Reading Poetry
Strategies for Understanding
Poems
1. Identify the Speaker
• Who is “saying”
the poem?
• The speaker isn’t
always the poet
from “Fireflies” by Paul Fleischman
Light
is the ink we use
Night
We’re
fireflies
flickering
flashing
fireflies
gleaming
Insect calligraphers
Copying sentences
Six-legged scribblers
Speaker
• The speaker is the imaginary voice you
hear when you read a poem – who is
“saying” the poem.
Who do you think the speaker is in this poem?
If I were in charge of the world
I’d cancel oatmeal,
Monday mornings,
Allergy shots, and also
Sara Steinberg.
If I were in charge of the world
There’d be brighter night lights,
Healthier hamsters, and
Basketball baskets forty-eight
inches lower.
If I were in charge of the world
You wouldn’t have lonely.
You wouldn’t have clean.
You wouldn’t have bedtimes.
Or “Don’t punch your sister.”
You wouldn’t even have sisters.
If I were in charge of the world
A chocolate sundae with whipped
cream and nuts would be a
vegetable.
All 007 movies would be G.
And a person who sometimes forgot
to brush,
And sometimes forgot to flush,
Would still be allowed to be in
charge of the world.
Speaker Answer:
• The speaker is probably a young boy,
about 10-13 years old.
– We can tell this by the things he would
change if he were in charge of the world.
• The height of basketball hoops
• The treatment of his sister
• The rating of 007 (James Bond) movies
2. Use Your Senses
• Poetry uses all 5
senses
• Use the sounds,
smells, etc. to help
yourself paint a
mental picture of
what the poem is
describing
Basho
An old silent pond
A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.
Soseki
Over the wintry
Forest, winds howl in a rage
With no leaves to blow.
3. Listen
• Much poetry is
musical – it’s
designed to be
heard rather than
read.
• Either read the
poem aloud or
listen to
someone else
read it.
“Boa Constrictor” by Shel Silverstein
Oh, I’m being eaten
By a boa constrictor,
A boa constrictor,
A boa constrictor,
I’m being eaten by a boa constrictor
And I don’t like it – one bit.
Well, what do you know?
It’s nibblin’ my toe.
Oh, gee,
It’s up to my knee.
Oh my,
It’s up to my thigh.
Oh, fiddle,
It’s up to my middle.
Oh, heck,
It’s up to my neck.
Oh, dread,
It’s upmmmmmmmmmfffffffff...
4. Read According to Punctuation
• Pause at commas,
semicolons, and
end marks (?,!,.)
• Only pause at the
end of the line if it
has a comma,
semicolon, or end
mark at the end of
it.
“On the Skateboard” by Lillian Morrision
Skimming
An asphalt sea
I swerve, I curve, I
Sway; I speed to whirring
Sound an inch above the
ground; I’m the sailor
And the sail, I’m the
Driver and the wheel
I’m the one and only
Single engine
Human auto
mobile
Onomatopoeia
• Onomatopoeia is a word that imitates a
sound.
– Examples: crash, bang, plop
What examples of onomatopoeia are in the following
excerpt?
Bram rackety-am-m, OM, Am:
All – r-r-room, r-r-ram, alabaster –
Am, the world’s my oyster.
I hate plastic, wear it black and slick,
Hate hardhats, wear one on my head,
That’s what the motorcycle said.
• Answers:
– bram
– r-r-room
– r-r-ram
Personification
• Personification gives human
characteristics of a nonhuman object.
– Example: The wind whispered in the trees.
The stars danced in the skies.
Explain the personification in the poem below:
Once a snowflake fell
On my brow and i loved
It so much and i kissed
It and it was happy and called
its cousins
And brothers and a web
Of snow engulfed me then
I reached to love them all
And i squeezed them and
they became
A spring ran and i stood
perfectly
Still and was a flower
• Answers:
– Both snowflakes and
the flower are being
personified:
• Snowflakes don’t have
families and can’t call
them
• Flowers can’t kiss and
squeeze the snow
Explain the personification in the poem below:
Late that mad Monday evening
I made mermaids come from the sea
As the black sky sat
Upon the waves
And night came creeping up to me
• Answer:
– The black sky sat
upon the waves
• The sky can’t sit.
– Night came creeping
up to me
• The night doesn’t
creep.
Rhythm
• Rhythm is the pattern of beats in a poem.
– The pattern is formed by stressed and
unstressed syllables.
• Not all poems have a rhythm pattern.
Limerick
• A limerick is a short, usually funny poem with
a very specific form:
– The 1st, 2nd, and 5th lines rhyme and have 3
stressed syllables.
– The 3rd and 4th lines rhyme and have 2 stressed
syllables.
There was an old man from Peru
Who dreamed he was eating his shoe
He awoke in the night
With a terrible fright
To discover it was totally true
There was a young fellow named Hall
Who fell in the spring in the fall
‘Twould have been a sad thing
To have died in the spring
But he didn’t – he died in the fall
An epicure dining at Crewe
Found quite a large mouse in his stew
Said the waiter, “Don’t shout!
And wave it about
Or the rest will be wanting one too!”
Haiku
• Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry with a
specific rhythm
– 1st line – five syllables
– 2nd line – seven syllables
– 3rd line – five syllables
• Haiku are often about nature and the five
senses.
Basho
An old silent pond
A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.
Soseki
Over the wintry
Forest, winds howl in a rage
With no leaves to blow.
Metaphor
• A metaphor is the comparison of two
objects without using the words “like” or
“as.”
– Instead of one object being similar to another,
one object IS another.
– Example: “This room is a pigsty!”
What is the metaphor in this poem?
The rose is a rose,
And was always a rose.
But the theory now goes
That the apple’s a rose,
And the pear is, and so’s
The plum, I suppose.
The dear only knows
What will next prove a rose.
You, of course, are a rose –
But were always a rose.
• Answer:
– Various fruits (apple,
pear, plum) are
compared to a rose.
– The reader is also
compared to a rose.
What is the metaphor in this poem?
Seeing that there’s no other way,
I turn his absence into a chair.
I can sit in it,
gaze out through the window.
I can do what I do best
and go out into the world.
And I can return then with my
useless love,
to rest,
because the chair is there.
• Answer:
– The person’s absence is
compared to a chair. The
speaker doesn’t have to
wallow about the loss of
love because the chair
will stay while the
speaker goes into the
world.
Simile
• A simile is a comparison of two objects
using the words “like” or “as.”
– Example: She is as blind as a bat.
What is the simile in the following excerpt?
Oh, my love’s like a red, red
rose
That’s newly sprung in June.
O, my love is like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune.
• Answers:
– Love is compared to a
newly blossomed rose.
– Love is compared to a
sweet melody.
Metaphor and Simile
• Remember – these are comparisons, not
descriptions. The object should be
compared to another object, not described
with an adjective.
Identify the metaphor and simile in this poem:
Forgetfulness is like a song
That, freed from beat and measure,
wanders.
Forgetfulness is like a bird whose wings
are reconciled,
Outspread and motionless –
A bird that coasts the wind unwearyingly.
Forgetfulness is rain at night,
Or an old house in a forest, - or a child.
Forgetfulness is white, - white as a
blasted tree,
And it may stun the sybil into prophecy,
Or bury the Gods.
I remember much forgetfulness.
• Similes:
– Forgetfulness is
compared to a
wandering song
– Forgetfulness is
compared to a bird
coasting in the sky.
• Metaphors
– Forgetfulness is
compared to rain at
night, an old house in a
forest, and a child.
Alliteration
• Alliteration is the repetition of consonant
sounds at the beginning of words.
– Example: “With blare of brass, with beating
drums.”
– Often used in tongue twisters.
Find the alliteration in this excerpt:
Little hoppy happy
Toad in tweeds
Tweeds
Little itchy mouses
With scuttling
Eyes
rustle and run
Hidehidehide
whisk
and
Alliteration is underlined:
Little hoppy happy
Toad in tweeds
Tweeds
Little itchy mouses
With scuttling
Eyes
rustle and run
Hidehidehide
whisk
and
Find the alliteration in the poem below:
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring’d with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Alliteration is underlined:
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring’d with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Theme
• The theme is the moral or lesson – it’s
what the poet is trying to teach the reader.
What is the theme of this poem?
The summer
Still hangs
Heavy and sweet
With sunlight
As it did last year.
The autumn
Still comes
Showering gold and crimson
As it did last year.
The winter
Still stings
Clean and cold and white
As it did last year.
The spring
Still comes
Like a whisper in the dark night.
It is only I who have changed.
• Answer
– Although the seasons
remain the same from year
to year, the speaker
changes as time passes.
What is the theme of this poem?
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry i could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads onto way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
• Answer
– In this poem, the two roads
symbolize two different ways to
live life. One is the “traditional”
path that everyone takes; the
other is one less commonly
taken. The theme is that the
speaker has found it more
beneficial in life to take risks
and do things in life that are not
necessarily traditional or “safe.”
Being unique rather than a
follower has made a difference
in his life.
Tone
• Tone is the speaker’s attitude or emotions
communicated in the words of the poem
What is the tone of this poem?
I like the plates on the ledge
of the dining room wall (to the north)
standing on edge,
standing as if they thought they could stay.
Confident things can stand and stay!
I am confident.
I always thought there was something to be done
about everything.
I’ll stay.
I’ll not go pouting and shouting out of the city.
I’ll stay.
My name will be Up in Lights!
I believe it!
They will know me as Nora-the-Wonderful!
It will happen!
I’ll stay.
Mother says “You rise in the morning –
You must be the Sun!
For wherever you are there is Light,
and those who are near you are warm,
feel Efficient.”
I’ll stay.
• Answer:
– The tone of this poem is
confident, even bragging at
times.
Imagery
• Imagery is the mental pictures the words
of the poem create in the reader’s mind.
What imagery does this poem contain?
a gallon of
rich
country cream
hand-whipped
into stiff
peaks
flung
from the beater
into dollops
across the blue oilcloth
• This poem, about
cumulus clouds, evokes
the image of someone
taking fresh whipped
cream and flinging it from
the beaters into the sky to
create the clouds.
What imagery does this poem contain?
who knows if the moon’s
a balloon, coming out of a keen city
in the sky – filled with pretty people?
(and if you and i should
get into it, if they
should take me and take you into their
balloon,
why then
we’d go up higher with all the pretty people
than houses and steeples and clouds:
go sailing
away and away sailing into a keen
city which nobody’s ever visited, where
always
it’s
Spring) and everyone’s
In love and flowers pick themselves.
• This poem evokes the image
of the moon turning into a hot
air balloon that takes people
over a city into a new place in
which everyone is happy. The
imagery of flowers picking
themselves is particularly
strong.