How to Analyse a Poem?

A poem should not mean

But be Ars Poetica - Archibald MacLeish
Step 1: Find out the type of poem it is. For example, lyric, sonnet, ballad, etc.
Step 2: Look for the rime/rhyme scheme or pattern in the gien lines. !ot all poems hae rime in them. "hen
t#o #ords end #ith the same sound they are said to rime. $he follo#ing pairs of #ords are said to rime:
deep/keep% send/bend% heat/meat.
&o# to locate good rime'
a( $he o#el sounds must be the same. $hus day/pay% tree/free% high/ buy.
b( $he consonant sounds too must be the same. $hus: laid/paid% seat/beat% height/ bite% port/thought.
c( $he syllables that rime should be those that bear a stress. )arefully pronounce the follo#ing pairs:
feather/ proper% important/informant% respectable/ probable. $hey do !*$ rime.
d( $he stressed syllables and the unstressed syllables at the end of t#o #ords must be the same if the #ords
are to rime #ell. $hus: feather/#eather% pretty/city% fountain/mountain.
)omplete the rimes in these lines:
+. Most little boys
Make lots of n......
,. *n Monday morning
-.m al#ays y......
/. $he tree #as a 0ueen
1ressed in garments of g......
!o# try to do these ones #ithout any initial letter to help you.
+. 2eople say that the greed for gold
Makes a man hard and cruel and ........
,. -n the 0uiet hour #hen night #as falling
- heard a bird from the tree3top ........
/. 4he #as young and so fair
And 5et3black shone her ........
!o# look at this sonnet by 6ohn 7eats:

)at8 "ho has passed thy grand climacteric, a
&o# many mice and rats hast in thy days b
1estroyed' 9 &o# many tit3bits stolen' :a;e b
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"ith those bright languid segments green, and prick a
$hose elet ears3 but prithee do not stick a
$hy latent talons in me 9 and upraise b
$hey gently me# 9 and tell me all thy frays b
*f fish and mice, and rats and tender chick. a
Find out the rime schemes in these lines.
+. $#inkle, t#inkle little star,
&o# - #onder #hat you are,
<p aboe the #orld so high
Like a diamond in the sky.
,. A cheek #here gro#s
More than a Morning =ose:
"hich to no Box his being o#es.
Lips, #here all day
A loer.s kiss may play,
>ou carry nothing thence a#ay.
)haucer stan;a also called ?rhyme royal. or ?$roilus stan;a. is a seen3line stan;a in iambic pentameters,
rhyming ababbcc. -t is the only seen3line @nglish stan;a to be used for serious erse. ?$er;a rima. consisting
of iambic Ausually pentameter( tercets rhyming aba bcb cdc ded, etc. is ill3fitted to @nglish. >et many use this
stan;aic form, including 4helley in his Ode to the West Wind. ?*ttaa rima. is a stan;aic form composed of
eight lines of iambic pentameter rhyming abababcc. $hough Boccaccio created the form it #as made popular
by Byron in his Don Juan. $he form that has been used in rustic or folk songs and no# in light erse is
?illanelle.. -t is a form composed of nineteen lines of any length broken into six stan;as #ith fie tercets and a
concluding 0uatrain #hich contains t#o rhymes and t#o refrain lines.
Step 3: Find out the rhythmic pattern in a poem. -t is the metrical pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in
a line of poetry. -t must be remembered that @nglish is a fairly heaily stressed language. $he #ords that are
stressed are the important ones: nouns, erbs, ad5ecties, and so on, #hereas the articles, prepositions, and the
?to. of the infinitie are often scarcely stressed at all.
Look at the rhythm of this line:
- #oke #ith a start in the middle of the night.
Look also at the rhythm of this line:
)ome to the house and speak to my father.
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"hen a poet #rites a poem he often tries to organise the rhythm into some sort of regular pattern. $he
commonest #ay of doing this is to try to get the same number of stresses in each line of the poem.
-n #inter #hen the fields are #hite,
- sing this song for your delight 9
-n spring #hen #oods are getting green,
-.ll try and tell you #hat - mean.
