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How To Analyze A Poem (Examples, Worksheet Questions and Tips)

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In order to learn how to analyze a poem, you have to understand what poetry is. Poetry is a literary form used to express feelings and ideas. Poetry analysis involves examining the independent elements of a poem to understand those feelings and ideas.

There is no one right way to analyze a poem. However, some of the possible ways will be explored in this article.

We’ll break down the main aspects of poetry analysis and poetic elements to help you form and focus your own analyses. This guide can also serve as a poetry analysis worksheet as there are questions to guide you.

Below are the poetic elements, tips, and examples you need to guide you in your quest to analyze any poem.

Understand and Dissect The Theme of The Poem

The theme of a poem is its central topic, subject, or message. Examining the theme of a poem is a great method of analysis; the easiest way to break anything down is by understanding what it’s about. 

To understand how to analyze that poem, start by studying the poem for its main idea. It could be about love, loss, patriotism, nature, etc. 

As an example, let’s look at “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost.

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

Learn To Find The Theme Of The Poem

To find the theme of the poem, we have to break it down to find what it is about. Let’s break down Frost’s poem to find the theme.

Frost begins this poem by talking about nature and flowers, and how they don’t last very long. He says the same about dawn; at first, the sky is golden but then it rapidly fades as the sun rises higher. This loss is compared to the fall from Eden, and then Frost concludes with “Nothing gold can stay.”

The recurring message here is that nothing golden and beautiful lasts. We can then develop this idea into the main theme of the poem, which is transience; the most beautiful things tend to have the shortest longevity. After finding the theme, an analysis can be made about how Frost delivers the theme. 

You can also explore the literary devices he uses in order to do so, who the intended audience is, etc.

Poems can also have multiple themes. And a poetry analysis can be built on their relationship with one another. Moreover, you can write or generate a poem that delivers a message or moral which can also be a point of examination.

Poetry analysis questions to ask about the theme:

• What is the theme of the poem?
• Are there multiple themes? How do they relate to each other?
• Is the poem trying to deliver a message or moral?
• What audience is the message for?
• What techniques does the poet use to deliver the themes in the most effective way possible?

Pay Attention To The Context Of The Poem

The context of a poem forms the foundation of its comprehension. A poet’s background can be crucial to your ability to understand their poetry. A poet’s life and experiences can affect the interpretation or provide extra information. Examining such context is another solid method of poetry analysis.

Details about a poet’s life can suggest a specific point of view. For example, some of Grace Nichols poetry, such as “Island Man,” is more meaningful if the reader knows that Nichols is a Guyanese poet who moved to London when she was 27. And a lot of Nichols’s poetry is inspired by her homesickness. 

The culture of the place and time a poem was written in also has an effect on the interpretation. For instance, “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel L. Coleridge has strong themes of nature and religion. The reason for this is because it was written during the Industrial Revolution when people were entranced by science and technology. Coleridge wanted to draw their attention back to what they were overlooking. 

The effect of the culture of place is observable in Dareen Tatour’s poem “قوم يا شاب قومهم” (“Resist, My People, Resist Them”) which she wrote as a Palestenian in protest against the Israeli government. Her poem made a defiant statement, and she was arrested for it. 

In some cases, poetry is influenced by the era or movement it was written in, like how Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” was written during the Beat Generation movement.

Researching About The Poet Can Help You To Analyze A Poem

A little extra research about a poet and their life can go a long way in improving your understanding of their poetry.  Take some time to read up on the context.  You’ll be better equipped to write a thorough analysis of the poem.

Poetry analysis questions to ask about context:

• Do details about the poet’s life suggest a specific point of view ?
• Does the culture of that era (I,e. time, and/or place) have any effect on the interpretation of the poem?
• Does the poem belong to a movement ? How might this affect its interpretation?

Focusing On Mood and Tone Is A Solid Way To Analyze A Poem

Mood and tone are similar, but the distinction between the two is important. Mood refers to the feeling the audience gets from the writing. 

For instance, a mood shift can be observed in Billy Collin’s poem “Introduction to Poetry.”

I ask them to take a poem

and hold it up to the light

like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem

and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room

and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski

across the surface of a poem

waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do

is tie the poem to a chair with rope

and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose

to find out what it really means.

In the first four stanzas, the mood of this poem is of wonder and exploration. It’s light and invokes the marvel of learning new things.

However, in the later stanzas, the mood becomes darker and sinister. The mood shift and how and why Collins creates it is a strong point of analysis.

Remember, Tone Differs From Mood

Tone, as mentioned earlier, is a little different than mood. Tone refers to the attitude the writer has towards the subject they are writing about. 

For example, the tone of a poem could be satirical, serious, humorous, critical, or appreciative. The tone in “Another Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries” by Hugh MacDiarmid is quite easy to detect.

It is a God-damned lie to say that these

Saved, or knew, anything worth any man’s pride.

They were professional murderers and they took

Their blood money and their impious risks and died.

In spite of all their kind some elements of worth

With difficulty persist here and there on earth.

As previously mentioned, the tone is how the writer feels about the subject of their poem. The subject here is mercenary soldiers. It’s pretty clear that MacDiarmid doesn’t care very much for them.

The tone of the poem is undeniably contemptuous and angry. Taking note of this tone creates an opportunity for analysis on how MacDiarmid conveys the tone and why he feels so strongly about mercenary soldiers.

Poetry analysis questions to ask about mood and tone:

• What is the mood of the poem?
• Does the mood change over the course of the poem? Why did the poet create said change?
• What strategies does the poet use to convey the mood?
• What is the tone of the poem? Does the poet agree, disagree, admire, ridicule, or condemn the subject of the poem? What is the reason?
• How does word choice affect the tone of the poem?
• What strategies does the poet use to convey the tone?

Explore The Literary Devices Used In The Poem

Literary devices are techniques writers use to produce special effects in their writing.  It is especially helpful when you’re still grappling with learning ways to analyze a poem.

As can be sensed from the definition, it’s a pretty broad category. As such, an analysis of a poem based on literary devices can go in many directions. A few of them have been highlighted below.

Repetition is a literary device frequently found in poetry, as can be demonstrated by Merrill Glass’s “But You Didn’t.”

Remember the time you lent me your car and I dented it?

I thought you’d kill me…

But you didn’t.

Remember the time I forgot to tell you the dance was

formal, and you came in jeans?

I thought you’d hate me…

Remember the times I’d flirt with

other boys just to make you jealous, and

I thought you’d drop me…

There were plenty of things you did to put up with me,

to keep me happy, to love me, and there are

so many things I wanted to tell

you when you returned from

To learn how to analyze repetition in a poem, first, find the repeating phrases. Secondly, assess their function and contribution to the poem. 

The repeating phrases in this poem are “Remember the time” and “But you didn’t.” Their functions are reinforcing the mood of the poem and the building structure.

 The repetition of “Remember the time” produces a nostalgic mood. The repetition of both phrases creates a framework for the poem. 

Therefore, when the mood drastically changes in the last stanza, the continued repetition of “But you didn’t” still keeps the poem within its structure; it doesn’t feel like it came out of nowhere. It is important to consider this when figuring out how to analyze a poem.

Next in literary devices, let’s discuss the imagery and sensory language. Imagery is an author’s use of descriptive language to build visuals. Meanwhile, sensory language is words and phrases that create vividity in writing. This vividness is created by appealing to the senses. 

Both are employed by writers to add depth to their work. The use and effect of these two devices can be observed in this excerpt from “The Young Sun’s Greeting” by Léopold Sédar Senghor.

The young sun’s greeting

On my bed, your letter’s glow

All the sounds that burst from morning

Blackbirds’ brassy calls, jingle of gonoleks

Your smile on the grass, on the radiant dew.

This stanza is rich with sensory language. The description of sunlight on the bed, the sounds of birds in the morning and dew on the grass creates a strong image of a serene morning. 

The resulting effect is a vivid and entrancing poem. This effect can be analyzed in terms of how it’s achieved, the impact it creates, and how it supports the theme of the poem.

There are many other literary devices that are frequently found in poetry including metaphors, personification, flashbacks, symbolism, diction, and more. These can all be analyzed in a similar manner as highlighted above. 

Poetry analysis questions to ask about literary devices:

• What are the most prominent literary devices used in the poem? How can it help you to analyze the poem?
• What function do the devices have in the poem? Do they build the structure? 
• Do literary devices contribute to the mood? Do they support the theme?
• How does the poet’s use of literary devices make for a better and more meaningful poem?

Analyze The Language and Structure

Poetry allows for eccentric language and structure use in a way that no other literary form does. This makes for engaging reads and great points of analysis. 

As an example, here is an excerpt of “Half-caste” by John Agard

Explain yuself

When yu say half-caste

Yu mean when light an shadow

Mix in de sky

Is a half-caste weather??

Well in dat case

England weather

Nearly always half-caste

In fact some o dem cloud

Half-caste till dem overcast

So spiteful dem dont want de sun pass

Wha yu mean

When yu say half-caste?

Yu mean tchaikovsky

Sit down at dah piano

An mix a black key

Wid a white key

Is a half-caste symphony?

This is a great piece about the absurdity of racism, but let’s focus on the language. Agard writes in his Caribbean dialect. By doing so, he is legitimizing his way of speech and asserting himself and his mixed race identity. It’s a strong statement and connects well with the message of the poem.

Pay Attention To Creative Use Of Grammar

In terms of grammar and punctuation, what better example is there than Emily Dickinson’s poetry? She’s well known for her odd capitalization and punctuation.

Here’s poem #466 “I dwell in Possibility.”   In this poem, Dickinson writes about the limitless power of poetry and its superiority over prose.

I dwell in Possibility –

A fairer House than Prose –

More numerous of Windows –

Superior – for Doors –

Of Chambers as the Cedars –

Impregnable of eye –

And for an everlasting Roof

The Gambrels of the Sky –

Of Visitors – the fairest –

For Occupation – This –

The spreading wide my narrow Hands

To gather Paradise –

Dickinson’s grammar can seem daunting, but it’s just a matter of breaking it down. Beginning with the capitalization, these are all the words (excluding the words at the beginning of each line) that she capitalizes: 

Possibility, House, Prose, Windows, Doors, Chambers, Cedars, Roof, Gambrels, Sky, Visitors, Occupation, This, Hands, Paradise

The most recurring image produced by these words is of a house, which is the main metaphor of the poem. Dickinson compares poetry to a fair house that has many windows, an endless roof, and other appealing characteristics. 

So, it can already be reasoned that Dickinson’s capitalization is in order to emphasize the main focus of her poetry. This analysis can be furthered by examining the capitalized words that don’t fit in with the rest, such as “Paradise.”

A possible reason that “Paradise” is stressed could be the religious context; Dickinson could’ve been trying to portray just how divine poetry is by giving it a more powerful connotation. 

The other notable grammatical element in Dickinson’s poem is the abundance of em dashes. Almost every line ends in an em dash, and several have em dashes in the middle of them. 

Dickinson’s use of em dashes in the middle of her lines is usually to highlight words of significance. For instance, “for Doors” is enclosed in em dashes in the first stanza. To find out why, let’s consider the rest of the stanza. 

Dickinson is talking about the superiority of the “Possibility” a.k.a poetry house over the prose house. Poetry has more windows and it has doors. 

It’s important to notice that she says “More numerous of Windows,” because this means that the prose house also has windows, poetry just has more. In terms of doors, however, the prose house doesn’t seem to have any. So it’s just a house of windows.

Windows are nice, but you need doors to enter and exit. Therefore, “for Doors” could be stressed because Dickinson wanted to establish that prose isn’t as open as poetry.

Just as important as the use of em dashes,is the absence of them. Dickinson uses so many of her trademark dashes in this poem, so the two places where she doesn’t stand out: “And for an everlasting Roof” and “The spreading wide my narrow Hands.” 

Both of these lines describe something that’s expanding: the eternal roof and hands that are reaching out to paradise. Without the usual em-dashes, these lines visibly expand on the page which enhances their meaning.

Poetry often accommodates unusual structure and language that many poets utilize for emphasis, to make a statement or other similar reasons. All these can act as effective focal points of poetry analysis. 

Poetry analysis questions to ask about language and structure:

• Does the poet make use of language or grammar in an unconventional manner? What effect does this have on the poem?
• Do the language and diction complement the theme and mood of the poem?
• How is the poem structured? How are the lines and stanzas arranged? Why might the poet have made that decision?
• Do the language and structure correspond with the poem’s form? Why or why not?

Identify and Explore The Poetic Form

Identifying and exploring the poetic form is a great way to analyze a poem.

The poetic form determined by the poem’s rhythm and structure. The easiest way to detect the rhythm and structure of a poem is by listening to it.

Poetry is meant to be heard, so read it aloud or listen to a recording of the poem. This will allow for the detection of patterns in rhythm and rhyme schemes. Use that information to identify the poetic form. 

A fourteen-line rhyming poem may be a sonnet. A poem with an AABBA scheme is a limerick. A long narrative poem could be an epic, and a poem that seems to be a tribute may be an ode. Maybe the poem doesn’t seem to follow any form, which would make it free verse. 

While it’s not necessary to know the exact poetic form — you don’t have to memorize all the forms and their distinctions — it can be helpful because certain forms have specific associations. 

For example, sonnets are usually about love. Limericks tend to be humorous, and epics are often adventurous and historical. An understanding of the form of the poem can then open up opportunities for analyses about whether the poem adheres to or challenges its conventions.

