#For the record this is from the BYU Tenth Grade English Independent Study course I took; along with some AP Lit materials.

[yvesdot]

How To Read Poetry When You Don’t Know Anything About Poetry

(With the disclaimer that you can read anything however you want, and this is more for people who want to analyze poetry in a traditional academic manner, whether for school or personal enjoyment, but don’t know where to start.)

I am very bad at poetic analysis. I’m okay at prose, but when it comes to poetry something in me snaps and I just don’t know where to start. Here’s an amalgamation of things I’ve learned from papers I keep around, which are the only reason I passed Literature classes where we read poetry.

The Basics

Just write down all the simplest things. Historical context for the author, title of the poem, audience for the poem, style (freeform, sonnet, etc etc.) List everything you can know for fairly certain, and begin discussing their significance. Can you think of alternate titles? Would this poem look different today, and why? 

Some Less Objective Matters

This is where you start underlining words and making cases. What tone does the poem have? Who is the speaker, and what message are they attempting to relate? Ask yourself what everything does for the poem-- not just what it literally means, but what effect it has. Start with things like alliteration and branch out to entire lines. If you delete this random word, or use a synonym, how does it sound and read?

Do Some Research

In case you haven’t ended up on Google yet, go to Google. Find out what other people are saying. Take into account their position-- is this an academic writing a paper, or someone leaving a review on a blog? What do people in your position say? What do people who have spent a long time studying poetry say? You can learn quite a bit from the ongoing discussion.

Address Your Confusion

Questions are fantastic. Questions are wonderful. If you’re confused about something, that is the ultimate jumping-off point because you’ve showed an interest in a specific aspect of the piece. Again, research comes in handy, but there’s also something to be said for crystallizing these questions for yourself and discussing them on the page to see what you find. 

Turn Your Hatred Into Knowledge

Let’s be honest: sometimes we hate the things we read. This is not only reasonable but great! Really dig into why you feel the way you do-- whether hatred, love, joy, sadness, boredom-- and ask yourself how the piece accomplishes this. It it using a meter you don’t like? Does this alliteration seem too simple? Feel free to use your opinions to formulate an analysis.

Remember that it’s fine to be confused and to have ambiguous perceptions of a piece. In my opinion, the best analysis is one that encourages other perspectives and acknowledges other possibilities. If you’re stuck in class or on your own when trying to interpret a poem, but you really want to try, this is what I’ve used to get my thoughts started. Happy reading!