analysis technique used to appreciate a poem in a holistic way. This method focuses on six major aspects of a poem where a single element is focused twice to connect the subject matter with the initial response to a piece of poetry. Teachers often employ this technique to encourage students to engage with the emotional, impressionist, and technical dimensions of a poem. In this article, the TPCASTT poetry analysis technique is explained with suitable examples. On top of that, there is an analysis of a poem using this method by the end and a graphic organizer specially prepared for our readers.

The acronym TPCASTT stands for:

• T – Title (Initial Reaction)
• P – Paraphrase
• C – Connotation
• A – Attitude/Tone
• T – Title (Conclusive Remark)

The third letter “C” is often substituted with “F”, which stands for figurative language. The acronym is read as “ TPFASTT ”.

Another variation of TPCASTT is “ TOASTT ”, where “P” or paraphrase is substituted with “O” or “own words”. It means to write the poem in your own words, similar to paraphrasing a poem. Alongside that, the third step finding the connotation (“C”) is excluded in “TOASTT” and rather students are encouraged to “Analyze” (“A”) the poetic devices only.

• O – Own words
• A – Analyze (Poetic Devices)
• T – Title & Tone

TPCASTT is a step-by-step poetry analysis method that focuses on the title (initial and final reactions), content (literal meaning), connotation, speaker’s attitude, poetic shifts, and theme of a particular poem. This technique encourages readers to engage with a poem at seven different levels:

• Initial engagement with the poem’s title without diving into the text.
• Reading through the lines and understanding the content at a literal level.
• Finding the connotations tied to different words or phrases with particular emphasis on structure, form, figurative language, sensory devices, etc.
• Determining the attitude or tone of the speaker from the word choice, rhyme, meter, poetic devices, etc., at a personal level.
• Searching for poetic shifts in the text that shapes the final meaning.
• Referring to the title again in order to establish a connection between one’s personal conjectures and the poem’s subject.
• Drawing a conclusion by finding the main theme, topic, or subject matter of the poem.

TPCASTT Steps Explained

Step one: t – title.

The first step of TPCASTT is finding out the meaning of the title of a poem without referring to the text. Students have to only respond to the title. They must answer the following questions in this step:

• What does the title mean?
• Why does the poet use such a title?
• What can be inferred from the title of the poem?

Poems without Titles

Some poems don’t have titles at all. In those cases, students are required to appreciate the first line as the title; for instance, Emily Dickinson’s poem number 640 does not have a title. In this case, we have to focus on the first line, “ I cannot live with You ” and appreciate it as its title.

This step can be skipped in case there is no title. However, we suggest that it is better not to skip this step. Students can note their personal responses to the following questions in this step:

• Why does the poet not use a title?
• If the first line is regarded as its title, what does it tell us about the overall poem?

It is important to note that there are two kinds of titles: interactive title and naming title. Let’s know more about these titles below:

Interactive Title

This kind of title is tied with the text. It helps readers to know what the poet is about to talk about in the poem. For example, the title of Maya Angelou’s poem “ A Brave and Startling Truth ” is an interactive title that interplays or affects the meaning. The title hints that the poet is going to speak about a “truth,” saying which is a brave task and it is, on the other hand, startling or astonishing.

Naming Title

This kind of title does not give enough information about the text. Poets use such titles for only naming purposes without giving out anything more about what they are going to say in the text. For instance, the title “ The Centaur ,” a poem by May Swenson, does not give enough insight into her subject. All readers can speculate that this poem is about the mythical centaurs having lower parts of a horse and upper parts of a human.

Step Two: P – Paraphrase

In the second step of TPCASTT poetry analysis, students have to read the poem. To paraphrase means expressing the meaning of a poem using different words to achieve greater clarity. Students have to rephrase the text in their own words. They can do it by going line-by-line or stanza-by-stanza.

It is important to note that summarizing is different from paraphrasing a poem. A summary is a brief account of the main points in a poem. Whereas, paraphrasing is rewriting the poem in simplified prose format by replacing the critical words with their close synonyms.

