What Is Literary Appreciation?

Literary appreciation is the ability to study, understand and evaluate or make a critical
judgement of literary works. The writing styles, themes, figurative and non-figurative use
of language, literary devices and other elements that are visible in a literary work are
considered and studied through the use of literary appreciation.
Other scholars of literature also have their own varying definition on the concept of literary
appreciation. Notable of these scholars are Ogenwele (2006) and Donelson and Nilsen
(2009). Ogenwele (2006) defines literary appreciation as the evaluation of works of
imaginative literature as an intellectual or academic exercise. Through this evaluation, the
reader can properly and easily interpret the intent of the writers as well as the
complexities and the advantages and disadvantages of the literary work.

Similarly, to Donelson and Nilsen (2009), literary appreciation echoes this sentiment and
add that it is the process by which one ‘gauges one’s interpretive response as a reader to a
literary work.

Elements of Literary Appreciation

There are some indispensable elements of literary appreciation. They are provided below:
1. Plot: This is the sequential arrangements of event in a literary work. It's the
storyline and must be detailed.
2. Theme: Theme is the central idea that is inferred from reading and interpretation 9f
the plot, imagery and symbolism in a literary work. In other words, it is the central
issue raised in the work.
3. Style: This is the way the language is structured or the ways or manner in which a
work is written. Technically, every writer has his or her own style of writing.
4. Mood: This is the feeling of atmosphere that the writer created for the reader
through the description of the setting, what the characters say and the use of
language. This element of literary appreciation is important in order to fully
appreciate the literary work by having a classical overview of the writer's intent,
mood, or emotions.
5. Diction: This has to deal with the author's choice of words.
 6. Literary devices: The literary devices used in the work could also help the reader
to fully understand the work despite the expressions used.

Approaches to Literary Appreciation

These are some of the approaches to literary appreciation that can be adopted in order to
have a full grasp of what a particular literary work entail. They are:
• The context of the literary work
• The structure of the work.
• The poetic devices employed in the work
• The themes inherent in be literary work

Stages of Literary Apppreciation

There are stages of literary appreciation which could serve as a guide to the better to
evaluating literary works.
In Margaret Early’s Stages of Growth in Literary Appreciation, these stages are considered
as parts of literary appreciation and determining the personal attitudes, reading and
observing skills.
These stages through which the readers go through are added unto without dropping the
previous stages. As a result, appreciating literary works can be considered as a lifelong
process.
To give more clarity, Donelson and Nilsen (2009) devised that literary appreciation occurs
in Seven different stages.

The stages of Literary Appreciation are:

Level 1: Pleasure and Profit (literary appreciation is a social experience)
Level 2: Decoding (literacy is developed)
Level 3: Lose yourself (reading becomes a means of escaping)
Level 4: Find yourself (discovering identity)
Level 5: Venture beyond self (‘going beyond me’, assessing the world around them)
Level 6: Variety in reading (reads widely and discusses experiences with peers)
Level 7: Aesthetic purposes (avid reader, appreciates the artistic value of reading)
The Difference Between Literary Appreciation and Literary Criticism
The difference is that literary appreciation is majorly the ability to evaluate as well as enjoy
works of literature. The goal is largely pleasure. Literary criticism on the other hand seeks
to understand why and how a particular literary work works.

Importance of Literary Appreciation

Literary appreciation is an alienable part of literature. In the same vein, its importance to
the understanding of literature, its benefits and the literary works can't be overemphasized
as it is.
1. Proper Evaluation: Hence, one of the importance of literature is that it allows
proper evaluation of literary works.
2. Connection Between the Readers and Writers: It also gives more intimation
between the readers and the writers— like some sort of connection focused on the
same literary pieces.
3. It Gives More Value: Another importance of literary appreciation is that through
such attempt of evaluation, literary works become more valuable.
4. Information and Imagination: It helps us to have full grasp of the informative and
imaginative aspects of literature.

