If you like to juggle meanings, rhythms, and emotions, poetry is just what the doc prescribed. In a couple of lines, the author shares his inner world with dramas and events awaiting your analysis. But let’s be honest, guys. Analyzing poetry is a lot of work. After all, you are supposed to decode a secret language to get the message from the person who lived centuries ago. If you are at the I-have-no-idea-what-it-means stage in your analysis, we have this guide for you.
What Is a Poetry Analysis?
To cut a long story short, the project is a critical review reflecting both the gravity and depth of a poem. It includes exploring different aspects of the poetry, from the theme and subject to literary devices, tone, and speech figures.
Follow the Outline
To write a good essay, you can use an AI essay writer with references and use your own skills and bag of knowledge. To craft an A+ analysis, have a plan for the paper structure so the writing process is smooth and painless.
Take a look at the conventional outline for a poem analysis:
- Intro. A single paragraph, as a rule. This is where you introduce the poet, the poem, and the background behind both.
- Body. Here comes the analysis itself with all your thoughts, ideas, research, and other bits of information linked together.
- Conclusion. Provide one key idea supported by essential ‘ingredients’ (typical for all the poems), like meanings and feelings.
Now let’s look at the details:
Intro
To begin your project, let your readers know the name of the poem and who wrote it. You are also welcome to write the date of publication, some background information, and interesting facts linked to the poem or its author.
Body
When working on the main part of your project, link all of your ideas to the poem. In other words, you have to support your statements with quotations. Otherwise, no statement will count.
Conclusion
In this section, you take a look at your work and sum up its meaning as a whole. Your task is to come up with a single idea or a bottom line for your work.
How to Analyze a Poem?
We recommend beginning your work by reading (or listening to) the poem as many times as you can. To be as accurate as possible in your project, pay attention to the following aspects:
#1 The goal of the analysis
Before you write anything, ask yourself – what is the purpose of your work? Are you supposed to examine a poem’s themes, structure, language, and literary devices to explain how they work together? Keep in mind that you’re not supposed to simply sum up the piece but to tell your readers why and how things are happening in it.
#2 Deal with poem’s elements one by one
To craft a strong analysis, you have to understand the poem’s building blocks. Here’s what we want you to look for:
- Theme and subject. What’s the main idea or message of the poem? Does the author explore love, loss, identity, faith, betrayal, nature, or something abstract?
- Speaker and tone. Can you say who is speaking in the poem? It can be the poet or someone else, actually. Plus, check out their attitude. What is it? Hope? Anger? Nostalgia?
- Structure and form. You have to define if it’s a sonnet, free verse, haiku, or anything else.
- Imagery and figurative language. Write down all the similes, metaphors, symbolism, and personifications. Read the poem as many times as possible to see what images the poet creates and why.
- Sound devices. That’s right! Things like rhythm, alliteration, assonance, and consonance are typical elements of poems, so see if yours have any. Do they make the poem musical or emphasize certain words?
#3 Write a strong thesis statement
In your thesis, you have to state what the poem under analysis means and how exactly it achieves that very meaning. For example, a weak example of a thesis is “The poem Animals by Walt Whitman compares animals and human beings.” The strong one, on the other hand, is “When comparing humans and animals, the author wishes to live with animals because they have virtues that people have unfortunately lost.”
#4 Organize your essay
You want your target audience to follow you in your essay with ease. That is why it is crucial to stick to a reliable format:
Intro
- Include a hook. Start with an intriguing fact or question about the poem.
- Mention the poem’s title and author.
- Give a brief context (if relevant).
- End the section with your thesis statement.
Body
- Provide every paragraph of the section with a topic sentence - state the point of the paragraph (it can be anything from imagery to tone or structure).
- Include evidence like quote lines from the poem.
- Do the analysis - give explanations on how the evidence supports your thesis statement.
- Repeat the same for up to 4 paragraphs, each focusing on a different aspect.
Conclusion
Sum up the main insights of your work.
It’s time to think about the poem’s broader significance. What is it and why does it matter?
#4 Avoid the most common mistakes
If you’re at this point, it means you have already done some work. To make sure your paper is up to the existing standards, make sure you never make the following mistakes:
- Ignoring the form and sound of the poem.
- Summing up the text instead of performing a detailed analysis.
- Including too many quotes without explanations.
- Forgetting to provide links to each point back to your thesis statement.
Finally, do not forget about editing and proofreading. Your paper should be clear, so re-read it a few times to see if your analysis flows logically. Be specific. In other words, if you see sentences like “the poet uses a lot of metaphors,” make sure you actually specify those metaphors. If not, cut off the sentence. Check out the grammar, spelling, and citation format to submit a piece that is well-polished and written up to the given instructions. While you have the right to give your unique interpretation of this or that poem (even if it’s different from the existing ones), you have no right to submit an essay that is full of typos and mistakes and poorly supported arguments.