Paraphrase vs. Summary

Let’s read these lines from Anne Sexton’s ekphrastic poem “ The Starry Night ”:

The town does not exist except where one black-haired tree slips up like a drowned woman into the hot sky. The town is silent. The night boils with eleven stars.    Oh starry starry night! This is how I want to die.

A simple paraphrase of these lines is:

The town does not exist except a tree with black hair rises up like a woman drowned in the hot sky. The town is silent. The night sky shines with eleven stars. Oh, what a starry starry night it is! I want to die overwatching such a starry night sky.

Summarizing these lines is a bit different than the word-to-word paraphrase. The summary reads:

The speaker describes the nonexistent town from Vincent van Gogh’s painting The Starry Night . The leaves of the cypress tree appear like a woman’s hair drowned in the bright sky. All the people in that town are fast asleep. The night sky contains only eleven stars as depicted in the painting. Watching the sky, the speaker expresses her strongest desire to die.

Step Three: C – Connotation

In the third step, students have to find the deeper meaning of the poem. This step requires deeper knowledge of poetic forms, figurative language, sound devices, and other technical aspects. Connotation stands for an idea or a feeling a word invokes in readers in addition to its literal meaning. So, in this poem, readers have to note their personal response to the meaning of specific words, lines, the use of figurative devices, etc.

To be more specific, this step of TPCASTT poetry analysis deals with identifying and analyzing the following aspects of a poem:

• Diction (word choice)
• Poetic Devices & Figurative Language (including metaphors, similes, alliteration, assonance, consonance, symbolism, etc.)
• Rhyme Scheme
• Punctuation

Let’s take these lines from Amy Lowell’s poem “ The Wind ”:

He shouts in the sails of the ships at sea, He steals the down from the honeybee, He makes the forest trees rustle and sing, He twirls my kite till it breaks its string.

The connotation of these lines reveals some interesting ideas. Firstly, Lowell is addressing the wind as a human being. She personifies the wind as a boy or man who shouts in the sails, steals the nectar, makes the forest tree rustle, and twirls her kite’s string.

Readers can also find there is a sing-song-like rhyme scheme in these lines. Moreover, the use of anaphora (use of “He” to begin each line) portrays the speaker’s excitement (mood) and the use of consonance creates internal rhyming. After reading these lines, it seems the speaker is depicting the playful side of the wind, unlike its destructive portrayal in other poems.

Connotation vs. Denotation

Readers are required to be aware of the main difference between connotation and denotation in this step. To be specific, the second step, “Paraphrase” actually deals with the denotation of a poem. Denotation simply means the literal or primary meaning.

Whereas, the connotation the third step deals with stands for the meaning beyond the literal level. Readers are encouraged to associate their feelings or share their ideas that a word or phrase in a poem can suggest. Therefore, the third step is more engaging than the second one as it requires critical thinking, novel ideas, and personal opinions.

There is another critical term sounding similar to connotation and denotation. It is annotation, which refers to the explanation or comment added to the lines or words in a poem. TPCASTT poetry analysis does not particularly include a step of annotating a poetic text. However, by using this method, students actually learn the art of annotating poetry. Therefore, TPCASTT is nothing other than a way of annotating a poem using a seven-step approach.

Step Four: A – Attitude

When students complete the third step, they acquire the deeper meaning and connotations of a poem. Thus, the fourth step and the following ones become easier. In this step, they are required to figure out the speaker’s attitude or tone.

There are broadly two kinds of attitudes: one is subjective (personal) and the other one is objective (not influenced by personal feelings).

Subjective Attitude

This kind of attitude can be seen when a speaker narrates their deeply personal events. In this case, poets use emotive language, intense mood, and first-person perspective. Read these lines from “ I wish I could remember that first day ” by Christina Rossetti and identify the speaker’s tone or attitude:

I wish I could remember that first day,  First hour, first moment of your meeting me,  If bright or dim the season, it might be  Summer or Winter for aught I can say;

In these lines, the speaker’s attitude toward the subject is emotional, nostalgic, and sad.

Objective Attitude

Poems dealing with broader issues or topics, other than one’s personal events, contain an objective attitude. The speaker’s tone reveals a sense of practicality, depth, and detachment. Let’s explore these lines of Gwendolyn Bennett’s poem “ To a Dark Girl ”:

I love you for your brownness, And the rounded darkness of your breast, I love you for the breaking sadness in your voice And shadows where your wayward eyelids rest.

