AnalyzingPoetry It is helpful to think of analysis as decoding.

Analysis means literally picking a poem apart--looking at elements such as imagery, metaphor, poetic language, rhyme scheme, and so on--in order to see how they all work together to produce the poem's meaning. By looking at a poem in terms of its elements, one decodes the poem. Whenaskedto analyzea poem,it is a goodideato readthe poemseveraltimesbeforestartingto write aboutit. WhenI reada poemfor the first time, theseare the generalstepsI follow: I read once to determine the literal meaning of the poem. I read the poem again and then try to paraphrase it in a few sentences, in my own words. A good paraphrase is very close to what the poem says literally, without reference to the uses of figurative language or other poetic devices. Based upon my general sense of the poem, I think about a strategy for approaching the poetic elements, or non-literal strategies used in the poem. Although most good poets use several strategies at the same time, usually one dominates in a particular poem. For instance, does the poet get his or her point across primarily by relying on treatment of a particular theme? Does the poet rely upon development of a particular set of figurative language? Does the poet make a point by using a particular structure? Upon rhyme and meter? If possible, mark what you notice, in pencil, on the poem itself to indicate interesting features and details which may be worth discussing. Next, I construct a "reading" or explication of the poem, based upon what I have observed. There is no one "correct" reading of a poem; many readings are possible. But there are readings that are better than others. The best readings are strongly supported by evidence gleaned while reading the text closely. The best readingstake into accountall of the evidence in the poem.A readingthat ignoresevidencethat contradictsthe readingis a poor reading.

When writing in response to an assignment, keep in mind the constraints put upon you by the assignment itself and the actual questions you are answering. A written analysis of a poem should not simply paraphrase it, although the analysis may include paraphrase. The following are questions you can ask about any poem you encounter. Remember, however, that not all of the questions will apply to every poem you read:
1. Who is the speaker? Is it the poet or a character/persona the poet takes on? What is the tone of voice adopted? Can you detect any irony? How precisely is the speaker defined? (Note: You should refer to the speaker as "the speaker" and not as "the poet," even if the voice seems to be the poet's own. Who is the speaker's audience? Does the audience help to define the speaker? What is the poem's literal meaning? What is the poem's theme? Is the theme stated explicitly or implicitly? What is the poem's structure? Does it develop in a straightforward manner to a logical conclusion? Is there a shift or turn in its development? How is the shift indicated? Why does a shift take place? How is the poem organized? How does its organization contribute to the development of the poem's subject or theme? What is the poem's meter? How does it contribute to the development of the poem's subject or theme? Are there any strategic points where the poem breaks with its rhyme scheme? Why? What is the poem's rhyme scheme? How does it contribute to the development of the poem's subject or theme? Is there any evidence of internal rhymes, slant rhymes, etc? Do the lines end with a completion of a thought or closed punctuation (i.e., are they end-stopped)? Or do the lines flow without pause, from one to the next (i.e., are they enjambed)? If enjambed, does it occur from one couplet to the next, one quatrain to the next, etc? How would you characterize the poem's language or diction ? What effect does this choice of language have on your response to the poem and its speaker? What imagery is developed in the poem? Does the poet use metaphor, simile, personification, etc? Does he/she use symbolism? Considering the poem's subject matter, are these images obvious ones, or are they unusual and unexpected? Do they contribute to the poem's subject or theme? If so, how?

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Is there any evidence of repetition, alliteration, onomatopoeia, or other sound effects in the poem? What do they contribute? Is there any significance to the placement of words in the poem? Is the rhythm of any particular words or lines noteworthy? Is there any significance to the poem's punctuation or the capitalization and spelling of words? (Note: These features are often the result of modern editing and not original to the author)

Elements of Poetry
Denotation and Connation Words in poems have denotations, or literal, easy-tounderstand dictionary meanings, and connotations, or figurative, less specific and less direct meanings. The latter is the more important in poetry than the former. The figurative, or connotative, meaning of a word means everything that the word might imply besides its direct, dictionary meaning. For example, the literal, denotative meaning of the word apple is something like this: It is the fruit of the apple tree, anywhere from gold to dark red in color, and it has seeds and a sweet taste. The literal meaning of a word, its denotation, can usually be defined in simple, clear language and can be understood right away. The connotative meaning of a word, however, is much different. A red apple in a poem is never merely a red apple, but probably implies a lot of different things. The red color may symbolize passion, fertility, anger--anything one can associate with the color red could be a possible meaning. The apple itself could symbolize the Tree of Life, it could symbolize knowledge, Adam and Eve and their Fall from Grace, the harvest in fall, the forbidden--perhaps a combination of these things. In this way a poet uses a word or an idea in a poem to express a variety of ideas at one time, and so deepens our experience. Thus, in reading poetry one should look at words as having two kinds of meaning. They have dictionary meanings, but also mean other things besides. One should look at individual words and at phrases in the poem and brainstorm; that is, one should think about the literal meanings, but then try to think of every possible idea that the word or phrase could imply. Importantly, words do not mean anything and everything in a poem. Thus the reader should look at the poem as a whole and try to figure out which implications make the most sense within that poem.

Imagery
Images are very concrete "word pictures" having to do with the five senses--touch, smell, taste, sound, movement, and especially sight. As Perrine points out, images make readers experience things vividly. To figure out the imagery in a poem, the reader should first make a list of every single mental picture, or visual image, that comes to mind as he reads the poem. He can then go back and find other kinds of ideas that have to do with physical sensations--sounds, tastes, smells and so on. Finally, he can go back and think about all the ideas these different images could imply--figure out their connotations, in other words.

Figurative Language
Figurative language involves a comparison between two things--a literal term, or the thing being compared, and a figurative term, or the thing to which the literal term is being compared. Figurative language is a way of describing an ordinary thing in an unordinary way