Dear all,
In my own perspective, I prefer to 'taste' the text the way I 'feel' right. All literature used to be called 'poetry' one time. However, with the development of literary analysis, many critical theories or you may say 'schools' had emerged. Therefore, I suppose you need to be having the sufficient knowledge of some literary criticism theories and schools in order to open the windows of your analytic mind when approaching any literature, in our case poetry. It's worth mentioning that GRAMMAR and LANGUAGE organization, iner alia, is the ruler in this regard and in most of criticism fields.
In short, I have collected some notes from the internet on how to approach a poem, mainly general ideas and some standard steps to follow. You may pick what you want and arrange them with the perspective of your professor or lecturer. I'm offering here what you need when dealing with poetry analysis.
buckle up guys :) here we go (( note: there's a download link to
'literary terms' down below where you can learn about the terms used.
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An Easy Way To Begin
Poetry is the dramatization of experience in metrical
language. To study or analyze poetry, one must consider many elements. A good
way to start is by reading the poem silently. Then read the poem a second
(third, fourth) time aloud. Reading the poem aloud makes its meaning clearer
and you will hear the various poetic sound devices such as alliteration, rhyme,
rhythm, etc. Then try writing down a brief summary to make sure that you are
understanding the poem. Remember to read sentence by sentence not line by line.
Questions To Answer Before Writing
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1.
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Who is speaking?
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10.
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End rhyme scheme?
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2.
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To whom?
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11.
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Alliteration?
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3.
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About?
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12.
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Assonance?
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4.
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Tone?
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13.
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Consonance?
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5.
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Examples of abstract imagery?
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14.
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Caesura?
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6.
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Examples of concrete imagery?
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15.
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Enjambment?
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7.
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Examples of denotative language?
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16.
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Theme?
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8.
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Examples of the 5 figurative devices?
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17.
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Rhythm / Meter?
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9.
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Examples of rhetorical devices?
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18.
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Syntax?
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Writing Your Paper
The actual writing of the paper is probably the easiest task
because you have already identified everything that needs to be covered. You
may wish to cover all the important items in your own order, however, the order
listed above does work well.
Most likely you will not be able to simply write a few lines
for each device, rather you must group these devices together. A proper order
of paragraphs may flow like this:
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A.
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Who is speaking?
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B.
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To whom is that speaker speaking?
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C.
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What is the situation?
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D.
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What is the speaker's tone?
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IV.
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Diction (word choice)
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A.
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Connotation (suggested meaning of words)
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B.
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Denotation (dictionary definition)
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C.
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Abstract (can only be understood intellectually)
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D.
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Concrete (words describing physical objects)
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E.
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Kinds of language
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a.
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Metaphor (implied comparisons)
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b.
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Simile (comparison using 'like' or 'as')
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c.
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Personification (giving human characteristics to an
inanimate object)
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d.
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Metonymy (the use of an attribute or quality of an object
to represent the object itself)
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e.
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Synecdoche (substitutes a significant part of something
for the thing itself)
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a.
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Irony (opposite of what is meant)
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b.
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Hyperbole (exaggeration)
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c.
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Allusion (reference to something)
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d.
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Pun (play on words)
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e.
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Paradox (contradictory)
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f.
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Oxymoron (self contradictory term)
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g.
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Litotes (form of understatement)
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V.
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Syntax (sentence structure)
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A.
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Length
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B.
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Transposed elements
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C.
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"Unusual" sentences
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Remember, when you are writing this paper you should use
direct quotes wherever you can, you should vary your sentence structure, and
all rules of grammar still apply.
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That would be it :)
I hope i's useful. Please never hesitate to ask me any question.