These lines are more descriptive than emotional. The tone or attitude of the speaker is filled with appreciation, love, and empathy. If the speaker was the dark girl herself, she would have used more emotive language than the present speaker. However, readers can find a sense of subjectivity in these lines as well.

Step Five: S – Shifts

In the fifth step, students have to find the shifts or transitions in the text. The shift means a sudden change in the attitude (tone and mood), including the variation of rhythm and meter. Readers have to identify where the shift occurs and then they have to justify how it affects the meaning. Furthermore, they have to discuss how the poet shows the transition by tweaking the rhythm.

Let’s read James Weldon Johnson’s “ The Awakening ” and figure out where and how the shift occurs:

Broadly, the shift in the speaker’s attitude occurs in the second stanza. The first stanza reveals the speaker’s ignorance of his existence. When the second stanza begins, his tone suddenly changes, which is reflected in the use of words “gaily,” “sang,” “brushed,” “gladness,” etc. After having a dream, he has clarity over his existence. So, the shift or transition in the poem occurs in the second stanza. There are some minute shifts, which can be found in the last four lines of the first stanza.

Step Six: T – Title

In the sixth step, we have to look at the title again. Why is it important to revisit the title? After analyzing the text, technical aspects, and understanding the nuances, it becomes crucial to compare our primary reaction to the title (before reading and understanding the text) and the final assessment.

In this way, readers can avoid misinterpreting the poem. Besides, it also helps students to think critically about why the poet chose that specific title instead of choosing something else.

With regards to a poem without a title, readers can opt for a different method. They can justify why they think the first line is appropriate as its title or they can try to think about a title that seems fit as per their interpretations.

Step Seven: T – Theme

Last but not least, it is important to point out the main idea or topic of the poem around which the poet’s ideas orbit. In the last step, readers have to figure out the most important theme or themes (in case they find more) in the poem. They have to justify how the theme interplays with the subject matter of the poem.

Let’s read these lines from “ Fear ” by Kahlil Gibran and point out the major theme:

The main theme of the poem is overcoming fear. Gibran presents this theme through the image of a river waiting to enter the sea. According to him, one must take risks in order to overcome their greatest fear. Besides, readers can also find the theme of spiritual assimilation into the vastness of the creation by the image of the river becoming part of the ocean.

TPCASTT Poetry Analysis Example

Using the seven-step TPCASTT method, we are going to analyze William Shakespeare’s sonnet 116, also known as “Let me not to the marriage of true minds.” Without further ado, let’s TPCASTT the poem, which you can read below:

TPCASTT of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116

Tpcastt template.

Here’s a TPCASTT template to help our readers organize their thoughts in one place while analyzing a poem. Students can fill this TPCASTT graphic organizer chart and refer to it while writing a poetry analysis essay.

If you want to analyze a poem using this strategy, head to our Poem Guides page. Then, choose any poet and explore their poem guides. To TPCASTT the poem, you can take help from our thoughts on that particular poem. But, always make sure to draw up the interpretation in your own words.

TPCASTT Pros & Cons

Let’s practice tpcastt.

Readers can easily implement the TPCASTT technique to analyze a poem efficiently. It is better to start with the poems written prior to the 20th-century. Then, one can dive into the wide array of modernist poetry of the past century and the contemporary period. Here is a list of a few poems that readers can TPCASTT with the help of our guides:

• “ Is My Team Ploughing ” by A. E. Housman
• “ The Arrow and the Song ” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• “ Friends ” by Abbie Farewell Brown
• “ Talking in Their Sleep ” by Edith M. Thomas
• “ [little tree] ” by E. E. Cummings
• “ If I can stop one Heart from breaking ” by Emily Dickinson
• “ Equinox ” by Elizabeth Alexander

You can share your TPCASTT analysis of any poem with us in order to know whether you employed the technique correctly or not. Do use our graphic organizer to write your response and feel free to send it to us at [email protected] .

We’ll get back to you with our thoughts as soon as we can.

Questions & Answers

TPCASTT is a seven-step poetry analysis technique. It is a step-by-step approach to analyzing or annotating a particular poem. In the acronym, “T” stands for “Title”, “P” stands for “Paraphrase”, “C” stands for “Connotation, “A” stands for “Attitude”, “S” stands for “Shifts”, “T” stands for “Title”, and the last “T” means “Theme”.

We can easily analyze a poem by using the seven-step TPCASTT strategy. In the first step, readers have to note their initial response to the title (T) before reading the poem. Secondly, they have to paraphrase (P) the poem word-by-word. Thirdly, the connotations of the lines are noted down. Fourthly, they have to figure out the attitude (A) of the speaker. Then, they are required to find out the shifts (S) in tone and mood. Thereafter, they have to evaluate the title (T) again. Lastly, they are required to identify and justify the theme (T) of the poem.

In TPCASTT, examining the title of a poem for the first time helps us know what the poet is going to say or what the poem is about. It helps us to compare our initial response with the reevaluation of the title at the later stage of the analysis.

The second “T” in TPCASTT stands for the title. It is the sixth step of this poetry analysis method, where readers are encouraged to reevaluate the title of a poem after understanding the meaning.

In this poetry analysis technique, students are required to write the poem in their own words, by substituting the critical words with easily understandable words. They have to simplify the poet’s language line-by-line or stanza-by-stanza in order to have a better understanding of the poem.

Connotation means the meaning that a word invokes in addition to the literary or primary meaning. In this step, readers have to figure out the connotation of a particular line or word, with particular emphasis on form, figurative language, punctuation, sound devices, etc.

Attitude means how the speaker of a poem presents the subject matter, as interpreted by readers. It deals with the tone and mood of the speaker that is created using diction, meter, rhyme, figurative language, and syntax.

In TPCASTT, the shift means to identify the transition or change in the speaker’s tone and mood, rhythm, meter, etc.

In order to find a shift in a poem, readers have to note the change in meter, rhyme, or in the speaker’s attitude reflected in the word choice, syntax, and figurative language.

There are several techniques to analyze poetry. One of the easiest and most effective methods is TPCASTT where readers analyze a poem using a seven-step strategy. Some other techniques include SMILE, TPFASTT, TOASTT, etc.

TPFASTT is similar to the TPCASTT poetry analysis technique. In this poetry analysis technique, readers focus on the “Title” (T), “Paraphrase” (P), “Figurative Language” (F), “Attitude” (A), “Shifts” (S), “Title” (T), and “Theme” (T).

In TOASTT, “T” stands for “Title”, “O” stands for “Own Words” (similar to paraphrase), “A” stands for “Analyze” (the poetic devices), “S” stands for “Shifts”, “T” stands for “Tone” and “Title”, and the last “T” means “Theme”.

Useful Resources

• Check out A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver — With her passion and wit, Oliver wrote this ultimate guide to writing and understanding poetry.
• Check out How to Read Poetry Like a Professor — This didactic primer examines a wide array of poems and teaches readers the art of reading and analyzing poetry.

Share this:

At Poemotopia, we try to provide the best content that you can ever find. Each article is the fruit of a rigorous editorial process.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

Notify me of new posts by email.

Poetry & Poets

Explore the beauty of poetry – discover the poet within

How To Write An Introduction For A Poetry Analysis Essay

What is a poetry analysis essay?

An analytical essay on a poem is an exploration of the text and its connections to the author’s broader themes and to the real world. It is important to understand the structure of the poem, as well as its language, imagery, and tone. For example, an analysis might focus on how a poem’s structure reinforces its message, or how its diction suggests a mood. In an analytical paper, you will also explain how a poem works, how it creates its effects, and why it is written the way it is. An analysis of a poem might look at a particular literary device, such as the use of enjambment in an epic poem.

What is the purpose of an introduction for a poetry analysis essay?

The introduction is the first chance you have to make an impact on the reader of your poem analysis essay. This is where you provide a brief overview of the main points of your paper, explain why the poem is important and set the tone of the essay. A good introduction should give the reader a good idea of what to expect from your essay, as well as a sense of why the poem is worth discussing. It is also a chance for you to provide any necessary context for the poem, as well as draw attention to any important implications of your analysis.

