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POETRY CRITICISM: HOW TO READ A POEM 10. What allusions are used in the poem? An ·

anus ion isa reference to historical eve nts andpeop le, tomythological and

STE P I: Read the poem through several limes (at least three): biblical figu res, and to wo rks of literature. Allusions alwa ys invite

1. SILENTLY for fast impress ion . . . comparison between the woft( at handand the items referred to.

2. ALOUD, noting shiftsofpattern, t h o u     h   voice; ~ o    3.AGAIN , to adjust first impressi on. . ;. ::: . P IV: DICTION :. Bas ica lly diction refers tothepoet'schoiceof

words . Poets are sensitiveto thesubtle shades of meanings ofwords, to

STEP II. No te the title. . .. the possible double meanings of words, and to the denotative andWHAT is the single most dominant impression connotative mean ings of words. Denotation is the objector idea-the

of the poem ?(e. g. The themes expressed through theimagery) referent-that awordrepresents. The denotation of a wordisitscore

meaning, its   i c       n ~ r y   mean ing. Connotation is the subjective ,

STE Pill. Ask yourself the following questions, an d locatetheevidence emotionalassodation that a word has for one person or agroup of

foryouranswers. peop le. Poe tsoften choose words that contribute to the poets meaning

on both adenotalional ang co nnotationa l level.Y..ou shou ldbealertto

1. Can I find the subject , verb, and object of sudl choices. .

every sentence in the poem? So metimes this will be easy;

reading poetry will be like reading dear prose. 8utsometimes it will not. When studying a poem :

Because poetry often mnforms tostructura l requirements and because it

is a condensed form of commun icatior., sentence structures are 1.Orde allthe words you do not Kn ow.

sometimes distorted andwords are left ouUn sudl cases, you will nave

to put the sentence innorma l order and insertmissing wo rns . 2.Unde

rline

wordsthat see

mespecia

lly meaningful or well. chosen. For ea ch wordexplaindenotations and co nnotations.

2. Can I paraphrase the poem ? Thisisone wayto',-: ":" . .makesureyouunderstand every sentence. . ' ' .. ':,;', :: 3. Underline any wordplaYI such-as double meanings and

" " : : n     Exp lain why thewordplay ad ds tothesenseof the poem .

3. Who is the speake r of the poem? Underlinethe .;'-','C.'wordsand phrases that help characterize the spea ker and bring outthe 4. Underline any use of unusua l words-slang , archa isms,speaker 's concerns. Describe indetail the traits of the speaker andofany foreign language words, made-up words. Explain what qualities and

other 'characters ofthe   , . meaningstheses words add to the poem. Discu ss how the poem

wou ld be differen t withCitlt-ttlem.4; What is the situation of the poem ? Where is the

speaker? Wh at time of day is it? Wh at season of the year? What 5. Identify the leve!of dictioninthepoem (format, informal,

historical occasion?To whom is thespeaker speaking? Why? list the colloquial, slangy, dialect). Expla inwhat the poem ga ins from the use of

internal and external conflicts ofthepoem . thislevel, Exp lain whatit couid losebychanging toadifferent level.

5. What issues concern the speaker (what the 6. Explain how the choice Qf wo rds contributes to the

poem is about)? Explain the speaker 's ideas (the themes of the speaker's tone.

poem ). Noteany cha nges in the spea ker's mood orideas as the poem .

moves from unit to unit, Explain what the spea ker is t r i n g ~     .accomp lish. ' . . ..IMAG ERY : DESCRIPTIVE LANGUAG E When applied to po'etry

e term imageryhas two mean ings. First, imagery represents the

"'6. What is the speaker's tone? Is the ton e angry, descriptive pass ages of a poem. Although theword imagery ca llstn'

lyrical, hopeful, bitter, nosta lgic, sarcastic, compassiona te, admiring, mind the visual sense i poe tic imagery appea ls to all the senses.

soryowfull amused, m i   i t   n   playfu l, strategic, impass ioned, analytic, ett.? Sensuous imagery ispleasurable for itsown sa ke, butit also provides

Noteany ch anges of tone. concreteness andimmediacy. Imag ery causes the reader to become

personally, experientially involved inthesubject matter of the poem.7. What is the poet 's attitude towards the Furthermore, the poet often uses descriptive imagery to underscore

spea ker and to the issues raised by the poem (when the other elements inthepoem. The se lection of deta il and thevividnessspeaker is not the poet)? Indica teany differen ces betwee n the imparted to images help createtone, rneaninq , and characterization .poetsattitu de and the speaker's, Critics use imageryinasecond sense . They use it tomea n figura tive

language, es pecia lly metaphor. Agurative language is the conscious8. What important contrasts are made in the dep arture from normalor conven tiona l ways of sa ying things . Thiscould

poem? Explain their relationsh ipsto the speaker andthem e. meanmerely arearrangement ofthenormal wordorderof asentence,

such as the following: 'Sir Ga wa inthe dragon slew' or "This doin9. How does the ti tle of the poem relate to its remembranceof me." Such unusu al arrangementsare ca lled 'rhetoricar

themes? figu res ofspeech. But much more co mmon and important to poetry is a

secondcategoryof figurative language: tropes . Tropes   I i   r   l ~   "turns ' )

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extend the meaning of words beyond their literal meaning, and the most anapest (anap"...stic) aaa 6v-erwhelm

royaJCycommon form oftrope ismetaphor. dactyl (dactylic) aaa

spondee (spondaic) aa break, break

When exploring a poem for descriptive language:Poets further determine the arrangement of metrical patterns by the

1. MarX the descriptive images . For each image, name the number offeet ineach line . The following names apply to the length of

se nse appealed to. O1aracteme the dominant impression these images the po5ic lines:

make.

manometer (one foot)

2. Explain the relationship of descriptive images to the dimeter (two feet)

speaker's state ofmind. trimeter (three feet)

tetrameter (four feet)

3.Describe how the descriptive images create a sense ofthe pentameter (five feet)

timeof da y and season ofthe year . ' . hexameter (six feet)

heptameter (seven feet)

4. Note any progress ion in the descriptive images; for octlmeter (eight feet)

example, from day to   i g h ~   hot tocold, soft to loud, color to color, slow

tlfast. Another feature ofline length isthat each linemay have a fixed number

of syllables. When people speak'of iambic pentameter, they usually

5. Explain how the ' descriptive images help create think ofaline containing five accented syliables and ten syllables inall.atmosphere and mood. Slow movements, forexample, are condudve ..When a line of poetry ismeasured byboth accents and syllables, it is

to melancholy; speed to ex uberance ande x c i t e m e n l    

cal(edaccentua

l-syJlabic.

However, not. all Eng lish poetry isaccentual.; sy iiabiC. Sometimes itisjust accentual. Traditiona l ballads, forexample,

..     f t :   count the number of accents per line but not the number of

When exploring a poem for figurative language: syllables:

1. MarX the similes in the poem. Underline orcircle the words '0 where hae ye been, Lord Ra 'ndal, my son?

that signal the comparisons. Exp lain the implications ot the analogies (that owhe ' re hae ye been my ha 'ndsorne young man?'

is, what th'ey contribute tothemeaning of the poem).Using symbols to mark accented and unaccented syllables and thus

2. Mark the metaphors inthe poem. Explain the implications identify the metrica l pattern ofa poem is c alled samn ing.

ofthe analogies. Whenyou scan apoem, alwaYs be alert For caesuras. Acaesura is a

strong pause somewhere in' the line . You mark a caesura with two

3. Mark any personfication in the poem. Underline the vertical Jines: Consider the caesuras in this jump-rope rhyme:

words and phrases that make the personification dear.

Onderel/a, dressed inyellow,4. Poets often use analogies to.help make an abstract Went upstairs to kiss af,ellow.

quality, such as "love" or 'my love's beauty' or 'God's grandeurs" . Made amistake; . kissed a snake.

concrete and knowab le. Tney do so by comparing the abstract quality · How many doctors did it take.

to something the reader knows well. Almost always this "something" is'

a physical object orreality. List the qualities ofthe object. Explain how the Caesuras o F t e ~   serve toemphasize meaning. caesuras in the middle ofco mparison has darified the abstraction. lines, ·for example, can emphasize strongcontrasts or close relationsh ip

between ideas. In line 3,both the caesura and themyme of"rnstake"

5. List the senses appealed to in each analogy. Describe the \I/ith "snake" iinkthe abstraction (the mistake) with the action (kissing the

Dom inant sensuous impression created bythe analogies. snake).

Vl, RHYTHM; All human speech has rhythm, but poetry re gularizes When exploring a poem for rhythm:thatrhythm into rer..ognizablepatterns.These patterns are called meters.

Metrical patterns vary depending on the sequence which one arranges 1. Count the number of syllables in each line. Write thethe accented (a) and unaccented (a)syllables Df an utterance. The unit number atthe end ofthe tine.

that determines that arrangement is the foot A foot is one unit of

rhythm in a verse. Probably the most natura l fcot in English is the 2. Read the poem aloud, then mark the accen ted and

iambic, which has an unaccented syllable Followed by an accented unaccented syllables ofeadlline.syllable (aa). Here are the most common metJicaJ feet

3. Draw avertical line between earn fobt inthe line.iamb(iambic) aa above

tnxree (trtdlak:) aa lovery 4. Identify the metrical pattern (iam bic, trornak, etc.) an d the

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length of the fine(pentameter,hexameter, etc) , effectisca ned euphony. Underline instanceof cacophonyor euphony.

", ' Explainhow they relate to the poem'ssense.

,5. Use two vertica l lines to mark caesu ra s in the poem. ,Expla inhow the caesuras relatetothesense of each fin e, .., 5. Describe any sounddevices inthe poem that ca tch you

by surprise. Explainhowand why the poet uses such surprises .

6. Underlinethe places,where the poet departs from the

established metrica l pattem of thepoem. Explainhow these departures rela te tothesense of each line.   VIII. STRuCTuRE : Poets give ' structure to their poems in two

, overlapping ways: by of!jan izing ideasacco rding toa logica l planandby.

7. Exp lain the appropriateness of the metrica l pattern to thepoem's creating a pattern of sounds. Arnold arranges "Dover Beach' in both

meaning. way s, as do most poets , He divides the poem into four units, each of

which has apattern of end rhyme , and arranges the whole rhetorically

that s, by ideas . Eac h unitelabora tes a single point, and ea ch point

VI. SOUND : Sound plays an important part in poetry. Poets ' use follows logically from the precedingone. Perhaps the most-common

sounds to emphasize meanings, action, and emotion, and especially call sound device by which poets create structure s end rhyme, and any

the reader's attention to therelationshipof certa in words, Rh yme, for pattern of end rhyme is called a rhyme scheme. Rh yme scheme helps

example, has the effect of linking words together. Among the most to establish another structural device, the stanza, which is physically

commonsound devices are the following: separated from other stanzas by extra spaces and usua lly represents one

idea.onomatopoeia-the sound ofwords that sound iike what they mean

("bll!Z", "boom", "hiss"). .When examining a poem for structu re:alliteration-the repetition of consonant sounds at the beg inning oL .:

words or at the beginningof accented syllables ( ~ t h     woeful m       1. Ma rkrhymeschemeof the poem or stanza . .

went wading Wednesday"). ; '; , :    assonance-the repe tition of vowel sounds followed by different ·'.',:i 2. Drawhorizontallines between ea ch division of the poem

consona ntsounds ("0, the greens that cpened to his ears'). . " "tir unit of the poem. In a sonnet, for example, mark divisions between

consonance (or half-rhyme)-the repetition of final consonan t sounds quatrains, COUp lets, octaves, andsestets .

that arepreceded by different vowel sounds ("thebeast dimbed fas t tothe cresr). 3.Summarize themeaning of each divisionof the poem. In

rhyme-the repetition of accented vowelsand the sounds thatfollow. aShakespearean sonnet, forexample, summar ize the meaning

Thereare subCategories of rn ym e: of each quatrain an d the couplet, In aPetrarchan sonnet, summarize the

meaning of the octave (and the quatra ins with in the octave) and the

masculine rhyme (the rhymed sounds have only one syllable : 'man sestet For both kinds ofsonnet, ind icatehow the meaning changes after

ra rf). the rum. fem inine rhyme (the rhymed sounds have two Dr more syllab les:

nsublfe-reblJttiJf, •deceptiveln>err.eptiveJY'). 4. Within the poem or stanza, summarize the relat ionships

intemalrhyme (thernymed sounds arewithin the   n e     between ideas suggested bytheend rhyme. Acouplet, for examp le,

endrhyme(the rhymedso unds appear at the endsof lines). whenever it may appear in the poem or stanza , almost always states

approximate rhyme (the words are close to rhym ing: "book-buck", one idea or indicates adose connection between the senseof the two'watch-match ', "man-in"). Unes.

5, If oneor more lines areshorter or longer than most of the

Whe n exploring a poem for sound: others, describe the effect of that different length on the sense and

impactof tilepoem orstanza.

1. Underline instances of alliteration, assonance, and

consona nce inthe poem. Exp lain the relationship be tweenthese devices 6, Account for variations from the established rhyme

andthesense of the lines wherethey oo:ur. scheme. Exp lain howtile va riations relate tothesense of thepoem or

stanza.2. Grde mymed words. Explain what similarities and

contrasts the rhymed words ca ll attention to. 7. Des cribe and explainthesignificance of subtle differences

between sections or stanzas in the poem. Ba llads, for example, often

3. Grcle word s that have meaningful or attractive sound rely on incrementa l re petition, therepeatingof phrases fromstanza toqualities, such 2S onomatopoeticwords. Explainhow these words add to stanza but with slight changes. The changes enhance sus pense bythepoem's sense , alteringthemea ning ofea ch stanza.

4, When the sounds of a poem are harsh and grating , the 8, Outline the units of meaning in the poem. Tnatis, indicate

effect isca lled cacophony. Wh en they are pieasing and harmonious , the where thepoetmoves from one ide" toanothe r.