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SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR APPROACHING POETRY SYSTEMATICALLY:

1. What is the poem about?

 Does it tell a story?
 If yes then it is a narrative poem.
 If no, does it present an image or series of images?
 If it develops through its imgery rather than a story, it is probably a lyric poem.
 Who is the speaker of the poem, and who its target?
 What are its themes?
 How do its themes tie together?

2. What does the poem look like?

 What is the number of lines (often indicates form, e.g. sonnet – see below)?
 Does it have stanzas?
 If yes, how are these stanzas organized (2-line couplets, 3-line tercets, 4-line quatrains,
6-line sestets, 8-line octaves, or 9-line nonets, etc.)?
 How is one line divided from another line (clear stops or enjambment/run-on lines)
 What internal divisions exist in lines?

3. What does the poem sound like?

 Does the poem employ end rhyme (similar or consonantsounds at the ends of lines)?
 If yes, how is this rhyme organized
 Is there internal rhyme (similar or identical sounds within a single line, or across lines,
but not simply at the end)?
 If yes, does it use vowel sounds (assonance – see below), or consontnats (alliteration –
see below)?
 Does the poem try to imagine actual sounds or onomatopoeia (see below)?
 Where are the breaks, breaths or caesurae (singular form – caesura)?
 Where are the stressed syllable ( – ) and the unstressed syllables ( ˇ )
 How do these stressed and unstressed syllables combine to form regular rhythmic
patterns or feet (e.g. iamb, dactyl, anapaest, trochee, spondee – see below).
 Do these feet combine to constitute regular metre (dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter,
pentameter, hexameter – see below).

4. What figures of speech/imagery does the poem employ?

 What visual images does the poem use?
 What conceptual imagery does the poem use (comparisons of different kinds)?
 Does the poem use metaphor (implicit comparison which treats one thing as another in
order to exhibit how we picture things, e.g. “the government, the cornerstone of the
state); simile (explicit comparison using like or as, e.g. “he nosed around the garbage like
a rat); personification (inanimate objects are given human qualities, e.g. the tree was
bare, its fingers reaching towards the sky), metonymy (one term substitutes for another,
e.g. “the pen is mightier than the sword”); synecdoche (one part stands for a whole, e.g.
“the law” to mean the police force)?
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 How does the poem appeal to the senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste) individually,
or in combination (synaesthesia)

5. What is the poem’s form

 What is the form (shape or structure) of the poem (e.g., – the container for its poetic
contents?
 Is this form determined by the poem’s belonging to a specific genre (e.g., the lyric )?
 Is this form determined by structural concerns (e.g., rhyme or metre, such as the
sonnet)?
 Is this form determined by the progression of concepts/ideas, or the interaction of
concepts/ideas and the physical layout of the poem (e.g. pattern poem)?

6. What is the context of the poem?

 What is the historical context of the poem (socio-political, period/epoch)?

 What is the individual context of the poem (the poet, the addressee, etc.)?
 What is the significance of this context to the poem (varies from poem to poem)?
 How does context relate to the form and content of the poem?

7. What is the effect?

Most importantly, however, we must ask the following three questions:
 What is the effect of all the aural, visual, conceptual and formal qualities of the poem?
 How is this effect achieved?
 What is the overall effect of the poem?
 How does effect relate to intention?

ESSENTIALS FOR THE CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF POETRY

1. MEANING:
Sense: what is the poem about?
Intention: what is the poet/poem trying to communicate?
Feeling: what feelings or attitudes are conveyed?
Tone: what is the attitude of the poet/poem towards the reader?

2. GENRE/TYPE:
The three principal poetic genres are:
Epic: long narrative poem, often related to important mythological or historical events.
Dramatic: poetry which involves dialogue between several characters.
Lyric: short poems which try to convey a specific image using musical, poetic language.
Other distinct types include the ode (stately poem dedicated to a specific occasion or person) and
epigram (brief, witty poem).
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3. FORM:
Think of form as a container which gives shape to the abstract stuff of poetry. Form can be
determined in several ways:
Sound: especially as determined by the rhyme scheme of a poem, which is often explored in tandem
with rhythm and metre (see below)
Visually: forms based on rhyme are often reinforced visually by the separation of stanzas. However,
some poetic forms (especially modern and contemporary poetry) rest more heavily on the visual
design of words and lines, where they appear in on the page and in relation to one another.
There are a number of common forms determined by rhyme and reinforced visually:
Poetry written in couplets: two line rhyming stanza (aa, bb, etc.); especially heroic couplet (in iambic
pentameter)
Poetry written in tercets: three-line stanza poems (usually aaa)
Poetry written in quatrains: four line stanzas (e.g., ballad stanza, abcb; used in numerous forms)
Ottava rima: poems written in eight lines of iambic pentameter
Spensarian stanza: nine line stanza developed by Spencer; first eight in iambic pentameter, last line
in iambic hexameter
Sonnet: fourteen-line poem divide into three principal species: Italian – octave (problem, abbaabba)
and sestet (resolution, cdecde/cdcdcd) ; English/Shakespearian – three quatrains (first introduction,
abab; second and third development, cdcd efef) and couplet (conclusion, summation, gg);
Spenserian – variant of English with interconnecting rhyme between quatrains (abab bcbc cdcd ee).
Blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter
Free form: poetry composed freely without prescribed rhythmic patterns or rhyme.