How to write an introduction for a poetry analysis essay: key points

• Briefly introduce the poem and its author.
• Provide relevant context to the poem.
• Identify the main argument or main points of your paper.
• Engage the reader with a strong opening sentence.
• Use a clear and direct language.
• State the thesis statement.
• Ask a thought-provoking question.

Brief history of the poem

When writing an introduction for a poetry analysis essay, it is important to consider the poem’s history. What period is the poem from? Who wrote it? How is it related to other works of the same author? Take note of the publication history of the poem, such as the year it was published and any awards it may have won. These are all important pieces of information that can add depth and texture to your analysis.

Context and diction

Another important aspect to consider when writing an introduction for a poetry analysis essay is the context and diction of the poem. What theme or tone does the poem take, and how does it connect to other works of the same author or genre? Is there a particular type of language or imagery used? Outlining the context and diction of the poem can help to provide a better understanding of your analysis, and can help the reader to better appreciate and understand the work.

Thesis statement and main points

When writing the introduction to a poem analysis essay, it is important to consider your thesis statement and main points. The thesis statement should provide a brief overview of what you will be discussing in the essay, and should clearly and succinctly state your main argument. The main points of the paper should also be outlined, so that the reader knows what to expect. It is important to engage the reader with a strong opening sentence and draw their attention to the main points.

Ask a thought-provoking question

A great way of ensuring that the reader is engaged at the start is by asking a thought-provoking question. This should be one that is linked to your main argument and which encourages the reader to think about the poem in a new way. This can help to spark a conversation about the poem and can help to draw out ideas and perspectives.

Activity of the poet

When writing an introduction for a poem analysis essay, it is important to consider the activity of the poet. What was the poet’s motivation for writing the poem? Was it a personal experience, a societal issue, or a reflection on human nature that they are exploring? Understanding the poet’s activity can help to provide a better understanding of their work and can lead to a more informed analysis.

Researching the life and times of the poet can be a great way to gain a fuller understanding of the background to the poem and might lead to some interesting observations and insights. Additionally, if there is a theme or social commentary explored in the poem, researching the historical context and cultural references associated with the poem can provide a valuable and rich insight.

Exploring the inspiration, synchronicity and tone of the poem can also be enlightening. What does the poem’s title suggest about its themes? Are the poems’ central ideas introduced in the title? Does the poet use sound or rhythm to convey their meaning? Answering questions such as these can help to develop your analysis and provide deeper insight into the poem.

Reading the poem

When writing a poetry analysis, it is critical to carefully read the poem and take note of the central ideas and themes. Consider the poem’s structure. How does the length and form of the poem impact its meaning? Additionally, note any repetition of words and the literary devices the poet has used, such as alliteration, rhyming and similes. Examining the language and structure of the poem can provide valuable insight into the poem’s meanings and implications.

When reading the poem, consider the thematic concerns and themes. Are any universal themes explored in the poem? What is the poet trying to communicate? What emotions do the words evoke and how does the form affect the readers’ response? Does the poem explore personal experiences or offer commentaries on social or political issues? Investigating these questions can offer a wide lens of understanding and can help to capture the poet’s intent.

Taking time to understand the poet’s concerns and writing styles can be time well spent and can help to frame your analysis. Looking closely at the imagery and language used in the poem and making notes can give invaluable insight into the poet’s intent and can inform your essay.

Analyzing the poem

When analyzing a poem it is important to consider the technical aspects, symbolism and metaphors and the poem’s messages and implications. Consider the structure, rhythm and tempo of the poem. How does the poem’s form impact its message? Additionally, look for any patterns of alliteration, rhyming and imagery that the poet has used. Are any symbols or metaphors evident in the poem? Does the poet use any unique word choice to evoke a particular feeling? Answering these questions can offer valuable insights.

Consider the meaning behind the poem’s words. In what ways does the poet use the language? Are there any underlying subtleties in the poem’s language, such as hidden messages or literary devices? Thinking about the implications of the poem’s words can help to draw out its main ideas.

Additionally, ponder the concept of beauty in the poem. What is the poem saying about beauty and art? What is the poet’s opinion on society and human nature? Investigating the poem’s messages and implications can provide an in-depth analysis of its contents and can help to draw out the poet’s thoughts and feelings.