Poetry analysis questions to ask about the form of the poem:

• Is the poem traditional or contemporary?
• Does the poem follow a rhyme scheme or rhythm?
• Does the poem follow a specific structure?
• Can the poem be classified under a certain form?
• Does it adhere to or challenge its respective form’s conventions? 
• Does the poem break away from its form or structure at any point? Why might the poet have made the change?

Last Words On How To Analyze A Poem

Analyzing poetry can seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be difficult. Simply break the poem down to its basic elements. Most of the major poetic elements have been outlined in this guide. Then, choose one or two to examine.

Also, make sure you’re asking the right questions. Create your own analysis worksheet or use the ones in this guide. 

The main idea of poetry analysis is to investigate and evaluate the way the poet makes an impression. Find what jumps out and talk about it in your essay, literary magazine , or audio podcast . Good luck!

Have you tried to analyze a poem? What challenges did you face? And how did you overcome these challenges? What poetic elements do you explore the most in your poetry analysis?

Please share your ideas and experiences in the comments below.

Interested in poetry contests? Check out the The 6th Singapore Poetry Contest 2020/How to Submit ($170)

The Origami Poems Project 2020/ How To Submit ($175)

Collins, Billy. “Introduction to Poetry.” The Apple that Astonished Paris. University of Arkansas Press, 1996.

Dickinson, Emily. “I dwell in Possibility.” The Poems of Emily Dickinson . Harvard University Press, 1999.

Frost, Robert. “Nothing Gold Can Stay.” Collected Poems, Prose, & Plays. Ed. Richard Poirier and Mark Richardson. New York: Library of America, 1995. 

Glass, Merrill. “But You Didn’t.” Family Friend Poems, www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/but-you-didnt-by-merrill-glass .

Macdiarmid, Hugh. “ Another Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries.” The Complete Poems of Hugh MacDiarmid . Penguin Books, 1985.

Senghor, Léopold Sédar. “The Young Sun’s Greeting.” Leopold Sédar Senghor: the Collected Poetry . University Press of Virginia, 1998.

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Poem Analyzer Online

• ✏️ Intro to Poem Analyzer

📜 What Is a Poem Analysis?

• 🔎 Techniques of Poem Analysis
• 📚 Poem Analysis Examples

🔗 References

✏️ intro to our poem analyzer tool.

By definition, poetry is a type of literature based on the interactions of words, style, and rhythm. If you dive deeper into this genre, you'll discover that it brings the invisible to the forefront and gives a new meaning to the mundane. Admiring it can be one thing but analyzing poetry can turn out to be a daunting task. However, you don’t have to worry—our poem analyzer will quickly uncover all the main aspects of the work you need to evaluate.

Poem Analyzer: Beneficial Reasons to Use

Students always want to make their lives easier and academic work less tedious. And we are here to help you with that! Our poem analyzer tool has several advantages that can help you finish assignments faster and improve your creative writing skills:

The process of poetry analysis lets students evaluate different aspects of the work and disclose its meaning. It helps people gain a deeper understanding of the poem’s subject, its tone, figures of speech, literary devices, form, and other features. You can also use your paper to describe your feelings about the piece and what the author wanted to say. Additionally, conducting an analysis lets you uncover the deeper meaning behind a poem.

Types of Poetry for Literary Analysis

There are many types of poetry you can analyze with different themes, rhymes, and lengths during your college years. We want to discuss some of the poetry styles you can come across while researching. This segment also explains their differences, which will come in handy in your future analytical paper.

• Acrostic . Acrostic poems have a lot in common with traditional Japanese works. They use the first letter of each line to spell out a name, word, or phrase. The words they spell out often contain the theme or message of the piece.
• Ballad . This type of poetry was originally accompanied by music and passed down through generations. Ballads often tell dramatic or emotional tales, and their influences can be heard in many modern pop songs.
• Free verse . This type of poetry from 19th-century France prioritizes creative freedom above all else. You can make such poems rhyme or not and use as many words in a verse as you wish. It’s one of the hardest types to analyze, as free verse isn’t based on rules.
• Haiku . This ancient Japanese poetic form doesn’t use the traditional rhyming of Western poetry. Instead, it has only three lines, with the first and third having five syllables and the second having seven. Haiku prioritize content over form and invoke a mood or a feeling from the reader.
• Limerick . Hailing from 19th century England, limericks are comical and sometimes rude poems. The last line often serves as a punchline to a joke. The limerick There once was a Man from Nantucket is one of the most popular examples of the genre.
• Ode . Odes are one of the oldest forms of poetry that date back to Ancient Greece. They are made to praise people and objects. An ode is relatively short in length.
• Sonnet . With its Italian origin, this genre was perfected by Petrarch . It means “little song” and is often composed of 14 lines. As a rule, sonnets are romantic poems with a structure that encourages some level of rule-breaking.

🔎 Popular Techniques of Poem Analysis

We will tell you about two techniques for evaluating poetical writings to make your analysis more comprehensive. They will help you deconstruct and interpret the works.

📚 30 Great Poems for Analysis

• If by Rudyard Kipling.
• Allen Gingsberg’s Howl.
• Still I Rise by Maya Angelou .
• T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land .
• The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe.
• The Lamb by William Blake .
• William Ernest Henley’s Invictus .
• Victor Hugo’s Tomorrow at Dawn .
• Sonnet 75 by Edmund Spencer .
• John McCrae’s In Flanders Fields .
• John Keats’s Ode to a Nightingale .
• Martin Espada’s Bully .
• The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes.
• Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath.
• Adrienne Rich’s Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers .
• Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken .
• She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron.
• The Origin of Our People , a Chinese folk poem .
• Sonnet 29 by William Shakespeare.
• Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
• The Addict by Anne Sexton .
• The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri.
• A Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
• Ted Hughes’ Life After Death .
• The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams.
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Paul Revere’s Ride .
• Omar Sabbagh’s Vital .
• Dylan Thomas’ Do Not Go Gentle into That Quiet Night .
• The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
• We Are Many by Pablo Neruda .

Thank you for using our tool! We hope that it managed to help you in your assignment. If your analysis still requires a conclusion, why not try our generator ? It can create a suitable ending for your paper in mere seconds!

❓ Poem Analyzer Tool – FAQ

Updated: Oct 25th, 2023

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Our poem analyzer tool is an indispensable assistant in interpreting poetry! You can quickly get an accurate analysis of the poetic devices and elements used in your poems. Moreover, our guide provides you with the poetry types and popular techniques of poem analysis that you can try out in practice.

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Creative writing at a critical age: Using poetry to stimulate creativity and embrace writing skills in teenage classes

By Keely Laufer

A class creative writing project using authentic materials can be created to challenge, train and develop general writing skills and teach a variety of sub-skills to higher level teenagers, such as creative and critical thinking and editing skills. Creativity involves imaginative, innovative and abstract thinking, and critical thinking involves logic and reasoning, questioning, analysis, assessment and evaluation. When carried out as a long-term class poetry project, these skills combined can help teenagers to express their opinions, attitudes, emotions and sense of self in L2 sooner.

Coursebooks for teenagers do not always provide much opportunity for integrating creative and critical thinking and writing skills into language learning to help students achieve higher levels of self-expression, not only needed for FCE and beyond, but to motivate teenagers by making language learning an enjoyable experience. As Michael Lewis asserts, ‘Syllabuses are directed towards language teaching, but ultimately it is not languages which are being taught, but people. People want and need to express emotion and attitude’ (see note 1). My aim was to help my BKC ‘English in Mind 4’ students, aged between 13-15, develop their creative and critical thinking and writing skills, while raising general student motivation and enthusiasm levels by making the writing process fun, in the context of working towards the FCE course.

Why conduct a long-term poetry project with teenagers?

Teenagers are at a critical stage in their development where they are generally emotional and creative in their thinking and self-expression, yet are also developing the ability to think critically using logic and reason. Therefore, teenagers respond well to activities that have a fundamental expressive, yet critical purpose. As Gordon Lewis confirms, ‘When an activity is designed so that it addresses both types of thinking [creative and critical], students strengthen valuable academic skills and stimulate their curiosity.’ (see note 2). When well-exercised over a period of time, creative and critical writing activities centred around poetry can help to promote the mature development of writing skills, even for students who are not initially as interested in poetry, providing that poems are tailored to be thematically relevant to students’ interests.

Why poetry?

Poetry as an art form exploits language and form in its entirety: everything in a poem has meaning. The beauty of poetry analysis is that interpretations and creative ideas cannot be incorrect, providing that they are shaped from logical consideration of the text and are backed up by textual evidence. This gives students the freedom of exploration, autonomy and confidence in their writing. Poems are also usually shorter than prose and can therefore be revisited many times for the discovery of new layers of meaning.

Procedure for analysing a poem and writing a critical essay:

• Build interest in the central image or theme of the poem with pictures (e.g. a toad). OR In pairs, answer general boarded questions related to the central image or theme (not necessarily directly related to the poem).
• Present the poem on paper with a glossary.
• Teacher reads the poem while students underline any other words that they do not understand. Some students may prefer to take a flipped-classroom approach by taking the poem home to look up any unknown vocabulary. A recording of the poet reading the poem could also be played if available.
• Clarify any difficult vocabulary.
• Brainstorm ideas individually: what could the poem be about?
• Pair-check ideas.
• Students add ideas to the boarded class mind map.
• Class discussion of the poem by ‘chunk analysis’ (stanza by stanza), in relation to the set questions pre-folded back behind the poem (see note 3). These questions are answered to form the critical essay. Teacher boards students’ ideas during the discussion.
• Students write their essay in class or at home, depending on the plan. Some students prefer to take their time writing at home and others prefer to work in class under a time constraint.
• Illustrate and present individual or group posters based on the whole or on a part of the poem. Students or groups receive the poem cut-up into sense-logical chunks and can choose a chunk to focus their illustration on. These illustrations can then be used to further develop speaking skills when presenting their own or each other’s posters.

How students approached writing their own poems:

The students’ first poem was about their most meaningful possession, as a result of not wanting to do an unmotivating writing task in the coursebook. For the second poem, students chose a mutual object of desire and all wrote a poem about the same object. In the following lesson, their challenge was to merge these poems into one collective class poem. Students collaborated to think of a first and last line to add to each other’s poems. I supported as a mediator and helped where needed. This process taught students to appreciate, take into consideration and learn from each other’s work, which also helped develop their speaking, listening, negotiation and general social skills.

Error Correction and Feedback Process

When marking the essays, I prioritised corrections to major grammar, syntax and spelling errors, which made applying corrections achievable between essays. I wrote each student’s top three strengths and corrections at the bottom of their essays and encouraged them to use the list from the previous essay when writing the new essay. When giving class feedback after handing back an essay and before writing a new essay in class, I elicited and boarded the top three collective strengths and weaknesses, as a reminder while students wrote. Then, they proofread their essays against their personal and collective lists. Students can also read each other’s work and give feedback on specific positive achievements and areas for improvement, in relation to content, communicative achievement, organisation and language.

Arsenii was the youngest student in the class, yet his speaking fluency and general writing improved the most dramatically. At the beginning of the project he struggled to write a few sentences about the poems, and by the end, he started coming up with his own complex ideas that he pushed himself to develop, backed up by textual evidence. This creative project gave Arsenii the opportunity to realise his creative potential and trained him to be able to organise and express his ideas in detail.

Earlier in the project:

Middle of the project:

1) What is this poem about?

2) Is this poem really about penguins, or are they a metaphor and why?

3) How does this poem make the reader feel?

Later in the project:

Key improvements from each student (Names have been changed):

Boris - learnt to form his own opinions about a text and express them in his writing with increased detail. Dasha - learnt to organise her ideas clearly, and explore and expand upon them more creatively and in greater depth (see note 4). Lara - learnt to develop her own opinions about a text in greater detail and express spoken and written opinions with more ease and fluency, using sophisticated grammar structures and vocabulary. Lilia - learnt to organise her stream of free-flowing ideas in a structured way.

Samples of portfolio illustrations based on ‘Toad’:

(own image – shared with permission of the author)

By the end of this poetry project, my aim for students to develop creative and critical thinking and editing skills were met. This was demonstrated through the students’ ability to analyse poetry through the application of imaginative, innovative and abstract thinking, yet using logical thinking and reasoning, assessment and evaluation in their essays, class discussions and illustrations of poetry. Not only did creative and critical thinking skills help students to improve their general writing and editing skills, but their speaking, listening, negotiation and general social skills in class. Students were able to express their emotions, opinions and attitudes with increased written and spoken fluency through this poetry project, as knowing that their interpretations and creative ideas could not be incorrect if backed-up by textual evidence, gave students the confidence and freedom to explore themselves through L2.

My other equally fundamental aim to raise general student motivation and enthusiasm levels by making the writing process fun, in the context of preparing for the FCE course, was also met. Not only is the success of this project measurable by the students’ significantly improved writing skills, but also by the students’ level of engagement with the project, their collective pride and initiative shown, which was even greater than expected. Students asked for a new poem to analyse and write about at home after class tests, when given the option of no homework, and some students also illustrated poems to decorate our class portfolio, without being asked.

A long-term class poetry project can be used to improve targeted skills to meet individual and group needs, spice up a coursebook and course content, build a creative classroom climate that can strengthen overall rapport and foster a sense of community spirit. This poetry project proves Lewis’s statement that ‘Literature is a rich source of opinion, attitude and emotion, and literary texts can be exploited in different ways to encourage learners to express their own opinions, attitudes and emotions (p. 163).

