Looking at a Poem: Some questions to ask
Poetry can be formal or informal, serious or funny. It can be complex and difficult, or simple on the surface with subtle meanings flicking in the background. Making sense of poetry, and finding things to say about it, can help you refine your powers of Observation.
Some things to ask and notice about a poem:
What’s the title of the poem?
What is the first line?
What is the last line?
What images do you notice? (Images are language that evoke direct sensory experiences: sight, sound, taste, smell, sensation)
Are these images linked together or similar in some way? Do some images repeat?
What feelings or emotions does the imagery suggest?
What information does the poem give you about the poem’s “speaker” or persona – does it say where the person is? Any biographical details like age, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, marital status, health, work, etc.?
What is the person doing? Thinking? Feeling?
What information does the poem give you about the world – botany, history, language, politics, cooking – what can you learn from it?
What does the speaker seem to be most concerned about?
How long is the poem (number of lines)?
Is it arranged in stanzas? Are the stanzas of regular length, or do they vary? How many lines per stanza?
How long are the lines (number of words? of syllables)? Or, what’s the range between shortest and longest line?
Does the poet end sentences at the end of lines, or do sentences wrap around and end in the middle of a line?
Is rhyme used at the end of lines? Within a single lines? Some other way?
Are there patterns of repeated words, or repeated lines? How would you describe those patterns?
Read the poem out loud. What parts of the language seem most interesting, alive, or musical? Which words or passages capture your attention as you read them?
If you had written this poem yourself, what would be your motivation – why might you write such a poem?
Why do you think this author wrote the poem?
What’s the weirdest, strangest, most confusing or mysterious part of the poem?
Do you notice any repetitions or emphases of concept or image, any pairings and contrasts? For example, a poem might repeat images of light or brightness, or contrast imagery of dark and light, sound/silence, sacred/profane; or there might be repetitions and contrasts in the music of the language, such as smooth/choppy, long words/short words.
Choose two words from the poem that seem like they might be key, and, even if you already know them, look them up in the Oxford English Dictionary. Study their etymology and their historical meanings. Consider whether this adds anything to their meaning in the poem.