Analyzing Poetry - Analyzing PDF

Analyzing POETRY  Step 1 Read the poem at its most literal level to form a basic understanding of it. This will help you discover the poem’s main subject and provide the foundation for your analysis.  Step 2 Identify and characterize the speaker...

Analyzing POETRY  Step 1 Read the poem at its most literal level to form a basic understanding of it. This will help you discover the poem’s main subject and provide the foundation for your analysis.  Step 2 Identify and characterize the speaker of a poem, explore relationships among ideas, such as contrasts that help signal the speaker’s attitude toward the subject. This will help form the basis of your interpretation of a poem’s meaning  Step 3 Read a poem for its style details, demonstrating how each of the major poetic elements of style contributes to a poem’s meaning. This last step is crucial: it connects style to meaning by providing evidence for your interpretation of the poem. Reading for Literal Meaning Before you can analyze a poem, you must identify its subject. What is the poem about? A poem’s title sometimes serves as its first line, and it can reveal details about a poem’s subject.  Key Questions What is happening in the poem? What do you visualize as you read? What does it make you think about? What is your emotional reaction?  Considering the Speaker Once you have identified the subject of a poem, the next step is to think about who the speaker is. A poem’s speaker provides its “voice”; when we read a poem, we are viewing the world from the speaker’s perspective.  Keep in Mind A poem can be interpreted in several ways. Meaning is complex, and every reader is a unique person, there is not single “right” way to approach deciphering the speaker’s attitude toward the subject. Your job is to defend your interpretation of a poem’s meaning with evidence from the work itself. Connotation the associations a word carries What are the differences? skinny, slender, svelte, gaunt, slim dog, pooch, canine, pup run, bolt, race, sprint, dash alleged, reported, maintained rich, affluent, prosperous, wealthy kids, descendants, children, progeny, offspring  Diction Denotation and connotation work together to create diction. A poem’s diction provides a direct link to the speaker’s attitude, and in turn, some of the poem’s more profound ideas. As you consider diction, try to locate the words with strong connotations and think about how these added layers affect the poem’s meaning.  Diction If you are not sure how to find the diction that gives a poem its depth and power, look for word choices that appeal to one or more of your five senses. Consider how these words develop the character of the speaker.  Analyzing Diction Are important words and phrases formal, informal, colloquial, or slang? Are there words with strong connotations, words we might refer to as “loaded”? What are those connotations? How do the poet’s word choices appeal to one or more of your senses?  Tone and Mood The speaker’s attitude toward the subject of a poem is expressed by the poem’s tone and mood. Tone provides the emotional coloring of a work and is a direct reflection of the speaker’s attitude; diction is often the primary contributor to a poem’s tone, but all of the writer’s style choices affect it. Mood is the feeling the reader experiences as a result of the tone.  Tone and Mood If you are unsure of how to read a poem’s tone, its mood- the way you feel about it- will help point you in the right direction. If you have a solid understanding of the poem’s subject and the identity of its speaker, the tone may be clear to you before you begin to look closely at the poet’s language choices.  Tone Words Here are some tone words to help get you started: solemn, earnest, candid, restrained, melancholy, indignant, insistent, contemptuous, sad, bitter, nostalgic, sentimental, argumentative, condescending, cynical, urgent, generous, mocking, dreamy, wistful, apologetic, playful, aloof, somber, questioning, irreverent, grim, forthright, resigned, reflective, ambivalent, ecstatic, mournful Interpreting Tone and Mood How does the poem make you feel on your first read? What is the speaker’s attitude toward the subject of the poem? How do you know? How do specific word choices contribute to tone? Does the tone change over the course of the poem? If so, what is the effect of that shift?  Tone Activity Working in pairs, identify and justify the speaker’s attitude toward the subject in the lyrics provided using literary elements. Underline and/or circle these elements and analyze them for tone. Every line needs to have an annotation. What conclusions can you make about the tone of these lyrics- what do they mean? How are they important? Even though you may work together, keep this sheet-you may use it later.