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Getting to Know Your Poem

Understanding poetry can often seem daunting, especially for high school students. This guide challenges the misconception that one should comprehend a poem upon first reading. Instead, it promotes a detective-like approach to deciphering the layers of meaning within poetry. Emphasizing the importance of reader engagement, personal experience, and discussion, the text suggests practical close reading techniques. Embrace ambiguity and revisions as you delve into the richness of language, sound, and form to truly appreciate the depth of poetic expression.

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Getting to Know Your Poem

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  1. Getting to Know Your Poem (Really, really, really – I mean REALLY- well.)

  2. Incorrect Assumptions • I should understand this the first time I read it. If I don’t, either something is wrong with me or something is wrong with the poem • Poems are full of codes, and it’s my job to crack the code like a detective. • The poem can mean anything I want it to mean.

  3. Keep these in mind… • A poet depends on the reader’s effort to understand. • Bring your own experience and point of view to the poem. • Reading poetry is a challenge, and it takes practice to improve your skills. • Literature is the sharing of experience and the pooling of human understanding about living, loving, and dying.

  4. So, ponder this… • If everything I just said is true, why is it quite understandable that poetry is particularly hard for high school students to work with?

  5. I know it, I just can’t explain it! • Sometimes literature, especially poetry, will suggest an idea, feeling, experience, that you understand clearly but can’t explain in a literal sense. • You might have a hard time putting it into words, but you know it’s real. • Rarely do poets just sit down and write out a perfect poem in one draft. They rework, revise, retool, revise, revise, revise relentlessly.

  6. Close Reading Approaches • Look at the poem • Read and listen to the poem • Sloppy copy (make notes) • Ask the poem some questions • Talk about the poem with another person • Use outside help • Embrace ambiguity

  7. 1. Look at the poem • Consider the title. • Does it have any significant shape? • How are the lines grouped? • How long or short are the lines? • How does it compare to the other poems by the same author? • Does any of that make a difference?

  8. 2. Read the poem OUTLOUD and LISTEN to it • Do you notice any special effects? • Do the lines or words rhyme? • Are there clusters of sounds that are similar? • Are there sections of the poem that have distinct rhythm? Different from the rest of the poem? • Consider where the line “stops.” It may not be the same place where the line breaks. Pay attention to the punctuation that signals stops and pauses. (Dickinson) • Read the poem aloud in several ways, playing with the stops and line breaks to see if meaning changes because of that. • Read it pausing only for breath, like you are singing a song, and look for where the natural stops are (Whitman) • Remember that these are INTENTIONAL aspects of a poem that may push the meaning beyond what just the words imply.

  9. 3. A sloppy copy is important • Write on your copy of the poem • Clarify vocabulary • Make notes on meaning • Ask questions • Paraphrase • Relate to your own life • Make notes of what other people think

  10. 4. Questions to ask the poem • Who or what is the speaker? • What circumstances gave rise to the poem? • What situation is presented? • Who or what is the audience? • What is the tone? • What form, if any, does the poem take? • How is form related to content? • Is sound an important, active element of the poem? • Does the poem spring from an identifiable historical moment? • Does the poem speak from a specific culture? • Does the poem have its own vernacular? • Does the poem use imagery to achieve a particular effect? • What kind of figurative language, if any, does the poem use? • If the poem is a question, what is the answer? • If the poem is an answer, what is the question? • What does the title suggest? • Does the poem use unusual words or use words in an unusual way?

  11. 5. Talk about the poem with another person • Keep the conversation focused on analysis • Compare and contrast your impressions and understanding of the poem • Relate to the other poems you have read and what you know • Talk through the confusions or misunderstandings you have

  12. 6. Use outside help • Information about the author’s life • Historical information • Geographical influences • General literary technique and figurative language • CRITICAL ANALYSIS • Expert interpretation of the poem • Scholarly understanding of poetic qualities

  13. 7. Embrace Ambiguity • A truly great poem will evolve in meaning as a reader evolves in maturity, experience, relationships • If a poem means the same to you at 25, 35, 65 years old that it meant at 15, what does that say about the poem? What does that say about you? • EMBRACE ambiguity, but don’t use it as an excuse.

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