Interpreting the poem

When interpreting a poem, it is important to consider what other interpretations may be possible. Are there any alternative ways of reading the poem that open up new ideas and perspectives? Considering a poem through different lenses and perspectives can help to reveal new meanings and implications. It is important to develop your own interpretations about the poem’s messages and ideas as well as drawing on other interpretations.

It can be useful to consider the poem through the lens of literary devices, such as irony and paradox. Are there any false conclusions that the poet wants its readers to draw? Are there hidden meanings behind the words and how does the poet use the language to express its message? Think about how the language of the poem can convey its deeper intentions.

Exploring different interpretations is a great way to begin to analyze a poem. Additionally, thinking about other perspectives and interpretations of the poem can add a different dynamic to your understanding and can lead to a richer and deeper analysis.

Conclusion and summary

When writing an introduction for a poem analysis essay, it is important to consider the poet’s activity, read the poem carefully, analyze its details, and consider multiple interpretations of its messages. Examining the poem’s context, diction, themes and structure can provide invaluable insights into the poem. Additionally, asking a thought-provoking question and using a direct and clear language can help to engage the readers and can help to draw attention to your main points. By considering all these key points, you can write an effective introduction for your poem analysis essay.

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!

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Poetry Is an Act of Hope

Through verse, we can perhaps come closest to capturing events that exist beyond our capacity to describe.

This is an edition of the Books Briefing, our editors’ weekly guide to the best in books. Sign up for it here.

Poetry is the art form that most expands my sense of what language can do. Today, so much daily English feels flat or distracted—politicians speak in clichés; friends are distracted in conversation by the tempting dinging of smartphones; TV dialogue and the sentences in books are frequently inelegant. This isn’t a disaster: Clichés endure because they convey ideas efficiently; not all small talk can be scintillating; a bad sentence here or there in a novel won’t necessarily condemn the whole work.

First, here are four new stories from The Atlantic ’s Books section:

• When your every decision feels torturous
• “Noon”: a poem by Li-Young Lee
• A prominent free-speech group is fighting for its life.
• The complicated ethics of rare-book collecting

Poetry is different, however. We expect more from it. Not a single word should be misused, not a single syllable misplaced—and, as a result, studying language within the poetic form can be particularly rewarding. In March and April of this year, two of America’s great poetry critics, Helen Vendler and Marjorie Perloff, died. In reading Adam Kirsch’s tribute to both, I was struck by how different their respective approaches to language were. Vendler was a “traditionalist,” per Kirsch; she liked poets who “communicated intimate thoughts and emotions in beautiful, complex language.” She was a famous close reader, carefully picking over poems to draw out every sense of meaning. For Vendler, Kirsch writes, poetry made language “more meaningful.”

Perloff wasn’t as interested in communicating meaning. Her favorite avant-garde poets used words in surprising and odd ways. As Kirsch writes, “At a time when television and advertising were making words smooth and empty, she argued that poets had a moral duty to resist by using language disruptively, forcing readers to sit up and pay attention.”

I’d reckon that neither Perloff nor Vendler relished lines that were smooth and empty, even though their preferred artists and attitudes toward reading might have differed. Ben Lerner has said that poetry represents a desire to “do something with words that we can’t actually do.” In that sense, poems are a declaration of hope in language: Even if we can’t pull off something magnificent, we can at least try.

Through poetry, we can perhaps come closest to capturing the events that feel so extreme as to exist beyond our capacity to describe them. In the February 8 issue of The New York Review of Books , Ann Lauterbach published a poem called “ War Zone ,” dedicated to Paul Auster, another literary great who died recently. The poem depicts not scenes of violence and gore but the hollow wordlessness many of us feel in the face of war or suffering—then it uses images of silence, blankness, and absence to fight against that unspeakability. The last line, which I won’t spoil here, points to this paradox: Words may not be able to capture everything—especially the worst things—but they can, and must, try.

When Poetry Could Define a Life

By Adam Kirsch

The close passing of the poetry critics Marjorie Perloff and Helen Vendler is a moment to recognize the end of an era.

Read the full article.

