Poetry

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Poetry

• Identifying Key Elements and Annotating a Poem

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Coming to Terms with a Poem
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Basic Method

• First of all, pay attention to the title of the
  poem. Does it give you any clues as to what the
  poem may be about or as to how it should be read?
• Secondly, read the poem straight through without
  worrying about difficulties or about words you do
  not understand. Try and get a very rough and
  immediate sense of the poem as a whole and try
  also to catch its tone of voice.
• Thirdly, read through more carefully, a second
  and third time, pausing at the end of each
  sentence to see if you have understood its
  meaning and feeling. You may need a dictionary.
• Finally, read the poem through again (You may
  want to read it out loud). Now see if you can
  make all the parts connect so that the poem has a
  convincing unity.

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Key Elements to Consider

• Questions about purpose What is the poets
  intention in writing the poem? In considering
  this, look at the message of the poem, its main
  themes, its point of view and its perspective.
• Questions about voice Who is speaking in the
  poem? Out of what situation? Out of what
  feeling? In what tone of voice?
• Questions about Audience Who is the poet writing
  for? Is it someone specific, or is it a more
  general audience?

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• Questions about structure How has the poem been
  structured? What kind of pattern does the poem
  make? How many stanzas are there?

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• Questions about Rhythm and Rhyme What kind of
  rhythm do the words have? Are rhymes used? If
  so, in what way? Do the words in the poem flow in
  a particular pattern? What is the effect of the
  rhythm in the poem? You should look at which
  syllables are stressed and which unstressed, if
  there is a rhyme scheme, and the effects of the
  rhyme.
• Questions about Sentence Structure How are the
  lines broken up? How are individual lines formed?
  You should look to see if the poet alters
  conventional word order and what effect this has.
  Look, too, at whether punctuation is used, and
  how it affects the expression of the poem?

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• Questions about diction What kind of language is
  the poem written in? Is it written in dialect?
  Does it use a conversational style? Or does it
  use a high and serious language? Does it use
  imagery? If so, in what way?

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Task

• Read the poem by W.H. Auden and identify its key
  elements through annotation. Use the Basic
  Method of coming to terms with a poem to help
  you find your way to the heart of the poem.

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Look, Stranger at this Island Now

• Look, stranger, at this island now
• The leaping light for your delight discovers,
• Stand stable here
• And silent be,
• That through the channels of the ear
• May wander like a river
• The swaying sound of the sea
• Here at the small fields ending pause
• Where the chalk wall falls to the foam, and its
  tall ledges
• Oppose the pluck
• And knock of the tide,
• And the shingle scrambles after the suck-
• ing surf, and the gull lodges
• A moment on its sheer side.

• Far off like floating seeds the ships
• Diverge on urgent voluntary errands
• And the full view
• Indeed may enter
• And move in memory as now these clouds do,
• That pass the harbour mirror
• And all the summer through the water saunter.

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• Although it is important to be able to appreciate
  these different elements in poetry, it is crucial
  to remember that they are all interlinked and any
  skilled practical criticism will demonstrate this.