Poetry Appreciation
Poetry appreciation is a respect or an assessment of poetry as a literary work.
Literature reveals the human life, but the process of poetry creation requires the power of
writers’ imagination and creativity. Prior to appreciating literature, an author appreciates
problems of human life and re-expresses them through a means of fiction (in the form of
poetry, short stories, novels, or drama). In the process of this creation, literary creativity
can be "infinite". Authors create, manipulate, and deal with the problems of life that can be
observed in different intrinsic and universal truths of fiction. Authors can propose
something that is likely to occur but, in fact, it never happens. In one way or another, fiction
can change bitter and painful things into a pleasant contemplation of literature. Therefore,
through literary work, readers will indirectly get a chance to learn to understand and
appreciate the problems of human life deliberately revealed by the author. Thus, literature
can ignite the readers to be more sensible.
Appreciation is usually associated with arts. Poetry appreciation has something to
do with poetry activities. By hearing or reading poems, students learn to be genuinely
appreciative. They also learn to write, recite and review poems they produce. By doing
these activities intensely, an individual student is able to understand the poetry in depth
(with a full appreciation); he or she can feel what the poet feels, enables to absorb values in
the poem, and appreciates poetry as work of art along with its beauty or weakness. To
appreciate poetic values means to introduce readers with self-appreciation and criticism.
People who have a sense of poetry appreciation are not only convinced but also desirable
to put things in the context of imagination, creativity and creation. Hence, the appreciation
of poetry is an "award for poetry or a result of recognition, understanding, interpretation,
appreciation, and enjoyment of the work supported by the inner sensitivity of values in the
poem". Within these limitations, the sensitivity to appreciate literary work like poetry
helps university students to (1) identify, (2) understand, (3) be able to interpret, (4) be
able to live, and (5) enjoy literary work. There are four levels of poetry appreciation,
namely (1) the level of fondness, (2) the level of enjoyment, (3) the degree to react, and (4)
the level of productivity. Thus, a sense of poetry appreciation is a literary award that is
supported by the inner sensitivity values in poetry, so that one is able to recognize,
understand, interpret, appreciate and enjoy the literary work.

How to Write Appreciation of a Poem

Appreciation simply means to evaluate and analyze a poem in order to have
its better understanding. It includes two steps:
Step 1
In order to write a critical analysis of a poem, one is required to first evaluate the
poetic techniques used by the poet. It includes analysis of the genre: Genre simply means
category.
Every genre has its own distinct features. e.g. Sonnet has 14 lines divided into three
quatrains and a couplet. Thus the poem could be a sonnet, ballad, elegy, ode, lyric, dramatic
etc.
• the rhyme scheme: It could either be abba, aabb, abab etc. However, some poems
are blank verse as well i.e. without any rhyme scheme
• the figures of speech: it includes imagery, simile, metaphor, personification,
repetition, pun, oxymoron, alliteration etc.
• the language style: It includes the use of figures of speech, rhythm, word length,
number of lines, images, senses
• the tone of the speaker: tone can be mysterious, provocative, ominous, festive,
fearful, exuberant, hopeful etc.
• the references to other works: it includes a reference to works of other authors

Step 2
Second, the reader should evaluate the meaning of the poem. It includes
• Speaker: Speaker could be the poet himself (like Wordsworth) or a hero (as in the
poems of Keats) or a shepherd etc. Knowing about the speaker is important as every
speaker speaks differently.
• Title: it includes the relevance of the title, its historical significance, etc.
• Denotation: the literal meaning of the words. It helps to get the basic idea of the
poem.
• Connotations: the ideas invoked by the words i.e. deeper meaning-the message or
universal truth it conveys. This helps to understand the central theme of the poem.
• Purpose of writing: The purpose of writing could be to inform with facts or to
persuade with an appeal to reason or emotions or just to entertain the readers.
• Movements: A reader is required to have information about the movements that
were trending during the time of the poet. The movements have a significant
 influence on the writing of a poet. e.g. Romantic Movement influenced the poets of
the early 19th century.

Having done all the analysis and evaluation, the reader should first write a description of
the poem and then its comprehensive interpretation in his own words.

How to Write a Critical Appreciation of a Poem:

Critical appreciation of a poem is defined as the critical reading of a poem. The meaning
of its words, its rhyme, scheme, the speaker, figures of speech, the references to other
works (intertextuality), the style of language, the general writing style of the poet ( if
mentioned), the genre, the context, the tone of the speaker and such other elements
make up the critical reading or appreciation. It does not mean criticising the poem. A
critical appreciation helps in a better understanding of the verse.

Meaning- Read the poem more than once to get a clear idea of what the speaker is
trying to say. Look up the meanings of difficult or unusual words in a thesaurus. The title
of the poem is a key to the general meaning and summary of the thought presented. A
poem might be about lost love, 'Lucy' (Wordsworth).

Rhyme Scheme- Find the rhyming words. These occur at the end of each line. Rhyming
words might be present in the middle of the line also. Mark the rhyme scheme. For
example, if rhyming words occur at the end of each line alternatively in a poem of 4
lines, the rhyme scheme will be 'a b a b'. In the poem, 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy
Evening' by Robert Frost, the second stanza goes like this:

"My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year... "

In these lines, the rhyme scheme is 'a a b b'

In several poems, there are no rhymes. Such a poem is called a blank verse.

Speaker- Identify the speaker of the poem. It can be a child, an elderly, a shepherd, a
swordsman, a student, a milkmaid, a sailor, an animal or even an object like a chair or a
place like a house or a mountain. Each Speaker will speak differently.

