Some Strategies for Responding to Poetry

I'll include this document here as well as on the Web CT site. Look also for some contextual info on the Romantics/Romanticism forthcoming.

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Responding to Poetry – some Strategies/Guidelines

Speaker/Summary:
- What do we know about the speaker: age, sex, sensibilities, values?
- reliable/unreliable?
- Is the audience specific? General?
- Situation/content/themes

Poetic Elements:
- Language:
o is the diction casual, elevated, a mix?
o How does word choice reveal meaning? Any word repetitions?
o What is the tone of the poem? Can you determine emotional distance of the voice? Poet writing in the midst of emotion or at some distance from it?
o Is the language intense? Compressed? Does the poem need/warrant more than two close readings?

- Sound/Rhythm
o Does the poem use assonance, consonance, and/or alliteration? How do the poem’s sounds affect you? How do they affect the meanings of the poem?
o What sounds are repeated? If there are rhymes are they forced or natural? Is there a rhyme scheme?
o Does the rhythm, whether in meter or not, seem appropriate for the tone of the poem?

- Lines/linebreaks
o How long is the line and how might it relate to the poem’s meanings (Note that less than ten syllables cuts the breath short and slows the line down; ten syllables is the natural breath; more than ten syllables requires the breath to take in more).
o Are the lines end-stopped, enjambed, or a combo of the two? How might this affect the poem?
o Are the lines broken on specific words for emphasis?

- Sentences
o Long, short, simple, complex? How does the sentence structure affect the poem’s meanings?
o Is there punctuation, and/or does the punctuation contribute to meaning?

- Form
o Is the poem in open form or closed form? Do you think the form is a suitable vehicle for the poem?
o If the poem is in stanzas, how do they function in the poem? Are they regular or irregular?

- Images (sensory)
o Do the images advance the meaning or are they purely decorative?
o How prevalent are the images?
o Are the images disparate or do they connect to each other in some way?

- Figures of Speech
o Does the poem incorporate metaphor and/or simile? How do they contribute? Is it an explicit or implied metaphor? Is it an extended metaphor?
o Does the poem use paradox (a statement that initially seems to be contradictory but turns out to make sense) or personification?
o Do any allusions enrich or hinder the poem’s meaning, and what might that say about the poem’s intended audience?

Your Initial Reaction:
- Did you enjoy the poem? what specifically pleased or displeased you?
- To what extent do your own experiences, values, beliefs, assumptions form your interpretation?