Learn to read, understand and analyze English poetry.
Reading Poetry
Poetry uses concentrated language to create meaning and emotion. Every word, sound, and line break matters.
Approaching a Poem:
1. Read it aloud - poetry is meant to be heard
2. Read it multiple times
3. Don't panic about not understanding immediately
4. Look up unfamiliar words
5. Consider form and structure as well as content
- End rhyme: day/way
- Internal rhyme: "I went to town to buy a gown"
- Slant rhyme: love/move
Rhythm and Meter:
- Iamb: da-DUM (unstressed-stressed)
- Trochee: DUM-da (stressed-unstressed)
- Pentameter: 5 feet per line
- Iambic pentameter: da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM
Alliteration:
Repeated consonant sounds at word beginnings
"Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers"
Assonance:
Repeated vowel sounds
"The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain"
Onomatopoeia:
Words that sound like their meaning buzz, crash, whisper, murmur
14 lines, usually iambic pentameter
- Shakespearean: 3 quatrains + couplet (ABAB CDCD EFEF GG)
- Petrarchan: octave + sestet (ABBAABBA CDECDE)
Haiku:
3 lines: 5-7-5 syllables
Japanese origin, often about nature
Free Verse:
No fixed meter or rhyme scheme
Modern, flexible form
Ballad:
Narrative poem, often sung
Usually quatrains with ABAB or ABCB rhyme
Limerick:
5 lines, humorous
AABBA rhyme scheme
Identify the sound devices in each line:
"The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew" (Coleridge)
"I heard a fly buzz when I died" (Dickinson)
"Silently surfing the sea"
Read a poem of your choice and analyze its imagery. Find at least three examples of images that appeal to different senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell).
Analyze the structure of a poem. How does the form contribute to the meaning?
Describe the form (number of stanzas, line lengths, rhyme scheme).
How does the form support or contrast with the content?
Compare two poems on a similar theme (e.g., two love poems, two nature poems, or two poems about death).
How does each poem approach the theme?
What techniques does each poet use?
Which poem do you find more effective, and why?
Write your own poem (at least 12 lines) using at least three different sound devices (alliteration, assonance, rhyme, onomatopoeia). Then annotate your poem, labelling the devices you used.
Write a complete poetry analysis (200-300 words) of a poem you have studied. Include analysis of form, language, imagery, and theme.
Summary
Key Points:
1. Poetry uses concentrated language where every word, sound, and line break carries meaning.
2. Sound devices (rhyme, alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia) create the musical quality of poetry and contribute to meaning.
3. Poetic forms (sonnet, haiku, ballad, free verse) each have their own conventions and effects.
4. Imagery creates sensory experiences in the reader's mind, appealing to sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell.
5. Analysis should always connect technique to meaning: not just what device is used, but why and to what effect.
Key Vocabulary:
- Stanza - a group of lines forming a unit in a poem
- Metre - the rhythmic pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables
- Enjambment - when a sentence continues from one line to the next without pause
- Caesura - a pause in the middle of a line of poetry
Sources and Further Reading
- Fry, S. (2007). The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within. Arrow Books.
- Poetry Foundation: poetryfoundation.org
- Poets.org: poets.org (Academy of American Poets)
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