Appendix 1:

• What is the theme? Happiness?
• What is the mood of the poem? What words or phrases create this mood?
• Who is the poem about and what is the relationship between the subject and the speaker (poetic voice)?
• Think about the way the poem looks on the page: the shape, where the lines end, line length, etc. How does this influence the meaning?
• Notice the repetitive ‘i’ sound. How does this make you feel as a reader? In what ways can these sound patterns contribute to the meaning?
• Is there any kind of rhyme in this poem, even if not obvious? Think about sound patterns aside from the ‘i’ sound in question 5.

Appendix 2 - Dasha's essay:

Appendix 3:

Extra activities:.

1. Create different types of exercises from each poem:

• Use fewer poems to see how many exercises can be created from each poem.
• A cut-up version of the poem could be given out before being shown in its original form, for students to reorder in groups according to what they think the logical progression should be. Then, in different groups discuss their reasoning and how the meaning of the poem might be different between groups, depending on how it has been reordered. Individuals or groups could take a photograph of their version of the poem and revisit it once they are familiar with the original form, for the purpose of comparing and contrasting any similarities, differences or changes in meaning.
• Assigning different parts of the poem to different individuals or groups to read aloud or write about.
• Writing their own poem in response to the whole poem, or to an area of interest within the poem.
• Creating a performance of the poem (possibly with costumes and props).
• Rewriting exercises (changing or adding to a poem): how would they rewrite the poem to express the same message? Would they use the same language (further explore or play with pre-existing language, i.e. wordplay), form (shape, line length, enjambment, stanza order, meter, rhyme), sound patterns, imagery, tone, genre, context, point of view (poetic voice or another subject’s)? What would they ‘keep, change, add, remove’? Why? OR Rewrite the poem using the same key images to express a personal or social problem that affects teenagers today, by exploring the same poetic techniques in a different way or using different poetic techniques.
• Language awareness prediction exercises: remove words and encourage students to consider the overall message by using surrounding language and tone, in order to work out the words or choose their own words to fill in the gaps. This task would be useful practice for FCE Use of English.

2. Focus on editing skills:

• Read and make suggestions about each other’s work using purposeful guidelines set by the teacher.
• As the project progresses, introduce word counts to encourage shorter and more concise essays, as part of exam preparation technique training, for the purpose of focusing in more depth on a key idea and considering language quality.
• Create exercises using students’ essays: detailed expansion of a word count or to work on paraphrasing skills and reducing a word count.

3. Explore what is not in the poem:  what it might mean if there is no clear set meter or rhyme, instead of it being another element less to consider, or dismissing the poem for being of a contemporary genre.

4. Read and engage with reviews of the poem or poetry collection in which the poem appears:  after students have explored their own ideas through the essay writing process, they could read a review for the purpose of being exposed to other interpretations of the same poem and to write an engaged response. There could be an example of a positive and negative review, to which students can write an opinion piece to support or argue against the reviewer’s opinion. This is also extra exposure to other authentic materials of different writing styles in relation to the class poem.

5. Focus on grammar and collocations: teaching grammar in a creative context or teaching grammar creatively, such as by using the poem to teach or revise a grammar topic from the coursebook.

1 Michael, Lewis, ‘Classroom Reports: Using Poems and Songs in a Lexical Framework’, in Implementing the Lexical Approach: Putting Theory into Practice (Hove: Language Teaching Publications, 1997), p. 163.

2 Gordon, Lewis, ‘Chapter 2: Creative and Critical Thinking Tasks’, in Resource books for teachers: Teenagers, ed. by Alan Maley (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), p.43.

3 See ‘Appendix 1’ for the questions written for Jack Underwood’s poem ‘Toad’.

4 See ‘Appendix 2’ for Dasha’s essay answering the questions in response to ‘Appendix 1’.

Author's bio: Keely Laufer finished her BA in English Literature and Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University in West Wales, followed by an MA in Creative Writing: Poetry, at the University of East Anglia in England. She then completed her Cambridge CELTA at International House London, followed by specialisation training at International House Moscow: 'IH Certificate in Teaching Very Young Learners, 2-7yrs', 'IH Certificate in Teaching Young Learners and Teenagers (IHCYLT)' and the 'IH Certificate in Developing literacy skills with primary and pre-primary learners'. She is particularly interested in stimulating a creative classroom climate through storytelling and craft projects for VYL, literacy projects for YL, and through running poetry courses to develop critical and creative writing skills in higher level teenagers. 

A Full Guide to Writing a Perfect Poem Analysis Essay

01 October, 2020

14 minutes read

Author:  Elizabeth Brown

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

What Is a Poetry Analysis Essay?

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

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

Preparing for the Poetry Analysis Writing

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

Thoroughly read the poem several times

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

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

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

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

Find out more about the poem background

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

Define a subject matter of the poem

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

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

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

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

Choose poem theories you will support

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

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

How to Choose a Poem to Analyze?

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

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

Best Poem Analysis Essay Topics

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

Poem Analysis Essay Outline

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

Introduction

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

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

Body Paragraphs

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

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

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

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

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Poem Analysis Essay Examples 

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

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

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

Writing Tips for a Poetry Analysis Essay

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

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

Write a Poetry Analysis Essay with HandmadeWriting

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To learn how to write a poem step-by-step, let’s start where all poets start: the basics.

This article is an in-depth introduction to how to write a poem. We first answer the question, “What is poetry?” We then discuss the literary elements of poetry, and showcase some different approaches to the writing process—including our own seven-step process on how to write a poem step by step.

So, how do you write a poem? Let’s start with what poetry is.

How to Write a Poem: Contents

What Poetry Is

• Literary Devices

How to Write a Poem, in 7 Steps

How to write a poem: different approaches and philosophies.

• Okay, I Know How to Write a Good Poem. What Next?

It’s important to know what poetry is—and isn’t—before we discuss how to write a poem. The following quote defines poetry nicely:

“Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.” —Former US Poet Laureate Rita Dove

Poetry Conveys Feeling

People sometimes imagine poetry as stuffy, abstract, and difficult to understand. Some poetry may be this way, but in reality poetry isn’t about being obscure or confusing. Poetry is a lyrical, emotive method of self-expression, using the elements of poetry to highlight feelings and ideas.

A poem should make the reader feel something.

In other words, a poem should make the reader feel something—not by telling them what to feel, but by evoking feeling directly.

Here’s a contemporary poem that, despite its simplicity (or perhaps because of its simplicity), conveys heartfelt emotion.

Poem by Langston Hughes

I loved my friend. He went away from me. There’s nothing more to say. The poem ends, Soft as it began— I loved my friend.

Poetry is Language at its Richest and Most Condensed

Unlike longer prose writing (such as a short story, memoir, or novel), poetry needs to impact the reader in the richest and most condensed way possible. Here’s a famous quote that enforces that distinction:

“Prose: words in their best order; poetry: the best words in the best order.” —Samuel Taylor Coleridge

So poetry isn’t the place to be filling in long backstories or doing leisurely scene-setting. In poetry, every single word carries maximum impact.

Poetry Uses Unique Elements

Poetry is not like other kinds of writing: it has its own unique forms, tools, and principles. Together, these elements of poetry help it to powerfully impact the reader in only a few words.

The elements of poetry help it to powerfully impact the reader in only a few words.

Most poetry is written in verse , rather than prose . This means that it uses line breaks, alongside rhythm or meter, to convey something to the reader. Rather than letting the text break at the end of the page (as prose does), verse emphasizes language through line breaks.

Poetry further accentuates its use of language through rhyme and meter. Poetry has a heightened emphasis on the musicality of language itself: its sounds and rhythms, and the feelings they carry.

These devices—rhyme, meter, and line breaks—are just a few of the essential elements of poetry, which we’ll explore in more depth now.

Understanding the Elements of Poetry

As we explore how to write a poem step by step, these three major literary elements of poetry should sit in the back of your mind:

• Rhythm (Sound, Rhyme, and Meter)

1. Elements of Poetry: Rhythm

“Rhythm” refers to the lyrical, sonic qualities of the poem. How does the poem move and breathe; how does it feel on the tongue?

Traditionally, poets relied on rhyme and meter to accomplish a rhythmically sound poem. Free verse poems —which are poems that don’t require a specific length, rhyme scheme, or meter—only became popular in the West in the 20th century, so while rhyme and meter aren’t requirements of modern poetry, they are required of certain poetry forms.

Poetry is capable of evoking certain emotions based solely on the sounds it uses. Words can sound sinister, percussive, fluid, cheerful, dour, or any other noise/emotion in the complex tapestry of human feeling.

Take, for example, this excerpt from the poem “Beat! Beat! Drums!” by Walt Whitman:

Red — “b” sounds

Blue — “th” sounds

Green — “w” and “ew” sounds

Purple — “s” sounds

Orange — “d” and “t” sounds

This poem has a lot of percussive, disruptive sounds that reinforce the beating of the drums. The “b,” “d,” “w,” and “t” sounds resemble these drum beats, while the “th” and “s” sounds are sneakier, penetrating a deeper part of the ear. The cacophony of this excerpt might not sound “lyrical,” but it does manage to command your attention, much like drums beating through a city might sound.

To learn more about consonance and assonance, euphony and cacophony, onomatopoeia , and the other uses of sound, take a look at our article “12 Literary Devices in Poetry.”

https://writers.com/literary-devices-in-poetry

It would be a crime if you weren’t primed on the ins and outs of rhymes. “Rhyme” refers to words that have similar pronunciations, like this set of words: sound, hound, browned, pound, found, around.

Many poets assume that their poetry has to rhyme, and it’s true that some poems require a complex rhyme scheme. However, rhyme isn’t nearly as important to poetry as it used to be. Most traditional poetry forms—sonnets, villanelles , rimes royal, etc.—rely on rhyme, but contemporary poetry has largely strayed from the strict rhyme schemes of yesterday.

There are three types of rhymes:

• Homophony: Homophones are words that are spelled differently but sound the same, like “tail” and “tale.” Homophones often lead to commonly misspelled words .
• Perfect Rhyme: Perfect rhymes are word pairs that are identical in sound except for one minor difference. Examples include “slant and pant,” “great and fate,” and “shower and power.”
• Slant Rhyme: Slant rhymes are word pairs that use the same sounds, but their final vowels have different pronunciations. For example, “abut” and “about” are nearly-identical in sound, but are pronounced differently enough that they don’t completely rhyme. This is also known as an oblique rhyme or imperfect rhyme.

Meter refers to the stress patterns of words. Certain poetry forms require that the words in the poem follow a certain stress pattern, meaning some syllables are stressed and others are unstressed.

What is “stressed” and “unstressed”? A stressed syllable is the sound that you emphasize in a word. The bolded syllables in the following words are stressed, and the unbolded syllables are unstressed:

• Un• stressed
• Plat• i• tud• i•nous
• De •act•i• vate
• Con• sti •tu• tion•al

The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables is important to traditional poetry forms. This chart, copied from our article on form in poetry , summarizes the different stress patterns of poetry.

2. Elements of Poetry: Form

“Form” refers to the structure of the poem. Is the poem a sonnet , a villanelle, a free verse piece, a slam poem, a contrapuntal, a ghazal , a blackout poem , or something new and experimental?

Form also refers to the line breaks and stanza breaks in a poem. Unlike prose, where the end of the page decides the line breaks, poets have control over when one line ends and a new one begins. The words that begin and end each line will emphasize the sounds, images, and ideas that are important to the poet.

To learn more about rhyme, meter, and poetry forms, read our full article on the topic:

https://writers.com/what-is-form-in-poetry

3. Elements of Poetry: Literary Devices

“Poetry: the best words in the best order.” — Samuel Taylor Coleridge

How does poetry express complex ideas in concise, lyrical language? Literary devices—like metaphor, symbolism , juxtaposition , irony , and hyperbole—help make poetry possible. Learn how to write and master these devices here:

https://writers.com/common-literary-devices

To condense the elements of poetry into an actual poem, we’re going to follow a seven-step approach. However, it’s important to know that every poet’s process is different. While the steps presented here are a logical path to get from idea to finished poem, they’re not the only tried-and-true method of poetry writing. Poets can—and should!—modify these steps and generate their own writing process.

Nonetheless, if you’re new to writing poetry or want to explore a different writing process, try your hand at our approach. Here’s how to write a poem step by step!

1. Devise a Topic

The easiest way to start writing a poem is to begin with a topic.

However, devising a topic is often the hardest part. What should your poem be about? And where can you find ideas?

Here are a few places to search for inspiration:

• Other Works of Literature: Poetry doesn’t exist in a vacuum—it’s part of a larger literary tapestry, and can absolutely be influenced by other works. For example, read “The Golden Shovel” by Terrance Hayes , a poem that was inspired by Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool.”
• Real-World Events: Poetry, especially contemporary poetry, has the power to convey new and transformative ideas about the world. Take the poem “A Cigarette” by Ilya Kaminsky , which finds community in a warzone like the eye of a hurricane.
• Your Life: What would poetry be if not a form of memoir? Many contemporary poets have documented their lives in verse. Take Sylvia Plath’s poem “Full Fathom Five” —a daring poem for its time, as few writers so boldly criticized their family as Plath did.
• The Everyday and Mundane: Poetry isn’t just about big, earth-shattering events: much can be said about mundane events, too. Take “Ode to Shea Butter” by Angel Nafis , a poem that celebrates the beautiful “everydayness” of moisturizing.
• Nature: The Earth has always been a source of inspiration for poets, both today and in antiquity. Take “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver , which finds meaning in nature’s quiet rituals.
• Writing Exercises: Prompts and exercises can help spark your creativity, even if the poem you write has nothing to do with the prompt! Here’s 24 writing exercises to get you started.

At this point, you’ve got a topic for your poem. Maybe it’s a topic you’re passionate about, and the words pour from your pen and align themselves into a perfect sonnet! It’s not impossible—most poets have a couple of poems that seemed to write themselves.

However, it’s far more likely you’re searching for the words to talk about this topic. This is where journaling comes in.

Sit in front of a blank piece of paper, with nothing but the topic written on the top. Set a timer for 15-30 minutes and put down all of your thoughts related to the topic. Don’t stop and think for too long, and try not to obsess over finding the right words: what matters here is emotion, the way your subconscious grapples with the topic.

At the end of this journaling session, go back through everything you wrote, and highlight whatever seems important to you: well-written phrases, poignant moments of emotion, even specific words that you want to use in your poem.

Journaling is a low-risk way of exploring your topic without feeling pressured to make it sound poetic. “Sounding poetic” will only leave you with empty language: your journal allows you to speak from the heart. Everything you need for your poem is already inside of you, the journaling process just helps bring it out!

Learn more about keeping a daily journal here:

How to Start Journaling: Practical Advice on How to Journal Daily

3. Think About Form

As one of the elements of poetry, form plays a crucial role in how the poem is both written and read. Have you ever wanted to write a sestina ? How about a contrapuntal, or a double cinquain, or a series of tanka? Your poem can take a multitude of forms, including the beautifully unstructured free verse form; while form can be decided in the editing process, it doesn’t hurt to think about it now.

4. Write the First Line

After a productive journaling session, you’ll be much more acquainted with the state of your heart. You might have a line in your journal that you really want to begin with, or you might want to start fresh and refer back to your journal when you need to! Either way, it’s time to begin.

What should the first line of your poem be? There’s no strict rule here—you don’t have to start your poem with a certain image or literary device. However, here’s a few ways that poets often begin their work:

• Set the Scene: Poetry can tell stories just like prose does. Anne Carson does just this in her poem “Lines,” situating the scene in a conversation with the speaker’s mother.
• Start at the Conflict : Right away, tell the reader where it hurts most. Margaret Atwood does this in “Ghost Cat,” a poem about aging.
• Start With a Contradiction: Juxtaposition and contrast are two powerful tools in the poet’s toolkit. Joan Larkin’s poem “Want” begins and ends with these devices. Carlos Gimenez Smith also begins his poem “Entanglement” with a juxtaposition.
• Start With Your Title: Some poets will use the title as their first line, like Ron Padgett’s poem “Ladies and Gentlemen in Outer Space.”

There are many other ways to begin poems, so play around with different literary devices, and when you’re stuck, turn to other poetry for inspiration.

5. Develop Ideas and Devices

You might not know where your poem is going until you finish writing it. In the meantime, stick to your literary devices. Avoid using too many abstract nouns, develop striking images, use metaphors and similes to strike interesting comparisons, and above all, speak from the heart.

6. Write the Closing Line

Some poems end “full circle,” meaning that the images the poet used in the beginning are reintroduced at the end. Gwendolyn Brooks does this in her poem “my dreams, my work, must wait till after hell.”

Yet, many poets don’t realize what their poems are about until they write the ending line . Poetry is a search for truth, especially the hard truths that aren’t easily explained in casual speech. Your poem, too, might not be finished until it comes across a necessary truth, so write until you strike the heart of what you feel, and the poem will come to its own conclusion.

7. Edit, Edit, Edit!

Do you have a working first draft of your poem? Congratulations! Getting your feelings onto the page is a feat in itself.

Yet, no guide on how to write a poem is complete without a note on editing. If you plan on sharing or publishing your work, or if you simply want to edit your poem to near-perfection, keep these tips in mind.

• Adjectives and Adverbs: Use these parts of speech sparingly. Most imagery shouldn’t rely on adjectives and adverbs, because the image should be striking and vivid on its own, without too much help from excess language.
• Concrete Line Breaks: Line breaks help emphasize important words, making certain images and themes clearer to the reader. As a general rule, most of your lines should start and end with concrete words—nouns and verbs especially.
• Stanza Breaks: Stanzas are like paragraphs to poetry. A stanza can develop a new idea, contrast an existing idea, or signal a transition in the poem’s tone. Make sure each stanza clearly stands for something as a unit of the poem.
• Mixed Metaphors: A mixed metaphor is when two metaphors occupy the same idea, making the poem unnecessarily difficult to understand. Here’s an example of a mixed metaphor: “a watched clock never boils.” The meaning can be discerned, but the image remains unclear. Be wary of mixed metaphors—though some poets (like Shakespeare) make them work, they’re tricky and often disruptive.
• Abstractions: Above all, avoid using excessively abstract language. It’s fine to use the word “love” 2 or 3 times in a poem, but don’t use it twice in every stanza. Let the imagery in your poem express your feelings and ideas, and only use abstractions as brief connective tissue in otherwise-concrete writing.

Lastly, don’t feel pressured to “do something” with your poem. Not all poems need to be shared and edited. Poetry doesn’t have to be “good,” either—it can simply be a statement of emotions by the poet, for the poet. Publishing is an admirable goal, but also, give yourself permission to write bad poems, unedited poems, abstract poems, and poems with an audience of one. Write for yourself—editing is for the other readers.

Poetry is the oldest literary form, pre-dating prose, theater, and the written word itself. As such, there are many different schools of thought when it comes to writing poetry. You might be wondering how to write a poem through different methods and approaches: here’s four philosophies to get you started.

How to Write a Poem: Poetry as Emotion

If you asked a Romantic Poet “what is poetry?”, they would tell you that poetry is the spontaneous emotion of the soul.

The Romantic Era viewed poetry as an extension of human emotion—a way of perceiving the world through unbridled creativity, centered around the human soul. While many Romantic poets used traditional forms in their poetry, the Romantics weren’t afraid to break from tradition, either.

To write like a Romantic, feel—and feel intensely. The words will follow the emotions, as long as a blank page sits in front of you.

How to Write a Poem: Poetry as Stream of Consciousness

If you asked a Modernist poet, “What is poetry?” they would tell you that poetry is the search for complex truths.

Modernist Poets were keen on the use of poetry as a window into the mind. A common technique of the time was “Stream of Consciousness,” which is unfiltered writing that flows directly from the poet’s inner dialogue. By tapping into one’s subconscious, the poet might uncover deeper truths and emotions they were initially unaware of.

Depending on who you are as a writer, Stream of Consciousness can be tricky to master, but this guide covers the basics of how to write using this technique.

How to Write a Poem: Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a practice of documenting the mind, rather than trying to control or edit what it produces. This practice was popularized by the Beat Poets , who in turn were inspired by Eastern philosophies and Buddhist teachings. If you asked a Beat Poet “what is poetry?”, they would tell you that poetry is the human consciousness, unadulterated.

To learn more about the art of leaving your mind alone , take a look at our guide on Mindfulness, from instructor Marc Olmsted.

https://writers.com/mindful-writing

How to Write a Poem: Poem as Camera Lens

Many contemporary poets use poetry as a camera lens, documenting global events and commenting on both politics and injustice. If you find yourself itching to write poetry about the modern day, press your thumb against the pulse of the world and write what you feel.

Additionally, check out these two essays by Electric Literature on the politics of poetry:

• What Can Poetry Do That Politics Can’t?
• Why All Poems Are Political (TL;DR: Poetry is an urgent expression of freedom).

Okay, I Know How to Write a Poem. What Next?

Poetry, like all art forms, takes practice and dedication. You might write a poem you enjoy now, and think it’s awfully written 3 years from now; you might also write some of your best work after reading this guide. Poetry is fickle, but the pen lasts forever, so write poems as long as you can!

Once you understand how to write a poem, and after you’ve drafted some pieces that you’re proud of and ready to share, here are some next steps you can take.

Publish in Literary Journals

Want to see your name in print? These literary journals house some of the best poetry being published today.

https://writers.com/best-places-submit-poetry-online

Assemble and Publish a Manuscript

A poem can tell a story. So can a collection of poems. If you’re interested in publishing a poetry book, learn how to compose and format one here:

https://writers.com/poetry-manuscript-format

How to Write a Poem: Join a Writing Community

Writers.com is an online community of writers, and we’d love it if you shared your poetry with us! Join us on Facebook and check out our upcoming poetry courses .

Poetry doesn’t exist in a vacuum, it exists to educate and uplift society. The world is waiting for your voice, so find a group and share your work!

Sean Glatch

31 comments.

super useful! love these articles 💕

Indeed, very helpful, consize. I could not say more than thank you.

I’ve never read a better guide on how to write poetry step by step. Not only does it give great tips, but it also provides helpful links! Thank you so much.

Thank you very much, Hamna! I’m so glad this guide was helpful for you.

Best guide so far

Very inspirational and marvelous tips

Thank you super tips very helpful.

I have never gone through the steps of writing poetry like this, I will take a closer look at your post.

Beautiful! Thank you! I’m really excited to try journaling as a starter step x

[…] How to Write a Poem, Step-by-Step […]

This is really helpful, thanks so much

Extremely thorough! Nice job.

Thank you so much for sharing your awesome tips for beginner writers!

People must reboot this and bookmark it. Your writing and explanation is detailed to the core. Thanks for helping me understand different poetic elements. While reading, actually, I start thinking about how my husband construct his songs and why other artists lack that organization (or desire to be better). Anyway, this gave me clarity.

I’m starting to use poetry as an outlet for my blogs, but I also have to keep in mind I’m transitioning from a blogger to a poetic sweet kitty potato (ha). It’s a unique transition, but I’m so used to writing a lot, it’s strange to see an open blog post with a lot of lines and few paragraphs.

Anyway, thanks again!

I’m happy this article was so helpful, Eternity! Thanks for commenting, and best of luck with your poetry blog.

Yours in verse, Sean

One of the best articles I read on how to write poems. And it is totally step by step process which is easy to read and understand.

Thanks for the step step explanation in how to write poems it’s a very helpful to me and also for everyone one. THANKYOU

Totally detailed and in a simple language told the best way how to write poems. It is a guide that one should read and follow. It gives the detailed guidance about how to write poems. One of the best articles written on how to write poems.

what a guidance thank you so much now i can write a poem thank you again again and again

The most inspirational and informative article I have ever read in the 21st century.It gives the most relevent,practical, comprehensive and effective insights and guides to aspiring writers.

Thank you so much. This is so useful to me a poetry

[…] Write a short story/poem (Here are some tips) […]

It was very helpful and am willing to try it out for my writing Thanks ❤️

Thank you so much. This is so helpful to me, and am willing to try it out for my writing .

Absolutely constructive, direct, and so useful as I’m striving to develop a recent piece. Thank you!

thank you for your explanation……,love it

Really great. Nothing less.

I can’t thank you enough for this, it touched my heart, this was such an encouraging article and I thank you deeply from my heart, I needed to read this.

great teaching Did not know all that in poetry writing

This was very useful! Thank you for writing this.

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Craft a Captivating Poetry Analysis: 7 Actionable Steps

Here’s how to write a poetry analysis in 7 actionable steps:

• #1 Read the poem silently
• #2 Read the poem aloud, slowly
• #3 Take note of the structure
• #4 Find a message
• #5 Look for techniques
• #6 Learn the context
• #7 Prepare your written analysis

So if you’re eager to master the art of poetry analysis, you’re in the right place.

Let’s get started!

• Craft Captivating Poems: 16 Practical Steps
• Forge a Poem About Yourself: 5 Actionable Steps
• Write Rhyming Poems: Unlock Rhyme Mastery
• Read Poems Aloud Like a Pro: 5 Proven Tactics
• Edit Poetry Like an Expert: 5 Easy Steps
• Analyze Poems: 6 Steps to Craft Meaning
• Format & Punctuate & Annotate Poems: Like a Pro
• Critique Poetry with Ease: 5 Steps to Success

Writing a Poetry Analysis

Many people find poetry analysis to be a very daunting task.

One of the first things you need to realize is that analyzing poetry is as much an art as it is a science.

While there are mechanics and techniques that you can objectively point out, what you pull from the poem will ultimately be different than what the person next to you would, and that’s okay.

Poems, by their very nature, are typically meant to be interpretive, especially when it comes to their uses of imagery.

What a Poetry Analysis Is

A poetry analysis is an essay, usually fairly short, that dissects a poem on its structural and creative elements.

It’s important to think of the poem from multiple perspectives, combining the objective usages of techniques that you can see on paper with your own subjective interpretations of the narrative painted by the poem.

Poetry analysis is often used in academic settings to test the mettle of would-be poets by forcing them to think of poems as machines to be disassembled and reassembled, rather than as some abstract magical combination of words.

There are various benefits to analyzing a poem, both as a student and as a professional:

• Increasing your awareness of the use of basic techniques.
• Seeing how skilled poets utilize rhythm to manipulate tone.
• Learning to see poems as a product rather than as an intimidating abstract.
• Accumulating ideas that you can use in your own writing.
• Learning to recognize the difference between poetic styles.
• Gaining an appreciation for the complexity of your favorite poems.

Take note that a poetry analysis is always done under the assumption that you already have a firm grasp of what the basic poetic techniques and structures are.

If you’re struggling with the basics, then you may find analysis difficult.

Do not be afraid to speak with an instructor after class and ask for help getting caught up if this is the case.

7 Steps to Write a Poetry Analysis

While a poetry analysis is ultimately a free-form exercise, students who feel overwhelmed may want to start off with a list of steps to follow and branch out from there.

While the following steps are by no means all-inclusive, they do more or less cover the basics of analysis.

#1 Read the Poem Silently

Your first read of the poem should always be casual.

Read the poem in the setting that you would naturally read poetry in, without paying any special attention to the techniques or structure.

This will be the easiest step for beginners but will actually be a tricky step for advanced writers.

The reason for this is that skilled writers can fall into a trap where they start to see every piece of writing in terms of technique.

Remember that the average reader does not see the man behind the curtain.

Do your best to read the poem the way a casual reader would so that you can better understand the effect it has on its target audience.

#2 Read the Poem Aloud, Slowly

Reading the poem out loud is a good way to catch nuances of rhythm and structure that you didn’t notice in an initial reading.

It may also force you to understand lines that you struggled with on an initial read.

Poetry started out as an oral tradition so there is value in getting a feel for how the poem sounds, even today.

#3 Take Note of the Structure

One of the most basic ways to interpret a poem is through its structure, and that’s always a good place to start.

Check the end rhymes. Is there a rhyme scheme?

Count syllables.

Is there a specific meter?

Take note of the use of white space, the line breaks, and the line lengths.

Knowing the type of poem, if it follows a particular form, or just the general layout of the poem makes a big difference in how you interpret the poem as a whole.

For example, if you can confirm that you’re dealing with a sonnet, then you can divide it up into its constituent chunks to figure out where the dramatic turn is in the poem and how it’s used.

Every form has specialties, things that the form does exceptionally well.

Recognizing which poems fall under which forms can give you some insight into what they’re doing.

Even free verse poems are bound to use structure to some extent.

Lengthy stanzas with dense wording may be intended to feel overwhelming or suffocating.

A poem divided neatly into quatrains may be intended to be easy to read, and to go by quickly.

This has a ripple effect on everything in the poem, from mood to theming to message.

As an example let’s look at one of Shakespeare’s many famous sonnets:

Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day? Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date; Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. William Shakespeare

A quick review of the syllable counts, meter, and end rhymes will reinforce that this is, naturally, an English sonnet.

So in this case, we know that the poem is ultimately divided up into three quatrains and a couplet.

Or rather, that would normally be the case. Take note of the punctuation here.

Instead of ending the quatrains neatly on a full stop, colons and semicolons are used.

So while stops are implied in every other line, this is technically a run-on sentence right up until the period at the very end.

This might imply that the author meant for the thoughts to be flowing into each other with only brief pauses between them, overlapping each other instead of falling into divisions.

Importantly, many of the lines begin with prepositions.

This again fulfills the notion that this sonnet, a form normally divided into concise thoughts, is meant to be read as one long idea, an interesting and subtle subversion of the form.

The repetitions of the word “summer” reinforce this argument, painting this not as separate sections but as a continuous stream of thoughts.

At least up until the final couplet.

In the final couplet, both lines begin with “so long.”

This divides them into their own unit in a sense, giving them a special significance that is unlike the rest of the poem.

#4 Find a Message

The message of a poem can vary.

It could be anything from a moral or political assertion to a personal expression of emotion.

What do you initially think the message is?

Go line by line and look at the word choices if you’re not sure.

Which lines are emphasized to signify a sort of importance?

Which lines are downplayed, as if the writer purposely wanted to direct your attention?

Figure out exactly what it is that you took away from the poem.

It’s okay if what you see is different than what others see.

I’ve heard someone assert that “The Red Wheelbarrow” can be seen as a metaphor for pregnancy.

This is poetry.

It’s okay for your assertions to sound ridiculous on paper, as long as you can back them up with examples from the text.

If you glance back up at “Sonnet 18” you’ll note that the focal point is always on comparing the lover to beauty in nature, notably the titular “summer’s day.”

As such, it should be fairly obvious that the message contained therein is one of love; an assertion that the speaker’s lover is not only as beautiful as anything in nature but actually so beautiful that even time and death could not force their “eternal summer” to fade.

#5 Look for Techniques

This is where your own understanding of the basics will come into play.

Look for metaphors, similes, alliteration, assonance, imagery, etc.

How are these techniques contributing to the message conveyed by the poem?

What elements are illuminated?

Take special note of metaphors and images.

These are often used symbolically rather than literally, so challenge yourself to see them through different lenses.

Maybe the lampshade on the third line really is just a lampshade.

But if the writer devoted an entire stanza to describing that lampshade in excruciating detail, then perhaps there’s some hidden meaning there for you to dissect.

“Sonnet 18” used metaphor and used it extensively.

The lover is an eternal summer but is also “even more lovely and more temperate.”

The sun-drenched imagery is meant to evoke beauty while the writer uses words like “more” to imply that it’s a beauty beyond what could normally be described.

#6 Learn the Context

In this case, I am referring to the historical and personal context under which the poem was written.

This is an advanced step, but it can drastically change how you see the poem.

Who was the writer as a person and as a member of society?

What situations did he or she live through and what would they or most likely want to express with their voice?

A writer who suffered through poverty most likely sees a different connotation for words like ‘money’ and ‘rich’ than a writer who never wanted anything.

A writer whose only experience with alcohol was social drinking at parties might have a drastically different reason for including empty bottles in a poem than a writer who grew up with an abusive alcoholic father.

Recognize the time period that they lived in as well.

Is there a poem unusual for the time or does it follow trends that make sense given the period?

Our society greatly influences our voice and our sense of priority.

The writer may have been rebelling against a common belief or singing the praises of a famous movement.

Shakespeare lived in a time in which formal poetry based on nature was at its most popular and he was a wildly successful poet and playwright.

So while this may be disheartening, we have to acknowledge the possibility that “Sonnet 18” was intentionally written to be popular, perhaps even more than it was meant to be sincere.

#7 Prepare Your Written Analysis

Now that you’ve done the research and covered the basic readings, you’re ready to write your analysis.

In general, we write a poetry analysis the same way we write any piece of academic writing, but I will quickly go over the constituent parts of an academic essay, in case you’ve forgotten them.

• Introduction: Begin with a hook that defines the poem being studied and hints at the content of the essay in an interesting way. Make sure the introductory paragraph ends with a concrete assertion about what you are going to prove (the thesis statement).
• Body paragraphs: Break your assertion down into manageable chunks of thought. You can either do this in an outline or as you go. For a short analysis, you may only need one or two body paragraphs. Try to make sure that each body paragraph features at least one example from the text, followed by your own interpretations of that example and its features. Avoid ending on a quote. Paragraphs should always end in your own words.
• Conclusion: Rehash the statements of the body paragraphs quickly, often with a sentence that lists off the key centerpieces of the essay. Make a decisive statement that these factors prove your initial point outlined in your thesis. Ideally, end with a statement about what we as writers can learn from the poem.

Of course, poetry analysis is often less formal than normal academic essays since you will often be doing such pieces in a workshop setting.

If your instructor gives you their own personalized instructions, then there is most likely a method behind their madness, so don’t feel constrained to using just this one structure for an essay.

Example of a Poetry Analysis

Remembering everything we’ve covered up until now, I’ll go ahead and show a short example based on Sonnet 18.

Your own analysis is likely to be longer and more in-depth than this one if it’s meant for a professional publication, but the goal here is just to give you a feel for how the analysis should sound.

First, again, the poem:

“Sonnet 18”: An Analysis

In “Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare, the speaker is clearly defining the extremity of his love for an unnamed subject, frequently to the point of hyperbole.

The structure, as we would expect from Shakespeare, is an English sonnet.

It should be noted that there is an interesting and unusual subversion of the form, however.

Whereas one of the defining features of an English sonnet is its clear divisions between the three quatrains preceding the couplet, Shakespeare chooses to use punctuation and prepositions to imply a constant enjambment, implying that everything before the couplet should be read as one unit.

This may potentially be an attempt to emulate a feeling of lovestruck breathlessness for the reader or simply a quirk of the writer himself, but it does have the unique trappings of a run-on sentence.

Either way, giving off the impression that the speaker is unable to contain his obsessive feelings well enough to reach more definite pauses (as would be defined by periods).

The love portrayed is unrealistic and nearly on the verge of worship, as the speaker adamantly claims that his love’s “eternal summer shall not fade” (line 9).

This is ridiculous, of course, since even the most beautiful lover would die of old age eventually but, as if to mock the reader’s doubts, the poem then quickly asserts that even death will not “ brag thou wander’st in his shade ” implying a timeless and immortal beauty (line 11).

Notably, these instances are clear examples of hyperbole, a frequent guest in Shakespeare’s repertoire.

It should be noted that William Shakespeare was a revered playwright and poet, even when alive, well known for purposely courting the interests of the public.

As such, it may be appropriate to remember that sonnets featuring natural images such as “a summer’s day” were particularly popular (line 1).

This doesn’t necessarily mean that the metaphor falls flat, but it is less original when thrown into the proper context of the time that it was written, in which sonnets comparing love interests to elements in nature were very “in.”

In short, this sonnet may have represented the sincere desires of the poet but could have just as easily been a comparable analogue to the pop love songs we hear on the radio in the modern era.

Thus, it may be prudent to analyze this piece as much as a product of the times as it is a product of the writer.

Quick Dissection of the Example

So going back to our steps from earlier, the analysis above identifies the structure (an English sonnet), asserts that the theme is unrealistic and passionate love, mentions the use of techniques like imagery and metaphor, and brings up the historical context in which the poem was written.

Take special note that examples are pulled directly from the text multiple times.

In academic writing, to which most poetry analysis belongs, it’s critical to use textual examples to prove your points.

Ideally, the examples will be interspersed with your interpretations of what the lines mean, in your own words, as displayed above.

While that was admittedly a very brief and bold example, it should serve well enough to give you a potential template or jumping-off point. Choose your favorite poem, read it carefully, and try to keep your writing as informative and professional as possible.

Importantly though, DO NOT BE AFRAID TO MAKE A POINT.

The above example was not satisfied to simply say “this is a love poem by William Shakespeare” and leave it at that, because that’s not an analysis and is unforgivably boring.

By introducing the rather controversial opinion that one of Shakespeare’s most famous poems can be compared to modern pop songs, we start a discussion.

A good analysis inspires criticism and debate. Whatever you read and whatever you write, remember one thing: A GOOD WRITER ALWAYS MAKES A POINT.

Elements of Creative Writing

J.D. Schraffenberger, University of Northern Iowa

Rachel Morgan, University of Northern Iowa

Grant Tracey, University of Northern Iowa

Copyright Year: 2023

ISBN 13: 9780915996179

Publisher: University of Northern Iowa

Language: English

Formats Available

Conditions of use.

Learn more about reviews.

Reviewed by Robert Moreira, Lecturer III, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on 3/21/24

Unlike Starkey's CREATIVE WRITING: FOUR GENRES IN BRIEF, this textbook does not include a section on drama. read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

Unlike Starkey's CREATIVE WRITING: FOUR GENRES IN BRIEF, this textbook does not include a section on drama.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

As far as I can tell, content is accurate, error free and unbiased.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The book is relevant and up-to-date.

Clarity rating: 5

The text is clear and easy to understand.

Consistency rating: 5

I would agree that the text is consistent in terms of terminology and framework.

Modularity rating: 5

Text is modular, yes, but I would like to see the addition of a section on dramatic writing.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

Topics are presented in logical, clear fashion.

Interface rating: 5

Navigation is good.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

No grammatical issues that I could see.

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

I'd like to see more diverse creative writing examples.

As I stated above, textbook is good except that it does not include a section on dramatic writing.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Chapter One: One Great Way to Write a Short Story
• Chapter Two: Plotting
• Chapter Three: Counterpointed Plotting
• Chapter Four: Show and Tell
• Chapter Five: Characterization and Method Writing
• Chapter Six: Character and Dialouge
• Chapter Seven: Setting, Stillness, and Voice
• Chapter Eight: Point of View
• Chapter Nine: Learning the Unwritten Rules
• Chapter One: A Poetry State of Mind
• Chapter Two: The Architecture of a Poem
• Chapter Three: Sound
• Chapter Four: Inspiration and Risk
• Chapter Five: Endings and Beginnings
• Chapter Six: Figurative Language
• Chapter Seven: Forms, Forms, Forms
• Chapter Eight: Go to the Image
• Chapter Nine: The Difficult Simplicity of Short Poems and Killing Darlings

Creative Nonfiction

• Chapter One: Creative Nonfiction and the Essay
• Chapter Two: Truth and Memory, Truth in Memory
• Chapter Three: Research and History
• Chapter Four: Writing Environments
• Chapter Five: Notes on Style
• Chapter Seven: Imagery and the Senses
• Chapter Eight: Writing the Body
• Chapter Nine: Forms

Back Matter

• Contributors
• North American Review Staff

Ancillary Material

• University of Northern Iowa

About the Book

This free and open access textbook introduces new writers to some basic elements of the craft of creative writing in the genres of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. The authors—Rachel Morgan, Jeremy Schraffenberger, and Grant Tracey—are editors of the North American Review, the oldest and one of the most well-regarded literary magazines in the United States. They’ve selected nearly all of the readings and examples (more than 60) from writing that has appeared in NAR pages over the years. Because they had a hand in publishing these pieces originally, their perspective as editors permeates this book. As such, they hope that even seasoned writers might gain insight into the aesthetics of the magazine as they analyze and discuss some reasons this work is so remarkable—and therefore teachable. This project was supported by NAR staff and funded via the UNI Textbook Equity Mini-Grant Program.

About the Contributors

J.D. Schraffenberger  is a professor of English at the University of Northern Iowa. He is the author of two books of poems,  Saint Joe's Passion  and  The Waxen Poor , and co-author with Martín Espada and Lauren Schmidt of  The Necessary Poetics of Atheism . His other work has appeared in  Best of Brevity ,  Best Creative Nonfiction ,  Notre Dame Review ,  Poetry East ,  Prairie Schooner , and elsewhere.

Rachel Morgan   is an instructor of English at the University of Northern Iowa. She is the author of the chapbook  Honey & Blood , Blood & Honey . Her work is included in the anthology  Fracture: Essays, Poems, and Stories on Fracking in American  and has appeared in the  Journal of American Medical Association ,  Boulevard ,  Prairie Schooner , and elsewhere.

Grant Tracey   author of three novels in the Hayden Fuller Mysteries ; the chapbook  Winsome  featuring cab driver Eddie Sands; and the story collection  Final Stanzas , is fiction editor of the  North American Review  and an English professor at the University of Northern Iowa, where he teaches film, modern drama, and creative writing. Nominated four times for a Pushcart Prize, he has published nearly fifty short stories and three previous collections. He has acted in over forty community theater productions and has published critical work on Samuel Fuller and James Cagney. He lives in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

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Creative Writing: Poetry: Stanza & Rhyme

• Introduction
• Lineation & Syntax
• Rhetoric & Mode
• Meter & Prosody
• Stanza & Rhyme
• Analysis, Criticism & Reference

A group of three or more lines, usually with a fixed rhyme scheme, which is repeated more than once. Stanzas are used additively, unlike a one-time pattern of rhymed lines such as the sonnet, which is complete in fourteen lines (Kinzie, 1999).

The agreement of two metrically accented syllables and their terminal consonants. Rhymes can be either subtle (overshadowed by syntax) or definite (Kinzie, 1999).

Resources for Stanza & Rhyme

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• Last Updated: Jul 6, 2022 2:22 PM
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Learning resources

Use art to inspire poetry and creative writing

KS3 (ENG) , KS4 (ENG) , KS3 (NI) , KS4 (NI) , CfE L4 (SCO) , CfE L3 (SCO) , KS3 (WAL) , KS4 (WAL) , KS5 (ENG) , KS5 (NI) , CfE Sen. (SCO) , KS5 (WAL)

Cubism , Pre‐Raphaelitism , Post‐Impressionism , Figurative art , Abstraction

Reading and writing , Literature , Self portraits

Cubist Head (Portrait of Fernande) c.1909/1910

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)

About this resource

How can we use art for creative writing inspiration?

This resource suggests ideas for using artworks as the starting point or inspiration for a poetry or creative writing project. 

Use it to explore:

• poets and poetry inspired by art
• artworks on Art UK to use as a starting point for creative writing projects
• suggestions for looking closely at an artwork
• ideas for planning a creative written response to an artwork

The resource offers opportunities for cross-curricular study across English and Art & Design. The examples of artworks, related poems and activity ideas included in the resource can be used together as a lesson plan or as individual components to integrate into your own scheme of work. The resource is devised for KS 3/CfE Level 3 & Level 4 students but could also be suitable for Key Stage 4 and CfE senior phase students and 16+ learners.

See also our related resource: How can poetry be used to inspire art?

Curriculum links

Art and design

- Evaluate and analyse creative works - Actively engage in the creative process of art - Know about great artists and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms

Reading Pupils should be taught to:

read and appreciate the depth and power of the English literary heritage through:

- reading a wide range of high-quality, challenging, classic literature. The range should include works from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries; poetry since 1789.

understand and critically evaluate texts through:

- reading in different ways for different purposes, summarising and synthesising ideas and information, and evaluating their usefulness for particular purposes - drawing on knowledge of the purpose, audience for and context of the writing, including its social, historical and cultural context and the literary tradition to which it belongs, to inform evaluation  - identifying and interpreting themes, ideas and information - seeking evidence in the text to support a point of view, including justifying inferences with evidence - distinguishing between statements that are supported by evidence and those that are not, and identifying bias and misuse of evidence - analysing a writer’s choice of vocabulary, form, grammatical and structural features, and evaluating their effectiveness and impact - make an informed personal response, recognising that other responses to a text are possible and evaluating these.

Pupils should be taught to:

write accurately, fluently, effectively and at length for pleasure and information through:

- adapting their writing for a wide range of purposes and audiences - selecting, and using judiciously, vocabulary, grammar, form, and structural and organisational features, including rhetorical devices, to reflect audience, purpose and context, and using Standard English where appropriate - make notes, draft and write, including using information provided by others [e.g. writing a letter from key points provided; drawing on and using information from a presentation]

Grammar and vocabulary

consolidate and build on their knowledge of grammar and vocabulary through:

- studying their effectiveness and impact in the texts they read - drawing on new vocabulary and grammatical constructions from their reading and listening, and using these consciously in their writing and speech to achieve particular effects - analysing some of the differences between spoken and written language, including differences associated with formal and informal registers, and between Standard English and other varieties of English - using linguistic and literary terminology accurately and confidently in discussing reading, writing and spoken language.

KS 4 - Develop ideas through investigations, demonstrating a critical understanding of sources - Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions as work progresses - Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and demonstrates an understanding of visual language

English literature

Students should be able to:

- read and understand poetry - respond to poems critically and imaginatively - select and evaluate relevant textual material - use details from poems to illustrate interpretations - explain and evaluate the ways in which the poets express meaning and achieve effects - relate the poems to their social, cultural and historical contexts English Language Writing for purpose and audience Students should be able to: - write accurately and effectively - use an appropriate writing form - express ideas and/or information precisely and accurately - select vocabulary to persuade and/or inform the reader - use accurate grammar, spelling and punctuation Speaking and listening Students should be able to: - communicate clearly and effectively - present information and ideas - use standard English as appropriate - structure and sustain talk - choose and adapt language appropriate to an audience - respond appropriately to questions and views of others - interact with others - make a range of effective contributions - express ideas clearly, accurately and appropriately - listen and respond to others' ideas and perspectives - challenge what they hear where appropriate and shape meaning through asking questions and making comments and suggestions

Studying spoken and written language

Students should be able to: - understand the characteristics of spoken language - understand influences on spoken language choices - explore the impact of spoken language choices - understand how language varies in different contexts; - read and understand texts - understand how meaning is constructed - recognise the effect of language choices and patterns - evaluate how texts may be interpreted differently depending on the reader's perspective - explain and evaluate how writers use linguistic and presentational features to sustain the reader's interest Personal creative writing

Students should be able to: - write clearly and fluently (as well as imaginatively, if appropriate) - organise ideas to support coherence - use an appropriate writing form - select vocabulary appropriate to the task to engage the reader - use a range of sentence structures for effect - use accurate grammar, spelling and punctuation Reading Literary and Non-fiction Texts Students should be able to: - read and understand texts - understand how meaning is constructed - recognise the effect of language choices and patterns - select material appropriate to purpose - evaluate how texts may be interpreted differently depending on the reader's perspective - explain and evaluate how writers use linguistic and presentational features to sustain the reader's interest.

Level 4 - I can analyse art and design techniques, processes and concepts, make informed judgements and express considered opinions on my own and others' work (EXA 4-07a)

Literacy and English

Listening and talking

- When I engage with others I can make a relevant contribution, ensure that everyone has an opportunity to contribute and encourage them to take account of others’ points of view or alternative solutions. I can respond in ways appropriate to my role, exploring and expanding on contributions to reflect on, clarify or adapt thinking (LIT 4-02a) - As I listen or watch, I can clearly state the purpose and main concerns of a text and make inferences from key statements; compare and contrast different types of text; gather, link and use information from different sources and use this for different purposes (LIT 4-04a) - As I listen or watch, I can make notes and organise these to develop thinking, help retain and recall information, explore issues and create new texts, using my own words as appropriate (LIT 3-05a / LIT 4-05a) - I can show my understanding of what I listen to or watch by giving detailed, evaluative comments, with evidence, about the content and form of short and extended texts (LIT 4-07a) - When listening and talking with others for different purposes, I can: communicate detailed information, ideas or opinions; explain processes, concepts or ideas with some relevant supporting detail; sum up ideas, issues, findings or conclusions (LIT 4-09a)

- Through developing my knowledge of context clues, punctuation, grammar and layout, I can read unfamiliar texts with increasing fluency, understanding and expression (ENG 2-12a / ENG 3-12a / ENG 4-12a) - I can make notes and organise them to develop my thinking, help retain and recall information, explore issues and create new texts, using my own words as appropriate (LIT 3-15a / LIT 4-15a) - To show my understanding, I can give detailed, evaluative comments, with evidence, on the content and form of short and extended texts, and respond to different kinds of questions and other types of close reading tasks (ENG 4-17a) - I can: discuss and evaluate the effectiveness of structure, characterisation and/or setting using some supporting evidence; identify how the writer’s main theme or central concerns are revealed and can recognise how they relate to my own and others’ experiences; identify and make a personal evaluation of the effect of aspects of the writer’s style and other features appropriate to genre using some relevant evidence and terminology (ENG 4-19a)

- I enjoy creating texts of my choice and I am developing my own style. I can regularly select subject, purpose, format and resources to suit the needs of my audience (LIT 3-20a / LIT 4-20a) - As appropriate to my purpose and type of text, I can punctuate and structure different types of sentences with sufficient accuracy, and arrange these to make meaning clear, showing straightforward relationships between paragraphs (LIT 3-22a / LIT 4-22a) - Throughout the writing process, I can review and edit my writing independently to ensure that it meets its purpose and communicates meaning clearly at first reading (LIT 4-23a) - I can justify my choice and use of layout and presentation in terms of the intended impact on my reader (LIT 4-24a) - I can use notes and other types of writing to generate and develop ideas, retain and recall information, explore problems, make decisions, or create original text. I can make appropriate and responsible use of sources and acknowledge these appropriately (LIT 4-25a) - By considering the type of text I am creating, I can independently select ideas and relevant information for different purposes, and organise essential information or ideas and any supporting detail in a logical order. I can use suitable vocabulary to communicate effectively with my audience (LIT 3-26a / LIT 4-26a) - I can engage and/or influence readers through my use of language, style and tone as appropriate to genre (ENG 3-27a / ENG 4-27a) - I can create a convincing impression of my personal experience and reflect on my response to the changing circumstances to engage my reader (ENG 4-30a) - Having explored and experimented with the narrative structures which writers use to create texts in different genres, I can: use the conventions of my chosen genre successfully and/or; create an appropriate mood or atmosphere and/or; create convincing relationships, actions and dialogue for my characters (ENG 4-31a)

Art and design - Students use their knowledge about the work of other artists to enrich and inform their work through analysis and evaluation - Students evaluate their work through discussion

Learners should be given opportunities to:

- respond orally to continuous and non-continuous texts - respond orally to a variety of stimuli and ideas, including written and dynamic texts, e.g. paintings, music, film, still and moving images  - communicate for a range of purposes, e.g. recount and present information, instruct, argue and explain a point of view, discuss an issue, persuade, question and explore interpretations, convey feelings - speak and listen individually, in pairs, in groups and as members of a class - present, talk and perform in formal and informal contexts and for a variety of audiences including teachers and peers - engage in activities that focus on words, their derivation, meanings, choice and impact - listen and view attentively, responding to a wide range of communication, e.g. written and dynamic texts, theatre and poetry performance, visiting speakers, explanations, instructions - speak clearly, using intonation and emphasis appropriately, e.g. recitation, oral storytelling - use appropriate vocabulary suitable for the situation or purpose - use appropriate vocabulary and terminology to discuss, consider and evaluate their own work and that of others, e.g. authors, peers

read a wide range of continuous and non-continuous texts, in printed and dynamic format, as a basis for oral and written responses. These should include:

– extracts and complete texts – traditional and contemporary poetry and prose – texts written by Welsh authors, texts with a Welsh dimension and texts from other cultures – texts that have challenging subject matter, which broaden perspectives and extend thinking – texts with a variety of structures, forms, purposes, intended audiences and presentational devices – texts that demonstrate quality and variety in language use – texts with a variety of social, historical and cultural contexts – texts that extend learners’ intellectual, moral and emotional understanding – texts with a variety of tone, e.g. irony, parody, word play, innuendo and satire

read individually and collaboratively, e.g. paired reading, guided group reading, shared reading

read for different purposes, e.g. for personal pleasure; to retrieve, summarise and synthesise key information; to interpret and integrate information; to verify information; to deepen understanding through re-reading; to identify language devices used by the writer to analyse purpose; to identify alternative readings of a text

develop appropriate vocabulary and terminology to discuss, consider and evaluate their own work and that of others, e.g. authors, poets, peers, in written and dynamic texts.

write for a variety of purposes, including to: – recount – inform – explain – argue/persuade – discuss/analyse – evaluate – narrate – describe – empathise

write in a range of continuous and non-continuous texts in a variety of forms

produce poetic writing, using imagery and poetic devices, e.g. rhyme and form

use a wide range of written and dynamic stimuli, e.g. stories, picture books, images, poems, experiences, film, paintings, music

use appropriate vocabulary and terminology to discuss, consider and evaluate their own work and that of others, e.g. authors, peers.

Expressive Arts

Exploring the expressive arts is essential to developing artistic skills and knowledge and it enables learners to become curious and creative individuals.

Progression step 5:

- I can investigate and analyse how creative work is used to represent and celebrate personal, social and cultural identities.

- I can independently research the purpose and meaning of a wide range of creative work and consider how they can impact on different audiences.

Responding and reflecting, both as artist and audience, is a fundamental part of learning in the expressive arts. 

- I can critically and thoughtfully respond to and analyse the opinion and creative influences of others in order to independently shape and develop my own creative work.

- I can purposefully apply knowledge and understanding of context when evaluating my own creative work and creative work by other people and from other places and times.

- I can critically evaluate the way artists use discipline-specific skills and techniques to create and communicate ideas. 

Languages, literacy and communication

Understanding languages is key to understanding the world around us

- I can listen empathetically, respecting different people’s perspectives and can critically evaluate them to arrive at my own considered conclusions.

- I can employ a range of strategies to recognise and predict the meaning across a wide range of texts and from this enhance my own expression and communication.

- I can use  inference  and  deduction  to gain in-depth understanding of complex texts, and can evaluate the reliability, validity and impact of what I read.

- I can use my knowledge of word construction,  grammar , including  syntax , and text organisation to support my understanding of what I hear and read.

- I can read empathetically to respect and critically evaluate different people’s perspectives, using them to arrive at my own considered conclusions.

- I can listen and read to build an extensive range of general and specific vocabulary, and I can use them with precision in different contexts.

Expressing ourselves through languages is key to communication

- I can convey meaning convincingly in a range of contexts so that the audience is fully engaged.

- I can make informed choices about vocabulary and grammar to enhance my communication skills

- I can reflect critically on my use of language and can consider the effects of my spoken, written and  visual communication  objectively.

- I can evaluate and respond critically to what I have heard, read or seen.

Literature fires imagination and inspires creativity

- I can engage with a wide range of literary  genres  in depth in order to explore and craft my own work.

- I can experiment with and craft my own literature.

- I can critically evaluate key concepts and the impact of language choices and techniques on the reader/viewer using an assured selection of relevant textual detail.

- I can appreciate literature, showing empathy when evaluating different interpretations of literature, including my own.

How to use this resource

1. Explore paintings and poetry

The first section of this resource introduces poems inspired by portraits, narrative paintings and abstract artworks.

Choose one or two of the paintings with accompanying poems to explore with your students. Look at the painting first, encouraging students to discuss what it shows and their response to it.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) 1853

William Holman Hunt (1827–1910)

You could think about:

• what does the artwork look like?
• is it an abstract arrangement of shapes and colours or has the artist represented something from the visible world?
• is there a story, meaning or message in the work?
• what is the mood of the work and how does this affect your response?
• how has the artist used techniques such as brushstrokes or chisel marks? What colours have they used?

Then discuss how the poet has responded to the painting.

• What aspects of the painting have they focused on?
• What type of language have they used?
• Have they used the painting as a starting point to discuss bigger ideas or themes or to reflect upon issues that are personal to them? 

2. Activity ideas and suggestions

The second section of the resource includes ideas and suggestions for responding through poetry or another form of creative writing to an artwork.

Did you know?

There is a dedicated term for poems inspired by artworks. Ekphrastic poetry is taken from the Greek word Ekphrasis , meaning to describe something in vivid detail.

Elizabeth Jennings and Rembrandt's late self-portraits

Rembrandt van Rijn was a seventeenth-century Dutch painter. During his long career, he painted over 90 self-portraits that record how he looked from youth to old age. (See additional self-portraits on the Rembrandt artist page on Art UK  and watch a video to find out more.)

Rembrandt's self-portraits from old age are brutally honest, showing melancholy eyes staring out from sagging features and dishevelled hair and clothing.

Self Portrait at the Age of 63 1669

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669)

Poet Elizabeth Jennings  responds to the self-portraits that Rembrandt painted in later life.

You are confronted with yourself. Each year The pouches fill, the skin is uglier. You give it all unflinchingly. You stare Into yourself, beyond. Your brush's care Runs with self-knowledge. Here

Is a humility at one with craft There is no arrogance. Pride is apart From this self-scrutiny.

Read the whole poem and listen to a recording of Elizabeth Jennings reading her poem

Explore an analysis of the poem

Raza Hussain and Holman Hunt's portrait of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882)

In 2017, we challenged five young poets to create an original piece inspired by a painting of their choice from Art UK.

Birmingham-based spoken word artist and rapper Raza Hussain chose an 1853 portrait of Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti by William Holman Hunt . 

Hussain sees the Pre-Raphaelites as rebels who wanted to implement change and Rossetti as 'an iconic and profound symbol of passionate creative madness – the kind to change perspectives – the kind to change the world'.

Find out more about the portrait and Raza Hussain's response to it .

Rowan MacCabe and Ethel Wright's 'Bonjour, Pierrot'

Rowan McCabe is another young poet commissioned to respond to a painting on Art UK as part of the Art Speaks challenge.

Bonjour, Pierrot is an imagined portrait, made in the early 1890s, of the character of Pierrot from French literature. Pierrot has held a fascination for many artists including Jean-Antoine Watteau and Pablo Picasso . The poet Rowan McCabe responds to this depiction of Pierrot by British portrait painter  Ethel Wright and sees Pierrot in the painting as a sad figure, despite his clownish appearance.

McCabe has been affected by mental health issues and, for him, the painting is a reminder that people might seem silly and fun on the surface but can, in fact, be hiding issues relating to their mental health.  

Find out more about the painting and Rowan McCabe's response to it

Explore more paintings by Ethel Wright

Narrative painting

A narrative painting  is a painting that tells a story. The story could be from religion, literature, myth and legend or history. Or it could be a story of everyday life (often referred to as genre painting .)

Poetic responses to Titian's Diana and Actaeon

In 2012, The National Gallery in London invited 13 leading poets to respond to three paintings by Titian (c.1488–1576): Diana and Actaeon   (1556–1559);  The Death of Actaeon  (about 1559–1575); and Diana and Callisto   (1556–1559).   The paintings depict stories from the epic poem Metamorphoses   by the Classical poet  Ovid , who lived   from 43 BC to 17/18 AD.

Diana and Actaeon 1556-1559

Titian (c.1488–1576)

The myth of Diana and Actaeon recounted in  Metamorphoses tells the sad story of the hunter Actaeon who comes across Diana, the Roman goddess of hunting, while she is bathing with her escort of nymphs. The nymphs try to cover the naked Diana who, in a state of shock and embarrassment, splashes Actaeon. This splash turns Actaeon into a deer and he flees the scene. Tragically, however, his own hunting dogs don't recognise their master and attack and kill Actaeon.

Find out more about the paintings in the HENI Talks video on this artwork page

Patience Agbabi on Titian's 'Diana and Actaeon'

In this video poet Patience Agbabi reads her poem About Face inspired by Titian's painting Diana and Actaeon  (1556–1559).

She imagines the thoughts and response of a Black nymph who is depicted standing beside Diana in the painting and helps to cover Diana from the gaze of Actaeon. 

Hear more poets' responses to Titian's paintings on The National Gallery website

Sabrina Mahfouz and Ludolf Backhuysen's 'Boats in a Storm'

Ludolf Backhuysen 's painting,  Boats in an Upcoming Storm with the Church of Zandvoort  (1696) depicts a large sailing vessel, being buffeted by strong winds as it enters a harbour. Men on shore are pulling on a rope to steady her stern while other smaller boats come to the assistance of the distressed passengers. 

British Egyptian poet Sabrina Mahfouz was drawn to the painting by its depiction of a storm, struck by the fact that something as still as a painting is able to capture such ferocious movement and activity.

Abstract art

E. E. Cummings and Cubism

American avant-garde poet E. E. Cummings  was profoundly influenced by early twentieth-century art movements and the experiments with abstract style that Cubists and other modern artists were conducting. In 1913 he visited the International Exhibition of Modern Art in New York  (also known as the Armory Show) where he saw work by artists including Pablo Picasso , Georges Braque , Henri Matisse , Paul Cézanne and Marcel Duchamp . 

Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque's Cubist experiments revolutionised painting. In attempting to suggest the three-dimensionality of objects, landscapes and people by showing them simultaneously from different viewpoints they created fragmented, abstracted images. 

E. E. Cummings was inspired by these fractured artworks and began to explore similar experimentation in his poetry. His poems became visual as well as verbal as he experimented with the form and arrangement of his words. (His poem r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r  is a good example of this.)

Cummings begins his poem, Picasso , with the words:

'Picasso you give us Things which bulge: grunting lungs pumped full of thick sharp mind you make us shrill presents always shut in the sumptuous screech of simplicity'

The poem ends with:

'you hew form truly'

Read the full poem here

Anne Sexton and Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night

Artist Vincent van Gogh is best known for his powerful portraits, flowers and landscapes painted using bold colours and loose brushstrokes that seem to whirl around the surface of his canvases.

The Starry Night, painted in 1889, shows the view from Van Gogh's room in the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum where he was placed after a breakdown (during which he self-mutilated his ear). The view was painted just before sunrise and as well as the trees and hills and starry sky that he could see, Van Gogh added an imaginary village to the landscape.

The Starry Night

1889, oil on canvas by Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890)

In her response to The Starry Night,  poet Anne Sexton has managed to convey the powerful emotions as well as the loose abstracted style of Vincent van Gogh's painting.

'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!'

Ann Sexton researched Van Gogh and read his letters before writing the poem and includes, as an epigraph  to her poem, a line from a letter that Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother.

'That does not keep me from having a terrible need of – shall I say the word – religion. Then I go out at night to paint the stars.'

In creating her response to the painting she imagines Vincent van Gogh thinking about religion and mortality.

Read the full poem here

See an analysis of the poem

Activity: write a poem inspired by an artwork

Now that you have explored a range of poems inspired by paintings, have a go at writing a poem or piece of creative writing inspired by an artwork.

This activity includes tips and suggestions for finding, looking at and creating a written response to an artwork.

Step 1: find an artwork to inspire you

If you are a teacher, task students with finding an artwork that inspires them as a homework project in advance of the class. They could choose an artwork from a local collection or find one on Art UK.

Use the tips below to find artworks on Art UK.

Search by artist

Look for an artist on Art UK. Start typing the artist's name into the search box on the Art UK artworks search page .

A list of artists will appear. Select the artist that you are interested in.

Screenshot of Art UK's artwork search page

You will be shown a list of artworks on Art UK by your selected artist. Browse these and choose an artwork to inspire your creative writing project.

Screenshot of Art UK's artworks search page, showing art by Sonia Boyce

• Go to the artworks search page to search by artist

Search by theme

You can also type a subject or theme into the search box. This could be anything from 'holiday' to 'celebrity' to 'football'. Once you've typed your theme, click the search icon or press return.

You will be shown a list of artworks relating to the keyword.

• Go to the artworks search page to search by theme

Another way to search by theme is to explore Topics on Art UK. We have gathered together a selection of artworks related to a wide range of themes from 'home and family' to the 'natural world'.

• Browse Topics

Search by location

If you'd like to find artworks in museums or galleries near you, use our venue search.

This will allow you to search by UK country and region to find a local gallery or museum and see the artworks that they hold.

• Search by country, region and venue

Be inspired using the artwork shuffle

If you are not sure what you're looking for (but will know when you see it!), use our artwork shuffle.

The artwork shuffle shows a random selection of artworks in different media from collections around the country.

If you don't see anything you like, shuffle again to see another selection.

• Inspire me with the artwork shuffle

Step 2: look closely at your artwork

Once you have found an artwork to inspire you, look closely at it. Note down your thoughts about the work and your feelings in response to it.

• What does the artwork look like?
• Is it an abstract arrangement of shapes and colours or has the artist represented something from the visible world?
• Is there a story, meaning or message in the work?
• What is the mood of the work and how does it affect your response?
• How has the artist used techniques such as brush strokes or chisel marks? What colours have they used?

In this video, created by The Grampian Hospitals Art Trust , writer Shane Strachan shares some useful ideas for looking closely at an artwork.

Step 3: plan and write your creative response

How are you going to respond to the artwork in your creative writing piece?

Your response could be a poem, a text, a memory or a form of your own invention. As well as what you see in the artwork (the imagery, colours and mark-making or use of materials) think about your own interpretation and your response to it.

• What does the artwork make you feel?
• Does it make you think of other things such as memories, places or people?
• Does the artwork tell or suggest a narrative or story?
• Are there any details or imagery within the artwork that draws you in?
• What do the colours, shapes and marks remind you of?

Research and be inspired by others

You could also research the artwork to inform and inspire your approach. Find out more about the artist and their ideas and techniques or research the subject depicted.

Be inspired by the approach of other writers. Revisit the poetry included in the first part of this resource.

Or read creative responses to artworks written by young people for our  Write on Art competition.

• Write on Art: Ruby Langan-Hughes on The Broken Mirror by Jean-Baptiste Greuze
• Write on Art: Variaam Tratt on Preserve 'Beauty ' by Anya Gallaccio
• Write on Art: Aoife Hogan on Childen and Chalk Wall 3 by Joan Eardley

Writing art: inspiration and tips

In this second video from Grampian Hospitals Art Trust , writer Shane Strachan shares ideas and tips for responding to an artwork creatively in writing. He also shares his own poems inspired by artworks.

Watch the video and then get started on your own creative writing project!

Find out more

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How to Use Poetry Analysis as a Daily Warm-up 

There are so many approaches to teaching poetry! While poetry is an excellent way to tap into students’ critical thinking skills, I know my students’ eyes glaze over the second they see those verses. How do you teach poetry analysis without overwhelming or boring students to death? After years of puzzling through this, I have an answer: use poetry analysis as a daily warm-up!

Introduction

I’ve tried in the past to teach iambic pentameter to students during Shakespeare units. I’ve also tried to explain how to mark rhyme schemes.

We’ve taken notes on literary terms. My students have been tested and quizzed. 

It just never stuck. Worse, they seemed bored, which made me feel totally over it.

But we all know how great poetry can be–not only as an entertaining art form but as a way to get kids thinking critically. 

(I mean, all of E. E. Cummings is basically a brain teaser, right?)

I decided that I wanted to expose my students to substantially more poetry. (They ought to know names like Robert Frost , Emily Dickinson , Paul Laurence Dunbar , and more, right?)

I wanted to expose them to a variety of mentor texts so that they could learn and be inspired by the greats.

But I also knew that there was no way my students were going to sit through day after day of poetry analysis. Especially since I planned on teaching all this poetry during what was meant to be a fun Creative Writing elective .

That’s how I came up with my Poem of the Week activities !

The idea is to introduce students to just one poem a week. Each day, Monday through Friday, we examine just one piece of the poem. That could mean summarizing a stanza, analyzing tone, or marking the rhyme scheme. 

By the end of the week, students have annotated the poem, analyzed it, and don’t feel overwhelmed because they’re just answering a question a day.

(If you want to skip the leg work, you can purchase all of my Poem of the Week activities here !)

Step One: Decide On The Purpose of Your Poetry Bell Ringers

Before you go looking for poems, it’s helpful to know what you want students to get from them. 

Do you want students to be able to identify and analyze figurative language?

Is comprehension–the ability to puzzle out a poem’s bigger meaning–more important to you?

Are you more interested in using them as mentor texts and having students “try on” the different styles and voices of the masters?

Knowing what you want to work on with students will greatly inform your poem choices. 

When I created my Poem of the Weeks , I knew I wanted students to pay attention to form and imagery. These were concrete skills that I felt my students could immediately understand and master.

Later, when we started working on more abstract skills like voice, I’d be able to come back and use these poems as examples. 

It was also important to me that I introduce students to a wide range of voices, if possible.

I did stick to public domain poetry, which limited my choices quite a bit. But I was able to find a good mix of black and white and male and female poets for my students to read. 

I also chose a mix of structured and unstructured poetry. I wanted my students to see how varying poetry can be. 

Whatever skills or purpose you choose, it will be the guiding principle for your poem choices.  

Step Two: Decide on Your Timeline

How long do you want to spend on a single poem? Will it be consistent or different for each one?

Will you be using these warm-ups for a unit? A quarter? A whole year?

You should have a rough idea of how many poems you want to cover. 

When I first began using poetry as warm-ups, I was doing it for a 9-week Creative Writing course . I wanted to expose students to as many mentor texts as possible, but I couldn’t resist sharpening up those literary analysis skills at the same time. 

I decided to do one Poem of the Week, which meant I’d need at least 9 poems. Knowing how many you’ll need should help you focus when it comes to choosing the texts themselves. 

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Step Three: Choose Poems to Analyze

We’re fighting against the attention spans of teenagers here, so you’re going to want to choose poems to analyze that are short and don’t require too much background vocabulary.

Aim for poems that are less than a page long. I find any longer and we start creeping into “overwhelm” territory.

If you want to introduce your students to longer works, at least let them get some shorter poems under their belts first. Once they have some quick wins, they might be more apt to attempt longer poems. 

I also recommend choosing poems with relatively simple diction. This doesn’t mean the poems have to be simple, but the individual words should be. 

If students don’t understand the individual words, they’re out .

I like to start with Robert Frost because there are no surprises. His work is exactly as students expect it to be. The word choice is relatively simple, there’s a pleasant rhyme, and it requires some deep thinking to understand without being impossible. 

I also love to throw some E. E. Cummings in front of them. The words themselves are simple, but at first glance, they have no clue what’s going on! I think my students surprised themselves when they were able to analyze “Buffalo Bill’s” after a few weeks of poetry study. 

Step Four: Break the Poems Down

This is the hard part. Certain poems lend themselves to some bite-sized lessons more readily than others.

A free verse poem, for example, will not be a great way to teach the different kinds of rhymes. So some of this will be intuitive.

For other poems, there may be so much to talk about, that it’s hard to choose only five tiny features to analyze. 

In the end, when I had to make a choice about which skills or literary elements to analyze, I always opted for whatever step I thought would help my students comprehend the overall poem the most. 

You may decide to follow a certain poetry analysis structure like TP-CASTT. If this is a structure you and your school use, then great!

For me, it’s not a model I’m terribly familiar with, and I really wanted to stick to the one-step-a-day for the week idea, so I cherry-picked elements to analyze based on the individual poems.

However you structure your activity, aim for the daily exercise to take no longer than five minutes. Remember, the goal is frequent, daily practice that doesn’t overwhelm students. 

I created worksheets for all of my Poem of the Week activities . That way students could annotate and answer questions all on one sheet. 

Alternatively, you could pass out the text and have students respond on a separate piece of paper. 

You could also give students a small annotation task every day. Monday maybe you circle and define unknown words. Tuesday perhaps students underline figurative language. Wednesday students could mark the rhyme scheme or meter. And so on.

The great thing about using poetry as your daily warm-up is that it’s totally customizable. Do what works for you and your students!

The steps, questions, or tasks that you assign for each bell ringer, however, should guide students through reading the poem–not quiz them on it. 

You may want to start broad : break down the form/rhyme scheme/meter, identify the thematic ideas, understand the historical context, etc.

Then, ask students to go deeper: why did the author allude to this or that work, why did the poet choose this word over another, and so on. 

With your poetry analysis warm-ups, begin broadly and then go deep. 

Step Five: Have Fun with Poetry!

It’s almost cruel to expose students to so much poetry without letting them create any of their own!

Because I specifically meant for my Poem of the Week activities to serve as mentor texts, I created a creative writing assignment to go with each weekly warm-up.

Each Write Your Own poem activity asks students to create their own poem using the studied poem as a mentor. This could mean writing around the same subject, using the same rhyme scheme, trying the same poem type–it all depends on the poem we study that week.

(All of these Write Your Own activities are included with their corresponding Poem of the Week activities !)

Your fun poetry activities don’t have to be so elaborate though.

If you’re short on time, you could simply introduce students to Haikus or have them write a poem about themselves. 

If you’re looking for hands-on fun, try black out and found poetry .

At the end of the class, you could even cut up all the poetry bell ringers students have analyzed, and have them combine and rearrange the lines into new poems!

With poetry and creative writing, there are endless opportunities for fun.

Step Six: Include Poetry Analysis in Your Summative Assessments

Whether you’re using poetry warm-ups for a unit, a year, or an elective, I recommend incorporating the poetry into a summative assessment. After all, five minutes of practice a day really adds up, and students should be able to show off their skills.

This can easily be done by giving them a full poem as a test or part of a test. 

(In my Poem of the Week bundle I’ve included ten poetry bell ringers. You could use nine during a nine-week quarter and administer the tenth as a test.)

You could include some of the same skills that you’ve taught on your course final.

If you’re more project-based and less test-oriented, a fun idea is to have students create their own Poem of the Week!

I’ve included some directions, a rubric, and a template in my Poem of the Week bundle , but you could DIY your own. The idea is that after students have spent weeks practicing poetry analysis with daily tasks or weekly worksheets, they should come up with their own!

This is a great way to offer some choice and differentiation for students. It’s also a way to expose students to more modern and diverse author voices. Plus, you can keep the best ones to use as warm-ups for the next semester or year!

Students would choose a short poem from an author they enjoy. Then, they would carry out the same steps you did to create the warm-up. They’d have to analyze the poem for themselves first, then reverse engineer directions to guide others to their interpretation.

Nothing reinforces a skill like having to teach it!

I have seen amazing growth in my students’ abilities to analyze a poem since implementing my Poem of the Week activities . And personally, I love knowing that I have an entire quarter’s worth of bell ringers AND follow-up activities ready to go. 

There is a substantial amount of prep time involved, however.

If you’d like to save yourself a lot of precious time (I spent months working on mine!), have some creative writing extension activities, and get access to a project in which students create their own poetry worksheet, I highly recommend you purchase my Poem of the Week bundle .

Inside is ten weeks’ worth of poetry bell ringers and writing activities, with corresponding slideshows of author background information and analysis answers.  

To find out more and preview all ten Poem of the Week activities, check out the bundle on my Teachers Pay Teacher store. 

Trending Post : 12 Powerful Discussion Strategies to Engage Students

9 Fun Poetry Lessons to Add to Your Next Unit

Did you land on this post while searching for ways to make poetry less painful…more exciting…more interactive…more creative? Maybe you’re starting your first poetry unit, or maybe you need a way to engage students who claim to dislike it. In this post, you’ll find nine fun poetry lessons for secondary.

1. Creative Writing

Help students study the importance of text structure as they write nonfiction-inspired poetry. Try blending elements of prose, verse, picture books, and concrete poetry to help students understand the power of word choice and aesthetics.

This would also be an opportune time to fit in the concepts of rhythm and rhyme. Studying how words are arranged can help students understand the impact of author’s craft on the overall reader’s experience.

In this activity, students read a nonfiction text (selected by you or by them!), identify their key takeaways, and respond creatively using poetry! Read more about this lesson plan here .

2. Music Analysis

Poetry lessons wouldn’t be complete without music lyric analysis!

I incorporate music into every poetry unit because it makes the genre more relevant to reluctant students. Reading poetry is an opportunity to practice analysis and annotation skills. Songs change in popularity, and each class has a different culture, which should be taken into consideration when selecting music.

One of my favorite lessons using poetry is when I introduce the presence of figurative language in verse with the song “ My Heart’s a Stereo .” It’s a fun way to explore the concept of an extended metaphor. Follow up this lesson with the poem “All the World’s a Stage,” which is part of  As You Like It.

Use this free song analysis activity to guide your discussion.

3. Mood and Tone

Mood and tone can be difficult concepts for students to grasp. I try to re-visit the concepts multiple times throughout the year with various types of literature.

Visuals help! For example, analyze mood and tone by comparing the way the author plays with word choice to the way an equalizer adjusts the sound frequencies of a song.

This engaging poetry lesson  requires students to think critically and symbolically about how mood is represented by color and how tone is controlled through the equalizer. The poet’s diction is the focal point of this creative task, which can be applied to any poem. Want a recommendation? Try using it with “The Highwayman.”

4. Picture Inspiration

Want students to write poetry? Pictures are an excellent hook. Previously, I wrote about 13 ways pictures can inspire students to write poetry . You can find detailed ideas in that post.

Consider: wordless picture books, old family photos, cartoon strips, social media. Texting couplets are also engaging. The possibilities are inspiring.

Download the picture-based poetry resource featured below to help differentiate poetry writing for your students.

5. Close Reading

Looking for more traditional poetry lessons? Sometimes we kill a poem by asking students to read it and analyze it for everything under the sun. I’ve had more luck with close reading and poetry when I focus on one specific target.

With this lesson , students read and re-read short poems, analyzing them through a specific lens. For instance, how does the poet’s word choice impact the reader’s overall experience? How do the connotations and denotations of important words establish the mood?

6. Paired Texts

Surprise your students by pairing poems with nontraditional texts, like short films. Here are five recommended pairings to get students thinking. What I love about this poetry lesson is how it incorporates diverse perspectives, which increases the rigor. As a result, students typically come up with some impressive responses.

Students enjoy poetry more when they can connect the themes to their own lives and to other modern literature. That’s an important benefit of approaching poetry through a paired-text analysis approach.

7. Play Games

Once students have been introduced to the terminology you are using during your poetry unit, don’t be afraid to give them a poem and turn them loose with a game. It’s a social way to think critically about a poem, and as they talk, you have the freedom to roam around and overhear common misconceptions. In doing so, you’ll have a better idea of what concepts might require a follow-up lesson.

This poetry challenge covers structure, figurative language, types of poems, and sound devices. Students can play it with many different poems. Not sure they’re ready for independent play? Play as a class by projecting the game and dividing the students into groups.

Looking for a figurative language game students can use to practice literary terms? Try figurative language Truth or Dare , or, for a more advanced class – Get Schooled !

8. Re-Read with Color

This reading strategy is fun, and it can be used with any text. It’s one I came up with as I was brainstorming ways to pull the main idea from a text and then get students to see how that idea is developed by smaller details.

Next time you want students to process important information from a poem, try asking them to re-read with color . Basically, students will pull out the central idea, then text evidence, and finally connect the poem to life. You can give students different prompts as well.

Each time they read through the poem, they look closely at another layer of meaning.

9. Write First

I’m often surprised at how much more willing my students are to participate when I’ve given them an opportunity to process their thoughts in writing before a class discussion. If you are seeking higher engagement, try giving students some time to reflect on questions before engaging with peers.

These poetry journal prompts each focus on a different important concept and can be used with any poem. Try using them after a class discussion as a way for students to synthesize their opinions.

Poetry lessons can be fun. Spice up your next poetry unit with some of these activities, and drop your own favorite approaches in the comments.

RELATED RESOURCE

Grab this creative poetry analysis resource to spice up your existing unit. Use these analytical graphic organizers and written response tools to get your students thinking critically about any song or poem.

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