Prof. B’s Guide to Close Reading1
Purpose: Why do we do close reading?
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To notice the details of a text
To analyze how the text achieves its effects
To understand the meanings conveyed by the text
Overview: What do we do when we do close reading?
We look at the following categories and try to answer some of these questions in each
category:
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Content: What is your passage about?
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Imagery: What sensory imagery (things you can see, hear, smell, taste, or touch) appear?
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Rhetoric: What patterns do you notice in the language of the text? What rhetorical
strategies? To what effect?
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Context: How does the passage fit thematically into the text as a whole?
Together, these categories help you answer the “what” question about a passage (what’s
going on here, in content, theme, and style) as well as the “so what” question (why does this
passage matter for the text as a whole).
Details: What kind of information can be collected through close reading?
1. Content
What is your passage about? What is its narrative context – that is, what is happening in the
story around your passage?
2. Imagery
Look for sensory imagery in this passage—things you can see, hear, smell, taste, or touch.
Make a list. Are there any patterns you notice? Do the images have something in common
1
With thanks to Prof. Alexandra Gillespie for generously sharing her handout, “Some Tips for Close
Reading.”
(e.g. they are all visual imagery about light, or about darkness, or about hiding, or about
physical contentment…)?
3. Rhetoric
Listen to the poet’s or writer’s use of language in this passage. It may be helpful to read the
passage aloud, especially if it’s Old English verse (even in translation).
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Identify repetition – repeated words, lines, or phrases in the poem.
Listen for sound effects, especially repetition-based sound effects:
o Alliteration (repetition of sounds at the beginnings of neighbouring words – in
Old English verse, words that alliterate are often emphasized);
o Consonance (repetition of consonants anywhere in neighbouring words)
o Anaphora (repetition of the beginning of a phrase, line, or sentence) (think about
the Last Survivor’s lament: “no trembling harp, no tuned timber, no tumbling
hawk swerving through the hall, no swift horse pawing the courtyard” (ll. 226265)).
o Envelope pattern (repetition of a line, an expression, or an image before and
after a particular episode) (think about the song of Creation in Heorot, enveloped
before and after by mentions of Grendel’s enmity)
o Onomatopoeia (words or combinations of words where the sound echoes the
meaning of the words) (the lines that describe Grendel’s messy eating are full of
ripping, popping, and slurping sounds) (ugh, you’re welcome)
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Look for other rhetorical devices:
 Hyperbole (overstatement, exaggeration of scale in order to convey just how
impressive, immense etc. something is: e.g. when Hrothgar says that stormy waves
on the monster mere reach heaven)
 Inexpressibility Topos ( stating how impossible it is to describe a topic adequately;
closely related to the unknowing topos, stating how impossible it is to know a topic
adequately) (After Shield Sheafson’s funeral: “No man can tell,/ no wise man in hall
or weathered veteran/ knows for certain who salvaged that load”).
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Kenning (in Old English, a compound word with a traditional metaphorical meaning-whale-road (sea), wave-horse (ship), gold-giver (lord), bone-house (body)—
functioning almost like a one-compound-word riddle. A formulaic metaphor.)
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Litotes (understatement: e.g. when Hrothgar says the horrific monster mere is “not a
pleasant place”)
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Metaphor (stating that one thing is another, or transferring characteristics from one
thing to another, in order to illuminate commonalities) (e.g. saying “life is a journey”
or calling a human character “O lion lord,” to emphasize that he is lion-like in bravery
or strength)
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Occupatio (pretending to pass over a matter in order to draw attention to it;
pretending you won’t say something and then saying it anyway, to lend it extra
emphasis; eg. “I won’t mention my political opponent’s flaws—his contempt for
science, his disrespect towards women, his financial corruption, his carelessness with
the lives of others, his daily lies”)
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Oxymoron (uniting opposite terms in one expression or concept, often to illustrate
the contradiction at the heart of the thing you’re trying to describe (in daily idiom,
“friendly fire”; in a literary context: Juliet, who just learned her lover Romeo has
killed her relative Tybalt, expresses her conflicted feelings by describing Romeo
through oxymorons as “a damnèd saint, an honorable villain”).
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Paradox: a statement whose two parts seem contradictory yet make sense with more
thought. (An important paradox – in many faiths that flourish in the time span we call
the Middle Ages—is the paradox of death as life – the paradox that a person’s bodily
death opens the way for the person’s soul to live eternally and be united with God.)
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Personification (an object or phenomenon is given a person’s qualities) (example:
Shield Sheafson’s funeral ship is utfus, “eager for the journey”, as a brave person
would be; during Creation, leaves fill “the broad lap of the world,” giving Nature
human-like qualities)
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Simile (likening one thing to another) (e.g. “life is like a journey”)
When you find these rhetorical devices, consider what specific effect they add to the passage in
addition to decoration or making the passage more vivid.
4. Context
How does this passage fit in the entire work? Here, think about some of the following:
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how it relates to the major themes of the work
what it reveals about the work’s characters (e.g. in this passage, what qualities or defects
or habits of that character shine through? Their courage? Their loyalty? Their
impulsiveness? Their love of bubble tea? The more specific you get, the better)
how it parallels or contrasts what came before or what comes after (e.g. if you’re looking
at a passage about a sword, are there other swords described in the story? How does this
sword compare to the other swords? Why is this contrast or similarity significant?) (or if
this passage describes a funeral, how does this funeral compare to other funerals in the
story?)