-n these lines #e see that there is a regular alternate rise and fall of #eak3strong, #eak3strong.
!o# say these Byron.s lines smoothly and flo#ingly.
4he #alks in beauty, like the night
*f cloudless climes and starry skies.
Find out the metrical pattern in the follo#ing lines:
+. $he curfe# tolls the knell of parting day,
$he lo#ing herd #ind slo#ly o.er the lea
$he ploughman home#ard plods his #eary #ay,
And leaes the #orld to darkness, and to me.
,. 4#eet is the breath of Morn, her rising s#eet,
"ith charm of earliest birds% pleasant the 4un,
"hen first on this delightful land he spreads
&is orient beams, on herb, tree, fruit and flo#ers.
Iambic 9 <nstressed 9 4tressed% roc!aic 9 4tressed 9 <nstressed% Spondee 9 4tressed 9 4tressed% Pyrr!ic 9
<nstressed 9 <nstressed% Anapaest 9 <nstressed 9 <nstressed 9 4tressed% "actyl 9 4tressed 9 <nstressed 9
<nstressed.
Step #: $he next step is to look at some of the deices of language that a poet uses to his adantage. $hough
these deices are not exclusie to poetry the poet uses them #ith greater a#areness and #ith conscious artistry.
1eices of )omparison:
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4imile : $he #ord ?simile. only means like. "hen the poet uses a simile he makes it plain to the reader that he is
using a conscious comparison. &e uses certain #ords: like, as, as though, as if, as...as, as...so. Let us look at a
fe# examples:
$he poet "ords#orth describes a beautiful #oman as:
Fair as a star, #hen only one
-s shining in the sky.
4hakespeare comments on the passing of time and the shortness of life thus:
Like as the #aes make to#ards the pebbled shore,
4o do our minutes hasten to their end.
6ohn Milton describing 4atan says:
&e aboe the rest
-n shape and gesture proudly eminent,
4tood like a to#er.
"ords#orth, in admiration of the greatness of Milton, #rote:
$hy soul #as like a star that d#elt apart%
$hough hadst a oice #hose sound #as like the sea.
Metaphor : $his type of comparison is often more subtle, more compressed and less obious. $he reader.s
attention is not dra#n to the comparison by any sign3posts such as ?like., as...as and so on.
"hen 4hakespeare said:
All the #orld.s a stage
And all the men and #omen merely players.
he #as comparing the #orld to a stage and all the people in it to actors.
Another poet, struck by the aried beauty of a #oman.s face, says:
$here is a garden in her face
"here roses and #hite lilies gro#.
$o him the beauties of the #oman.s face appear to be like flo#ers in a garden.
$he poet "ords#orth, looking at the great city of London in the early morning #hen eerything is 0uiet, still
and unmoing, says:
1ear :od8 $he ery houses seem asleep
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And all that mighty heart is lying still.
4ometimes a metaphor can be compressed. For example, 4hakespeare.s )leopatra says:
- am marble3constant.
2ersonification : it is a special form of metaphor. -n personification a non3human being is referred to as haing
the characteristics of a human.
=ead the follo#ing examples:
+. And the sunlight clasps the earth
,. $he sea that bares her bosom to the moon.
/. 1eath lays his icy hands on kings.
B. $en thousand sa# - at a glance,
$ossing their heads in sprightly dance.
Step $: $here are three deices of sound #hich amplify the reader.s appreciation of the tonal 0uality of a poem.
Alliteration 9 it is the repetition of like consonant sounds that usually appear at the beginning of #ords but not
al#ays. -n this line CLoe laments lonelinessD the alliteratie sound is consonantal. -n the poem The Ancient
Mariner the poet )oleridge describes a sailing3ship running before a good #ind like this.
$he fair bree;e ble#, the #hite foam fle#,
$he furro# follo#ed free%
"e #ere the first that eer burst
-nto that silent sea.
$he repetition of the sounds of ?f., ?b., and ?s. gie these lines their peculiar flaour. $he poet 7eats looking at
the bubbles rising to the surface in a glass of #ine says:
"ith beaded bubbles #inking at the brim.