4. IMAGE/IMAGERY:
Idea, description of sensory information and meaningful associations combine to create a concrete
image (or images) usually central to poetry’s meaning and effect (these can be literal, figurative or
symbolic). Imagery is at the very heart of poetry. Successful imagery usually involves the concurrent
use of figures of speech and poetic language (see below).

5. FIGURES OF SPEECH:
The term figure of speech is itself instructive. Here, language generates a concrete figure by which
comparisons can be struck between to like or even unlike things.
Metaphor: implicit comparison which treats one thing as another in order to exhibit how we picture
things, e.g. “the government, the cornerstone of the state”);
Metaphorcial conceit:
Simile: explicit comparison using like or as, e.g. “he nosed around the garbage like a rat”;
Personification: inanimate objects are given human qualities, e.g. “the tree was bare, its fingers
reaching towards the sky”
Metonymy: one term substitutes for another, e.g. “the pen is mightier than the sword”)
Synecdoche: one part stands for a whole, e.g. “the law” to mean the police force?

6. POETIC LANGUAGE:
Poetic language involves the patterning of words to increase their impact in terms of meaning and
sensation. As such, it is distinct from the language of prose – often more ornate and singular to its
evocative task. Poetic language makes extensive use of aural effects such as alliteration (repetition
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of consonant sounds, e.g. “ Skulls cropped for steel caps” [Basil Bunting]); assonance (repetition of
vowel sounds, e.g. “Mixt their dim lights, like life and death) and onomatopoeia (sound effects, e.g.
whoosh , blam! ). This type of repetition is often tied to the repetition of words or phrases, e.g.:
“What is it then between us?/ What is the count of the score or hundreds of years between us?/
Whatever it is/ it avails not – distance avails not, and place avails not,/ I too lived, Brooklyn of ample
hills was mine, / I too walk’d the streets of Manhattan island, and bathed in the waters around it,/ I
too felt the curious abrupt questionings stir within me” [Walt Whitman]

7. THEME AND MOTIF:

Theme refers to the subject of the poem, or what it is about. Themes in poetry are as varied as the
styles and forms within which they are written. Nonetheless, common thematic areas include
occupation/work, social structure, human relationships, emotional experience, death, the
supernatural and religion.
Motif refers to the particular objects or ideas associated with, and used to develop, a particular
theme.

8. RHYTHM
Rhythm describes the manner in which language involves patterns of stressed ( – ) and unstressed
syllables ( ˇ ). Different rhythmic patterns create different emphasis and so contribute significantly to
the meaning of poetry. A basic rhythmic unit is called a foot. There are six principal feet in English
poetry: four two-syllable feet, and two three-syllable feet:
iambic (iamb): unstressed followed by stresses syllable; ˇ – ; da-dah
trochaic (trochee): stressed followed by unstressed syllable; – ˇ ; dah-da
spondaic (spondee): two consecutive stressed syllables; – – ; dah-dah
pyrrhic (pyrrhic): two consecutive unstressed syllables; ˇ ˇ ; da-da
dactylic (dactyl): stressed followed by two unstressed syllable; – ˇ ˇ ; dah-da-da
anapestic (anapest): two unstressed followed by a stressed syllable; ˇ ˇ – ; da-da-dah

9. METRE
When rhythmic units are repeated in a way which establishes a regular pattern, it is known as metre.
Metre is named according to the type of foot, and the number of feet in each line of a given poem.
Regarding number, the principle meters are as follows:
Dimeter – two feet per line
Trimeter – three feet per line
Tetrameter – four feet per line
Pentameter – five feet per line
Hexameter – six feet per line
Regarding the type of foot, we scan for the dominant foot. We might find iambic pentameter – with
five iambs per line; or iambic hexameter – with six iambs per line. We might find an alternating
pattern of trochaic trimeter – with three trochees per line; and trochaic tetrameter with four
trochees per line. There are many exceptions however: sudden reversal within a general metre,
inversion brought about by long pauses, etc.