Assignment: Poetry Analysis Questions

We are preparing for our mid-term exam, which will include a poem to analyze in an in-class essay. In order to practice this analysis, choose a poem from our text (other than one we have already read), and answer the following questions with a well-developed answer for each question giving examples from the text. Submit this assignment to the dropbox by next Wednesday.

1. What is the poem about? Describe the action of the poem.

2. Who is the speaker of the poem? It is not the author necessarily. What can you tell about the speaker from the poem?

3. What is the organization of the poem? Look at lines, stanzas, sentences, and/or rhyme schemes. How does that affect the meaning of the poem?

4. How is language used in this poem? Do you find metaphors, analogies, symbols, alliteration, figures of speech that carry connotations as well as denotations. (Connotations would be the suggested meaning as opposed to denotations which would be the literal meaning-see glossary for literary terms in The Norton.)

5. What do you have problems with or do not quite understand in this poem? Be as specific as possible, and look at what the section might possibly mean. (Hint: use a dictionary if a word isn't clear; sometimes poets use a word or phrase with a different meaning than the common one.)