What to Read

The Taste of Country Cooking , by Edna Lewis

Lewis’s exemplary Southern cookbook is interspersed with essays on growing up in a farming community in Virginia; many of the recipes in the book unspool from these memories. Lewis, who worked as a chef in New York City as well as in North and South Carolina, writes with great sensual and emotional detail about growing up close to the land. Of springtime, she writes, “The quiet beauty in rebirth there was so enchanting it caused us to stand still in silence and absorb all we heard and saw. The palest liverwort, the elegant pink lady’s-slipper displayed against the velvety green path of moss leading endlessly through the woods.” Her book was ahead of its time in so many ways: It is a farm-to-table manifesto, a food memoir published decades before Ruth Reichl popularized the form, and an early, refined version of the cookbook-with-essays we’re now seeing from contemporary authors such as Eric Kim and Reem Assil. The recipes—ham biscuits, new cabbage with scallions, potted stuffed squab—are as alluring as the prose.  — Marian Bull

From our list: eight cookbooks worth reading cover to cover

Out Next Week

📚 First Love , by Lilly Dancyger

📚 América del Norte , by Nicolás Medina Mora

📚 The Lady Waiting , by Magdalena Zyzak

Your Weekend Read

The Diminishing Returns of Having Good Taste

By W. David Marx

There are obvious, concrete advantages to a world with information equality, such as expanding global access to health and educational materials—with a stable internet connection, anyone can learn basic computer programming from online tutorials and lectures on YouTube. Finding the optimal place to eat at any moment is certainly easier than it used to be. And, in the case of Google, to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” even serves as the company’s mission. The most commonly cited disadvantage to this extraordinary societal change, and for good reason, is that disinformation and misinformation can use the same easy pathways to spread unchecked. But after three decades of living with the internet, it’s clear that there are other, more subtle losses that come with instant access to knowledge, and we’ve yet to wrestle—interpersonally and culturally—with the implications.

When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic .

Explore all of our newsletters .

Advertisement

Supported by

In a Poem, Just Who Is ‘the Speaker,’ Anyway?

Critics and readers love the term, but it can be awfully slippery to pin down. That’s what makes it so fun to try.

• Share full article

By Elisa Gabbert

Elisa Gabbert’s collections of poetry and essays include, most recently, “Normal Distance” and the forthcoming “Any Person Is the Only Self.” Her On Poetry columns appear four times a year.

The pages of “A Little White Shadow,” by Mary Ruefle, house a lyric “I” — the ghost voice that emerges so often from what we call a poem. Yet the I belonged first to another book, a Christian text of the same name published in 1890, by Emily Malbone Morgan.

Ruefle “erased” most words of Morgan’s text with white paint, leaving what look like lines of verse on the yellowed pages: “my brain/grows weary/just thinking how to make/thought.” (My virgules are approximate — should I read all white gaps as line breaks, even if the words are in the same line of prose? Are larger gaps meant to form stanzas?)

On another page, we read (can I say Ruefle writes ?): “I was brought in contact/with the phenomenon/peculiar to/’A/shadow.’” It would be difficult to read Ruefle’s book without attributing that I to the author, to Ruefle, one way or another, although the book’s I existed long before she did.

This method of finding an I out there, already typed, to identify with, seems to me not much different from typing an I . An I on the page is abstract, symbolic, and not the same I as in speech, which in itself is not the same I as the I in the mind.

When an old friend asked me recently if I didn’t find the idea of “the speaker” to be somewhat underexamined, I was surprised by the force of the YES that rose up in me. I too had been following the critical convention of referring to whatever point of view a poem seems to generate as “the speaker” — a useful convention in that it (supposedly) prevents us from ascribing the views of the poem to its author. But in that moment I realized I feel a little fraudulent doing so. Why is that?

Perhaps because I never think of a “speaker” when writing a poem. I don’t posit some paper-doll self that I can make say things. It’s more true to say that the poem always gives my own I, my mind’s I, the magic ability to say things I wouldn’t in speech or in prose.

It’s not just that the poem, like a play or a novel, is fictive — that these genres offer plausible deniability, though they do. It’s also that formal constraints have the power to give us new thoughts. Sometimes, in order to make a line sound good, to fit the shape of the poem, I’m forced to cut a word or choose a different word, and what I thought I wanted to say gets more interesting. The poem has more surprising thoughts than I do.