Assonance 3 it is the repetition of identical or similar o#el sounds. &ere is an example:
- #ould the #hite3cold heay3plunging foam,
"hirled by the #ind, had rolled me deep belo#
$hen #hen - left my home.
$he long deep o#el sounds in the #ords cold, foam, rolled, belo#, home, seem to echo in our ears and gie us
an impression of the boom and roar of the sea. -n the follo#ing lines of poetry try to pick out the like o#el
sounds that are repeated and attempt to explain #hat effect they hae.
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+. Full fathom fie thy father lies.
,. 4#ift as the sparkle of a glancing star.
*nomatopoeia : -n all languages there are #ords that imitate or echo sounds. -n other #ords it offers mimicry.
"ords like ?meo#s., ?crash., ?bang., ?boom., ?;ip., ?bu;;., ?s0ueak., and ery many more are imitatie sounds.
4uch sounds are also kno#n as echoism.
For example, $ennyson talks about:
$he moan of does in immemorial elms,
&ere the nasal sound ?m. is combined #ith the long, slo# o#els coney to us the deep cooing of does.
4imilarly, in the follo#ing line $ennyson combines the nasal ?m. sound #ith different o#els to produce the
bu;;ing of a multitude of bees.
$he murmur of innumerable bees.
Alexander 2ope talking about dull poets says:
A needless Alexandrine ends the song
"hich like a #ounded snake drags its slo# length along.
-n the second line a reader can feel the slo# painful moement of the snake in the slo# moement of the #ords.
Step %& $here are some deices of grammar that add sophistication and 0uality to poetry #riting.
Euestion : $his is the simplest form. 4ome of the 0uestions expect ans#ers and some do not.
"illiam Blake portraying the strength, ferocity, and the beauty of the tiger asks:
1id he smile his #ork to see'
1id he #ho made the lamb make thee'
&ere the poet is #ondering #hether the same creator #ho made the gentle and meek lamb made this terrible
beast. -n the follo#ing lines 4hakespeare asks a 0uestion and then ans#ers it.
4hall - compare thee to a summer.s day'
$hou art more loely and more temperate.
A 0uestion is often addressed to someone or something and here the poet 0uestions the cuckoo3bird #hose song
has delighted him so much.
* )uckoo shall - call thee bird,
*r but a #andering Foice'
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Address : in a poem, a poet addresses a liing person or someone long dead or an abstraction or inanimate
ob5ect. $he term ?apostrophe. is also used alternately. "ords#orth lamenting oer the state of @ngland in his
o#n days thinks of 6ohn Milton and says:
Milton, thou shouldst be liing at this hour%
@ngland hath need of thee ...
6ohn 7eats, kno#ing that his short life #as dra#ing to an end Ahe died at the age of t#enty fie(, #rote the
follo#ing line in his last poem.
Bright star, #ould - #ere steadfast as thou art8
6ohn 1onne chides the sun for reminding him and his loed one that another day has arried:
Busy old foole, unruly 4unne,
"hy dost thou thus,
$hrough #indo#s and through curtains call on us'
$he apostrophe is a conention appropriate to the ode and to the elegy. $he inocation of a Muse in epic poetry
is a special form of apostrophe.
=epetition : it is a fundamental rhetorical unit in a poem #herein the #ords and sounds are repeated merely for
the pleasure they gie the ear. -n songs and choruses a series of nonsense syllables are repeated at times. Look at
2uck.s song in A Midsummer Nights Dream.

*er hill, oer dale,
$horough hush, thorough brier,
*er park, oer pale,
$horough flood, thorough fire,
- do #ander eery#here ...
$he repetition of not only certain #ords like ?oer. and ?thorough., but also the repetition of grammatical
constructions, prepositions and nouns #hich gie the song the moement.
Milton imagines 4amson, blind and de5ected, saying these #ords:
* dark, dark, dark, amid the bla;e of noon,
-rrecoerably dark, total eclipse,
"ithout all hope of day.
$he repetition of the #ord ?dark. in the lines coneys to the reader the complete de5ection of 4amson and also
the hopelessness of eerlasting blindness. Ballads also hae choruses and refrains in #hich phrases, lines and
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een groups of lines are repeated. A ?refrain. is repeated at the end of each stan;a and it may recur exactly in the
same form. &o#eer, a ?repetend. is repeated only partially or at irregular interals.
=ead this ballad stan;a:
* #here hae you been Lord =andal, my son'
* #here hae you been, my handsome young man'
-.e been to the #ild #ood, mother, make my bed soon,
For -.m #eary #ith hunting, and fain #ould lie do#n.
>ou can see the repetition sho#s the mother.s concern for her son.
-nersion : it is the inersion of the usual grammatical order of a sentence, clause or phrase in a poem. -t is
usually done for emphasis. $he emphatic place for the @nglish sentence is the beginning. For instance, a person
might say, ?*ut of the door he came running like a madman.. 4ometimes, the rhythm of a line, or the rime
needed at the end of it, is the reason for inersion.
A.&.)lough in his ?)ommandment for Modern $imes. says:
1o not adultery commit:
Adantage rarely comes of it.
"riting about a soldier dying of his #ounds in the terrible First "orld "ar, "ilfred *#en says:
Moe him into the sun ...
:ently its touch a#oke him once,
At home #hispering of fields unso#n ...
6ohn Milton is a great master of inersion. &e uses it consciously to prolong the rhythm and to keep the reader.s
mind follo#ing the sense on and on.
*f Man.s first disobedience, and the fruit
*f that forbidden tree #hose mortal taste
Brought death into our #orld, and all our #oe,
"ith loss of @den, till one greater Man
=estore us, and regain the blissful seat,
4ing, heaenly Muse ...
4ay #here the inersion occurs in these follo#ing lines:
+. $han these !oember skies
-s no sky loelier.
,. <p the ash3tree climbs the iy
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<p the iy climbs the sun ...
@llipsis : -t is the omission of certain #ords that are needed to complete a grammatical construction , but #hich
can be understood from the context. -ts main use is to contract the sense, to gie pithiness to the expression and
to aoid the use of unnecessary #ords. A poet, singing the praises of his loed one, says:
!eat she is, no feather lighter%
Bright she is, no daisy #hiter.
".&.1aies, regretting the falseness of loe, says%
- loed a maid
$ime has proed false to be%
"ould death had come
"hen true that maid to me.
"illiam )arlos "illiams gies a sharply dra#n picture of a cold day:
By the road to the contagious hospital
<nder the surge of the blue
mottled clouds drien from the
northeast 9 a cold #ind.
Step '& 4ymbolism is ery common in poetry and the student must be on the look3out for it. For example,
=obert &errick says in his poe m Daffodils:
Fair 1affodils, #e #eep to see
>ou haste a#ay so soon%
As yet the early3rising sun
&as not attained its noon.
$he poet is not only talking about the daffodils, beautiful, short3lied flo#ers that bloom briefly in the
springtime, but also about life. $he flo#er #hich blooms, then 0uickly dies, becomes a symbol of life.
6ames 4hirley, thinking about death, the great leeller #hich spares no one, #rites:
$here is no armour against fate%
1eath lays his icy hands on kings.
4ceptre and cro#n
Must tumble do#n
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And in the dust be e0ual made
"ith the poor crooked scythe and spade.
?4ceptre. and ?cro#n. are symbols of the po#er of the rulers of the land. ?4cythe. and ?spade., t#o common
farming implements, are symbols of the poor common, #orking man. 4o the poet is saying that death makes no
distinction.
$he poet Louis Mac!eice #rites:
$he glass is falling hour by hour, the glass #ill fall foreer.
&e is not referring to a drinking3glass but to the glass tube that holds the mercury of a barometer. -t is actually
the mercury in the glass that is falling, not the glass itself.
G2lease note that there are more #ays of analysing a poem.
)ompiled by 1.@.Benet
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