Poetry Analysis Fact Sheet
BASIC DIRECTIONS
Title-- Think about the title before reading the poemList words and Phrases-- List the important nouns, verbs, phrases, and clauses in separate columns, especially if they create an image in the reader's mind
Paraphrase-- Translate the poem into your own words
Connotation-- Contemplate the poem for meaning beyond the literal. the connotative meaning is the "extra baggage" that a word carries with it.
Attitude--Observe both the speaker's attitude and the poet attitude which is identified as tone.
Tone--The feeling that the poet "puts into" the poem.
Mood--The feeling that the reader gets "out of" the poem.
Shifts-- Note shifts in speaker's voice and in the speaker's attitude.
Title-- Examine the title again, this time on an interpretive level. In poetry a flower is often not JUST a flower...think on a deeper level. Remember though, you can't just make stuff up. You must have some proof in the lines to back up what you are stating. (This will be your proof in the form of quotations)
Theme --Determine what the poet is saying. Theme statements are about life in general, and not specific to the poem you are analyzing. So if the poem deals with unfulfilled love between a man and a woman the statement "true friends are with us in our hearts although they might be miles away" is a theme statement whereas "the man loved the woman but she went away, and he still loves her" is not.
SPECIFIC SUMMARY ANALYSIS...
At this point, you can also be marking your photocopy of the poem with a highlighter because you are looking for quotations to incorporate into your writing.
Title: Ponder the title before reading the poem; predict what the poem may be "about."Paraphrase: Translate the poem into your own words. Focus on one syntactical unit at a time, not necessarily on one line at a time. Or write a sentence or two for each stanza of the poem.
Connotation: Contemplate the poem for meaning beyond the literal. What do the words mean beyond the obvious? What are the implications, the hints, the suggestions of these particular word choices?
Devices: Examine any and all poetic devices, focusing on how such devices contribute to the meaning, the effect, or both, of a poem. (What is important is not that you can identify poetic devices so much as that you can explain how the devices enhance meaning and effect.) Especially note anything that is repeated, either individual words or complete phrases. Anything said more than once may be crucial to interpretation.
Attitude: Observe both the speaker's and the poet's attitude (tone). Diction, images, and details suggest the speaker's attitude and contribute to understanding.
Shifts: Rarely does a poet begin and end the poetic experience in the same place. As is true of most of us, the poet's understanding of an experience is a gradual realization, and the poem is a reflection of that epiphany. Trace the changing feelings of the speaker from the beginning to end, paying particular attention to the conclusion. To discover shifts, watch for the following: key words: but, yet, however, although; punctuation: dashes, periods, colons, ellipsis; stanza and/or line divisions: change in line or stanza length or both; irony: sometimes irony hides shifts; effect of structure on meaning, how the poem is "built"; changes in sound that may indicate changes in meaning; and changes in diction: slang to formal language, for instance, or postive connotation to negative; the crux, the one crucial part of the work that stands out, perhaps presenting the complete idea all by itself.
Title: Examine the title again, this time on an interpretive level.
Theme: In identifying theme, recognize the human experience, motivation, or condition suggested by the poem. Use this theme chart:
- PLOT: A summary of the "plot" or events of a poem written in a short paragraph form
SUBJECT: Subjects of the poem are listed as words or phrases
THEME: After combining subjects where appropriate, write a complete sentence identifying what idea the poet or speaker (narrator) is conveying about each subject.