Setting- Every poem has a specific setting. It might be a ship or a modern condominium.
The setting is the background of the poem and contributes to its meaning. For example,
the setting of a pastoral is very likely to be a grazing ground for a flock of ship. The
setting of Eliot's 'Preludes' is a modern city with its people leading a mechanical life. The
words also convey the same sense.

"And short square fingers stuffing pies,

And evening newspapers, and eyes,

Assured of certain certainties... "

Context- The context gives us the time and location of the poem. It is what prompted the
poem. The context might be an event of great political significance like the French
Revolution. It prompted P.B. Shelley's famous, "Ode to the West Wind." The poem
beautifully upholds the spirit of the revolution and heralded the dawn of a new age.

Language- The language of a poem is the very vehicle of its thoughts and ideas. Study
the language in terms of the use of figures of speech, its tone, use of loan words or
archaic words, length of sentences, the rhythm (meters- iambic, Trochaic or any other),
number of lines etc. Note the introduction of new ideas and mark the place where it
occurs. For example, in the poem, 'The lamb' by William Blake, the lamb refers to both
the baby sheep, the little boy who is the speaker and the Lamb of God. Here the word,
"lamb" is a metaphor.

Intertextuality- While writing the critical appreciation of a poem, we notice that another
poem is alluded or looked back upon. This is called intertextuality or reference. For
example, Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' allude to Boccaccio's 'Decameron' in its
structure of people narrating stories during a journey.

Genre- Genre roughly means the category of the poem. Each genre has set rules and
characteristics. For example, a very long narrative poem, running into a several
thousands of lines, dealing with divine figures or demi-gods or great generals of the past
and describing a terrible war or an incredible journey on which the fate of humanity rests
can be termed as epic. For example, the 'Iliad' (Homer), 'Paradise Lost' (J. Milton) and
such poems. A short poem of 14 lines expressing intimate emotions is a 'sonnet'. For
example, 'Let me not to the marriage of true minds' (Shakespeare) is a sonnet extolling
real love and devotion. There are several genre- satire, mock-epic, ballad, lyric, ode,
parody etc.

8 easy-to-use steps to writing an effective critical appreciation for any given poem with
lots of examples from well known poems to make things lucid and graspable. For the
use of all English literature enthusiasts!

Poetry Appreciation Methods

Critical Appreciation simply means to evaluate and analyze a poem in order to have its
better understanding. It includes two steps:

Step 1

In order to write a critical analysis of a poem, one is required to first evaluate the poetic
techniques used by the poet. It includes analysis of the genre: Genre simply means
category. Every genre has its own distinct features. e.g. Sonnet has 14 lines divided into
three quatrains and a couplet. Thus the poem could be a sonnet, ballad, elegy, ode,
lyric, dramatic etc.

the rhyme scheme: It could either be abba, aabb, abab etc. However, some poems are
blank verse as well i.e. without any rhyme scheme (Background, Casually by Nissim
Eziekel)
the figures of speech: it includes imagery, simile, metaphor, personification, repetition,
pun, oxymoron, alliteration etc.

the language style: It includes the use of figures of speech, rhythm, word length,
number of lines, images, senses (e.g. in Happy Insensibility) etc.

the tone of the speaker: tone can be mysterious, provocative, ominous, festive, fearful,
exuberant, hopeful etc.

the references to other works: it includes reference to works of other authors (like Eliot’s
reference to Murry in his work The Function of Criticism)

Step 2

Second, the reader should evaluate the meaning of the poem. It includes
Speaker: Speaker could be the poet himself (like Wordsworth) or a hero (as in the
poems of Keats) or a shepherd etc. Knowing about the speaker is important as every
speaker speaks differently.

Title: it includes the relevance of title, its historical significance, etc.

Denotation: the literal meaning of the words. It helps to get the basic idea of the poem.
e.g. in the poem The Good Morrow by John Donne, the meaning of the words help to
understand the diverse knowledge possessed by the Metaphysical Poets.
Connotations: the ideas invoked by the words i.e. deeper meaning-the message or
universal truth it conveys. This helps to understand the central theme of the poem. e.g.
in the poem Ode to Autumn, the central idea is quite different from what the words
perceive.
Purpose of writing: The purpose of writing could be to inform with facts or to persuade
with an appeal to reason or emotions or just to entertain the readers.
Movements: A reader is required to have information about the movements that were
trending during the time of poet. The movements have a significant influence on the
writing of a poet. e.g. Romantic Movement influenced the poets of the early 19th
century.
Having done all the analysis and evaluation, the reader should first write a description of
the poem and then its comprehensive interpretation in his own words.