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Poetry is HARD. I mean, I often have trouble understanding it\u2014and I am myself a poet and<\/em> a poetry teacher. But that is the point of poetry: the fact that it can be \u00a0difficult to understand, or, as I prefer to say, mysterious<\/em>, is also what \u00a0makes it magical and complex and, well, wise and, ultimately, rewarding. The process of understanding a poem \u00a0is what makes the poem powerful to you, as an individual. And, while \u00a0you definitely don’t need<\/em> to understand poetry in order to derive pleasure from it, \u00a0I understand that sometimes you \u00a0need \u00a0<\/em>to write a paper or perhaps you simply \u00a0want \u00a0<\/em>to become \u00a0cultivate your inner Hermione.<\/p>\n Poetry is hard because it’s dense. So the key, when analyzing any poem, is to read the poem a few times, with an eye toward each poetic component. Comprehension comes in pieces. Patience is key. Also: \u00a0Trust your gut.<\/p>\n Before we get started: \u00a0I strongly recommended working with a photo copy of a poem and\/or a book \u00a0you don’t mind marking up. It depends on how you think, but I find it most helpful to write all over the poem.<\/p>\n 1. Go to a caf\u00e9. Get \u00a0an espresso.<\/p>\n 2. Put on a black beret (also known as: “thinking cap”).<\/p>\n 3. Read the poem, once through, to yourself. Underline any words you don’t know. Before you go any further, look up those words and write the definitions in the margin.<\/p>\n 4. Cry for an hour.<\/p>\n 5. Read the poem again, this time, with an eye for \u00a0content:<\/strong> what is the poem “about”? Does it \u00a0tell a story? If it doesn’t, what seems to be the organizing principle? The \u00a0organizing principle could be as basic as, “all observations made by an ‘I'” or “it’s in the shape of a horse<\/a>“\u2014or you \u00a0might not be sure yet. That’s fine.<\/p>\n 6. Read the poem again (yup\u2014get used to it!). This time, as you read, notice any words or phrases that recur. Recurring words and phrases can often point you to a poem’s \u00a0central ideas or themes. For instance, in Emily Dickinson’s famous “I’m Nobody! Who are you!”<\/a>, the word “Nobody” appears again, immediately, in the second line…so, yeah, you can guess right off the bat that \u00a0what it means to be “nobody” is probably \u00a0central \u00a0to the poem.<\/p>\n 7. Get \u00a0another espresso.<\/p>\n 8. Read the poem (yes, the same poem<\/a><\/em>) \u00a0yet again, and this \u00a0<\/em>time, with a focus on the syntax<\/a><\/strong>. Is the poem one long sentence? A few \u00a0shorter sentences? Are there question marks? Dashes? Exclamation points? Colons? Periods? Or does the poem not appear to be written in sentences at all? Is it in fragments? \u00a0Is there little to no punctuation? Syntax can help you figure out the \u00a0tone<\/strong> \u00a0of the poem (lots of exclamation points = excitement or irony), while also pointing you toward important moments in the poem: as they say, where there’s smoke there’s fire. Well, in the land of literary analysis, punctuation’s the smoke. So, sticking with the Dickinson: in that second line, she writes, “Are you \u2014 Nobody \u2014 too?,” setting off the “Nobody” with dashes. She’s using dashes to further emphasize the word. \u00a0If a poem uses only one colon or two commas or three \u00a0periods, go to those moments. Look closer.<\/p>\n 9. Stare off into the distance for ten minutes.<\/p>\n 10. You’ve probably read the poem enough times at this point to do some thinking without rereading. Notice the \u00a0diction<\/strong>, or word choice, of the poem. Does it seem, like, totally, like, you know, something you’d say on your cell to your bestie?? Or was \u00a0it, perchance, penned in a rather formal and archaic diction? Or maybe, it’s, like, an amalgam of low and lofty registers? First, check the date it was written. What’s formal to you might’ve been street slang to Shakespeare. And next, think about it: why might a poet write in a casual manner? Or, for that matter, in a formal way? How does it alter your reading of the poem? (Also: diction’s another useful \u00a0indicator of tone!).<\/p>\n 11. Scribble a haiku in the margins of your notebook.<\/p>\n 12. On your next reading, read the poem aloud, \u00a0paying close attention to \u00a0sound. How does the poem \u00a0feel \u00a0<\/em>in your mouth? Is it smooth and melodious and easy to say? Or is it harsh and tongue-twister-y? Is there rhyme? Alliteration<\/a>? Assonance<\/a>? Consonance<\/a>? Some other sound thing that doesn’t have a name? And how does all this affect you as a reader? Does it lull you or frustrate you or excite you or crack you up? If you answered “yes” to any of the above, the poem’s doing its job. The sound of a poem is one of the ways it’s able to transmit a feeling \u00a0to you, the reader. So: what emotion or feeling do you think this one’s transmitting? \u00a0Which sounds make you think that?<\/p>\n 13. Lastly (!!!!<\/a>), consider the form,<\/strong> or shape, of the poem. Is it separated into neat and regular stanzas? Is it in couplets? A block of prose? A string of short lines? Is it scattered all over the page like dandelion fluff? Does it follow a regular rhyme scheme? Is it small? Large? How does its size or shape or layout interact with the content and themes and language of the poem? The long, expansive lines of this Walt Whitman poem<\/a> \u00a0echo and reinforce the sense of the poem’s inclusivity\u2014each line is trying to hold as much as it possibly can\u2014more than it can.<\/p>\n 14. Try to take a (non-literal) step back. How are all of these components working together to create a feeling or explore an idea? Are some of these elements in tension with each other? (For instance, maybe it’s poem about spaceships \u00a0written with 19th century vocab. Tension exists there between the subject and the language.) If so, what’s the effect of that tension?<\/p>\n 15. Now revisit the first question: what do you think this poem’s “about”? You should have a better idea of it’s themes\u2014and some proof to back you up.<\/p>\n 16. Adjust your beret.<\/p>\n 17. Sigh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Poetry is HARD. I mean, I often have trouble understanding it\u2014and I am myself a poet and a poetry teacher. But that is the point of poetry: the fact that it can be \u00a0difficult to continue reading<\/span>