“The speaker,” as a concept, makes two strong suggestions. One is that the voice of a poem is a kind of persona. In fact, when I looked for an entry on the subject in our New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (a tome if there ever was one, at 1,383 pages), I found only: “Speaker: See PERSONA.” This latter term is an “ancient distinction,” writes the scholar Fabian Gudas, between poems in the poet’s “own voice” and those in which “characters” are speaking.

But, as the entry goes on to note, 20th-century critics have questioned whether we can ever look at a poem as “the direct utterance of its author.” While persona seems too strong to apply to some first-person lyrics, the speaker implies all lyrics wear a veil of persona, at least, if not a full mask.

The second implication is that the voice is a voice — that a poem has spokenness , even just lying there silent on the page.

The question here, the one I think my friend was asking, is this: Does our use of “the speaker” as shorthand — for responsible readership, respectful acknowledgment of distance between poet and text — sort of let us off the hook? Does it give us an excuse to think less deeply than we might about degrees of persona and spokenness in any given poem?

Take Louise Glück’s “The Wild Iris,” “a book in which flowers speak,” as Glück herself described it. One flower speaks this, in “Trillium”: “I woke up ignorant in a forest;/only a moment ago, I didn’t know my voice/if one were given me/would be so full of grief.” (I find a note that I’ve stuck on this page, at some point: The flowers give permission to express .)

“Flowers don’t have voices,” James Longenbach writes, in his essay “The Spokenness of Poetry” — “but it takes a flower to remind us that poems don’t really have voices either.”

They’re more like scores for voices, maybe. A score isn’t music — it’s paper, not sound — and, as Jos Charles writes in an essay in “Personal Best: Makers on Their Poems That Matter Most,” “the written poem is often mistaken for the poem itself.” A poem, like a piece of music, she writes, “is neither its score nor any one performance,” but what is repeatable across all performances. Any reader reading a poem performs it — we channel the ghost voice.

There are poems that have almost no spokenness — such as Aram Saroyan’s “minimal poems,” which might consist of a single nonword on the page (“lighght,” most famously, but see also “morni,ng” or “Blod”). Or consider Paul Violi’s “Index,” whose first line is “Hudney, Sutej IX, X, XI, 7, 9, 25, 58, 60, 61, 64.” Is anyone speaking the page numbers?

And there are poems that have almost no persona, as in the microgenre whose speaker is a poetry instructor (see “Introduction to Poetry,” by Billy Collins).

Yet I’m not interested only in edge cases. There are so many subtle gradations of “speaker” in the middle, so much room for permission. A speaker may seem threatening, as in June Jordan’s “Poem About My Rights”: “from now on my resistance … may very well cost you your life.” A speaker may seem dishonest — Tove Ditlevsen’s first published poem was called “To My Dead Child,” addressing a stillborn infant who had in fact never existed.

Auden would say it’s hard not to “tell lies” in a poem, where “all facts and all beliefs cease to be true or false and become interesting possibilities.” So, we might say, the “speaker” is the vessel for the full range of lies that the poet is willing to tell.

“Poetry is not for personal confessions,” George Seferis wrote in a journal; “it expresses another personality that belongs to everyone.” This suggests poetry comes from some underlying self. If, by invoking “the speaker,” I avoid a conflation of the I and its author, I may also crowd the page with more figures than I need: a speaker and an author, both outside the poem. I wonder sometimes if there’s anyone there, when I’m reading. Does the speaker speak the poem? Or does the poem just speak?

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

The complicated, generous life  of Paul Auster, who died on April 30 , yielded a body of work of staggering scope and variety .

“Real Americans,” a new novel by Rachel Khong , follows three generations of Chinese Americans as they all fight for self-determination in their own way .

“The Chocolate War,” published 50 years ago, became one of the most challenged books in the United States. Its author, Robert Cormier, spent years fighting attempts to ban it .

Joan Didion’s distinctive prose and sharp eye were tuned to an outsider’s frequency, telling us about ourselves in essays that are almost reflexively skeptical. Here are her essential works .

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .