So, What Is Poetry Analysis?
As part of the VCE curriculum, English, EAL and English Literature students may be required to analyse poetry. But, before we begin, it’s important to understand what exactly poetry analysis is and what it aims to do, so that you are equipped to analyse poems like a pro.
So, poetry analysis is the process of dissecting and interpreting a poem - taking a poem apart piece by piece to break down its themes and ideas and understand what the author might be trying to say. I find it helpful to break this analysis down into two distinct parts…
- Zooming in: pinpointing or focusing on a small section of the poem - selecting a key moment in the poem, whether this be a specific word or phrase, a particularly striking or melodic sound or a piece of punctuation - to use for your analysis
- Zooming out: pulling back to put the poem into perspective - considering what themes the author might be aiming to portray, or what commentary they might be trying to make
Considering this, let’s run through a step by step process on how to approach poetry analysis.
NOTE: Zooming in and out is also a technique we teach you in our How To Write A Killer Text Response study guide.
Step 1: Read Aloud
Before beginning any analysis at all, I like to read the poem aloud from start to finish. An initial reading of the poem allows you to bring the poem to life, to listen to its flow and rhythm and begin to understand how it progresses from beginning, to middle and finally, to the end.
Once you have read the poem through, note down your initial thoughts. What do you think the poet might be trying to convey to the reader? Are they attempting to evoke a certain emotion or an experience, or perhaps make a commentary? A great way to do this is to consider how the poem makes you feel as a reader. Remember, poetry is a very subjective literary genre, so if you strongly feel as though the poet is aiming to encapsulate a particular emotion or idea and you are able to back this up with evidence, then your interpretation is valid.
At this stage, noting down some thoughts on the broader themes and ideas of the poem could be considered ‘zooming out’. You can think of this through the analogy of a camera, at this point you are rotating the lens to encapsulate the bigger picture, looking at the poem on a broader scale before zooming in or certain parts.
Step 2: Annotate
After jotting down your first impressions of the poem, you can begin to annotate. For this step, I would highly recommend printing out a copy of your poem, or having a digital version that you can physically annotate, as this creates an active engagement with the poem and also visually maps your interpretations.
But, you might ask, what exactly should I annotate? I like to begin by circling or highlighting any words, phrases, pieces of punctuation or moments in the poem that strike me as intriguing. Anything that grasps my attention, whether this be the poem’s form (how it is structured on the page) or a particular word that piques my interest, I mark on the page. If you are still stuck with what to annotate, consider how the poem looks, sounds and feels.
When thinking about how the poem looks, you can ask yourself questions such as, how are the words arranged on the page? Are they separated into multiple stanzas? Are the lines the same or different lengths? Does the poem have a particular form, is it a haiku? A sonnet? Or, perhaps a free verse poem? You could then also consider how a poem sounds. When you read the poem aloud, does it sound harsh and choppy, or smooth and melodic? Has the poet used a particular sound or letter repeatedly? And finally, you can consider how a poem feels, or what emotions it evokes in you as the reader. Does the poem feel suspenseful? Nostalgic? Spooky? Or, does it make you feel sad or perhaps uplifted?
I will break this down even further by analysing a line from Edgar Allan Poe’s unsettling, gothic poem The Raven. The line I have selected is…
And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Let’s first consider the form. As I have selected only one line from the poem, it is difficult to comment on the poem’s overall form, but one formal feature that I do notice is the rhyming of the words ‘uncertain’ and ‘curtain”. This is an instance of an internal rhyme, where multiple words in the same line rhyme with one another. Typically, poets use the final word in a line to create a rhyme, however, here, Edgar Allan Poe rhymes a word in the middle of the line (‘uncertain’) with one at the end of the line (‘curtain’). As such, this rhyme comes across as a bit jarring and almost spooky, rather than melodic and pleasing to the ear, like a rhyme would typically be.
Now, let’s consider how this line sounds. Something that stands out to me is Poe’s repeated use of the ‘s’ sound. In just one singular line, the ‘s’ sound appears on four separate occasions, ‘silken’, ‘sad’, ‘uncertain’ and ‘rustling’. This can be considered an example of sibilance, a poetic device where the poet repeats the ‘s’ or ‘sh’ sound over a cluster of words to invoke a particular mood. Here, Poe’s use of sibilance creates a hushing or a rustling sound, as he mimics the noise of the ‘rustling of each purple curtain’.
Finally, how does this line make us feel? Does it make us feel warm, cosy and safe, or after reading it do we feel a little creeped out or unsettled? For me, the jarring, internal rhyme of ‘uncertain’ and ‘curtain’, paired with the rustling sibilance of ‘silken’, ‘sad’ and ‘uncertain’ creates an ominous or ghostly atmosphere.
Okay, so, having considered how this particular line from the poem The Raven looks, sounds and feels, I’ve zoomed in and begun to craft my analysis.
For more tips on annotating your text, check out this blog.
Step 3: Sew the Seams
And for the final step, you can begin to sew together the seams of your analysis. I like to start by finding a throughline amidst my annotations - is there perhaps a common theme or idea that is emerging - and slowly beginning to create a foundation for my work. To create a well-rounded piece of poetry analysis, I like to pick a few moments from the start, middle and end of a poem as this allows me to capture the poem’s movement and progression.
When I say ‘sew the seams’ of your analysis, I am referring to pairing together your moments of zoomed in analysis with your zoomed out interpretations of the poem. To demonstrate this, I will take my earlier, zoomed in analysis of a line from The Raven.
the jarring, internal rhyme of ‘uncertain’ and ‘curtain’, paired with the rustling sibilance of ‘silken’, ‘sad’ and ‘uncertain’ creates an ominous or ghostly atmosphere
...and couple this with a zoomed out comment on the broader themes and ideas of the poem. So, I could say...
the jarring, internal rhyme of ‘uncertain’ and ‘curtain’, paired with the rustling sibilance of ‘silken’, ‘sad’ and ‘uncertain’ creates an ominous or ghostly atmosphere, as Poe attempts to evoke the speaker’s gradual, yet tragic descent into madness.
In this final, bolded line of my analysis, I have zoomed out to consider Poe’s ultimate intention in the poem.
And there you have it. From here, you can continue to pair moments of zoomed-in analysis with zoomed-out comments on authorial intent and wider themes and ideas to craft your poetry analysis.
Step 4: Finishing Touches
And finally, your finishing touches. Before diving into my analysis or my zooming in and zooming out, I begin my piece of poetry analysis by stating my contention - what I think the poet is ultimately aiming to do or convey in their poem. It differs for everybody, but I like to reserve only one line for my contention, so I can then dive straight into my interpretations. Then, at the end of my analysis, I conclude with one or two lines which summarise my examination of the poem, perhaps returning to my contention, or noting down a final, striking insight that recaps and concludes my investigation.
And there you are. In this post, I’ve outlined four steps that I take when approaching poetry analysis, to break what can sometimes seem like a daunting task into manageable, and even exciting segments.
If you’re wanting more help analysing your poems, here are a few other blogs you’ll find helpful:
