Poetry Analysis Format
Due Wednesday, January 11th, 2012
Use the following pattern in your analysis of your own poem. Remember that
you’re going to type up your formal analysis of your poem. This typed up version
is. A blank form is available in the student sharing folder in the “Tomlinson” folder.
Categories
Title: What is the
significance of the
title?
Example
“Introduction to Poetry” is the title of the poem for a few
reasons. One, the word “Introduction” makes it clear that
the people who are looking at poetry don’t have much
experience with it. It also sounds like it could be the title
of a college class for beginner poetry.
Summary: Write a
The speaker is relating the difference between what he
paragraph or so
wants his students to get from poetry and the process
summarizing the
through which the students analyze. He wants the students
events/emotions
to experience the poetry in a more emotional and personal
discussed in the
way and he says that the students just want to try to figure
poem.
out what it “means.”
Setting: What is the The setting of the poem isn’t entirely clear, but it could be
setting of the poem? a classroom. In my opinion, I think it’s more likely that
the speaker is outside of his classroom (a home? An
office?) and is thinking about his experiences in the
classroom.
Speaker: Who is the The speaker is a teacher or a professor, most likely a
person “telling” the
professor of English. I think he is a person who loves
poem? What attitude poetry, because he seems to want to share the fun,
does the speaker
creative, curious process of poetry analysis (“I want them
have? What are they to waterski/across the surface of a poem/waving at the
like? Use examples to author's name on the shore” seems to indicate that he
support your claim.
actually has a personal relationship with poetry). He also
** Please remember seems frustrated with how his students are responding,
that if the voice of the because the word choice of “But all they want to do/is tie
poem says "I", that
the poem to a chair with rope/and torture a confession out
doesn't mean it is the of it” indicates that he does not like the way they analyze
author who is
poetry.
speaking!
Audience: Who is
I’m not sure who he’s speaking to, but I think it seems
the speaker speaking like he’s speaking to an audience that would side more
to? How do you
know?
Tone: What is the
overall mood of the
poem? What
examples from the
text support your
claim? Where do you
see the tone shift?
Poetic Techniques:
Which types of poetic
language are present
in your poem?
Identify them and
pick several examples
of how that technique
was used.
with his view of poetry (that it’s personal, nebulous, and
fun) because otherwise they wouldn’t see the
disappointment of the student format of analysis.
In the beginning of the poem, it seems like the speaker is
demonstrating a reverence and a sense of wonder for
poems. He shows that with his use of phrases like, “I say
drop a mouse into a poem/and watch him probe his way
out,” that show almost a fantastical approach to poetry
analysis. If the speaker felt that poetry was a cut and dry
medium that had one right answer, I don’t think he would
focus so much on the experience of poetry reading. The
shift in tone occurs at the lines, “But all they want to do/is
tie the poem to a chair with rope/and torture a confession
out of it.” The word “but” shows a change from the
idealistic view he had in the beginning to the reality of the
students’ reading experience. He chooses imagery of
torture (“rope,” “confession,” and, well, “torture”) to
indicate how dramatically different his students see the
process of reading poetry.
The poem is most noticeable for its use of imagery,
particularly visual imagery. The poet uses “light” in two
different occasions (“I ask them to take a poem/and hold it
up to the light” and “walk inside the poem's room/and feel
the walls for a light switch”) and I think this is because
he’s trying to share the process of bringing knowledge to a
poem, or, bringing “light” to the poem (so an example of
light being use as a symbol). He also uses personification
throughout the poem to effectively give life to a poem. I
think he does this because he wants to express the idea
that a poem is a living thing, not just words on a page.
“They begin beating it with a hose/to find out what it
really means” shows the poem as a torture victim, which
communicates an idea that the students miss the real
purpose of the poem. Lastly, the poem employs multiple
metaphors, although most are indirect. For example,
poems are compared to color slides (technically a simile“I ask them to take a poem/and hold it up to the light/like
a color slide”), a beehive (an image of frenzied activity“press an ear against its hive”), a maze (an image of
confusion and mystery- “I say drop a mouse into a
poem/and watch him probe his way out”), and a body of
water (again, an image of mystery and “hidden depths”- “I
want them to waterski/across the surface of a
poem/waving at the author's name on the shore”).
Theme: What do you
think is the author’s
message of the poem?
What does he/she
want the reader to
believe or understand
after reading?
I believe Billy Collins wants his readers to understand that
there’s not just one right way to read a poem. I think he
sees that there is a common misconception that there is
only one right view of a poem, and because of that,
students beat a poem to death metaphorically trying to
find “the answer.” I think Collins is saying that if we just
experience a poem rather than trying to “answer” a poem
we’re more likely to enjoy and understand poetry.