1. Situation
Vocabulary:
Narrative
Lyrical
Persona
Tone
Tone Shift
In order to determine the situation, a reader must ask the following
questions:
 Does the poem tell a story? Is it a narrative poem? If so, what
events occur?
 Does the poem express an emotion or describe a mood? Is it a lyric
poem.
Definition Clarification:
Narrative Poem: tells a story
Lyric Poem: may contain a part of a story, but it mainly
focuses on the feelings and attitudes.
Lyrical Ballads: Although they may tell a story the focus is
still on the feelings and attitudes of
characters. One can spot a lyrical ballad
because of the shift in tenses. The speaker
may indicate what they felt in the past
versus how they feel in the present.
 Poetic Voice: Who is the speaker? Is the poet speaking to the
reader directly or is the poem told through a fictional “persona”? To
whom is he speaking? Can you trust the speaker?
 Tone: What is the speaker's attitude toward the subject of the
poem? What sort of inflection seems to be appropriate for reading
the poem out loud? What words, images, or ideas give you a clue to
the tone? Does the tone shift?
2. Structure
Vocabulary:
Closed Form
Open Form
Movement
Syntax
Types of Sentence Structures
Appositive
Modifiers
Prepositional Phrases
Parenthetical
Inverted Syntax
End-stopped
Enjambment
Caesura
Form: Look at the number of lines, their meter, their rhyme scheme, their
arrangement on the page.
 Is it a closed form (e.g. sonnet, limerick) or open form (a.k.a. "free
verse")?
 How does the form relate to and/or enhance the content?
Movement: How does the poem develop?
 Are the images and ideas developed chronologically, by cause and
effect, by free association?
 Does the poem circle back to where it started, or does the
movement shift from one attitude to a different attitude (e.g.
from despair to hope)?
Syntax: How many sentences are in the poem?
 Are the sentences simple, compound, complex, periodic, etc.?
 Are other elements of syntax used for effect (e.g. appositives,
modifiers, prepositional phrases, parenthetical phrases, etc.)?
 Is traditional grammar altered for effect? i.e. Are the verbs in
front of the nouns instead of in the usual "noun, verb" order (a.k.a.
inverted syntax)? If so, why?
Punctuation: What kind of punctuation is in the poem?
 Does the punctuation always coincide with the end of a poetic line?
If so, this is called an end-stopped line.
 If there is no punctuation at the end of a line and the thought
continues into the next line, this is called enjambment.
 Is there any punctuation in the middle of a line? If so, why do you
think the poet would want you to pause halfway through the line?
This is a form of caesura.
Title: What does the title mean? How does it relate to the poem?
(Remember, when looking at each individual component, you should always be asking yourself how the
element contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.)
3. Language
Vocabulary:
Diction
Colloquial
Placid
Circumspect
Elevated
Denotation
Connotation
Allusion
Imagery
Figurative Language/Trope
(see list of tropes below)
Diction: Is the language colloquial, elevated, formal, placid, circumspect, unusual, etc.?

Do you know what all of the words mean? If not, look them up.
 Which words or phrases stand out and/or hold more meaning in context
of the poem?
 What are various denotations and connotations of these words?
 When determining connotation, what other clues help you to infer the
connotation accurately?
Allusions:


Are there any references to something outside of the poem? Historical events,
people, mythology, religion, etc?
How do the allusions affect the poem?
Imagery/Figurative Language (Tropes):
 What words or phrases enhance the images as you read the poem?
 How is figurative language (a.k.a. tropes) used to add meaning or
intensify the meaning of the poem?
 Simile
 Symbolism
 Metaphor
 Allegory
 Personification
 Oxymoron
 Onomatopoeia
 Paradox
 Idioms
 Antithesis
 Puns
 Overstatement/Hyperbole
 Apostrophe
 Understatement
 Synecdoche
 Irony
4. Musical Devices
Vocabulary:
Rhyme Scheme
Masculine Rhyme
Feminine Rhyme
Mood
Euphony
Cacophony
Rhythm (Have a general understanding of rhythmic form; you do not need to memorize the
types of “feet” for the purposes of this course.)
Caesura
Truncation
Alliteration
Assonance
Consonance
Anaphora
Epistrophe
Rhyme: Does the rhyme occur in a regular pattern (rhyme scheme) or irregularly?

Is the effect formal, satisfying, musical, humorous, disconcerting,
etc?
 Is the rhyme masculine or feminine?
 Are approximate rhymes utilized?
 Do the rhymes affect the mood (euphony/cacophony)?
Rhythm or meter: In most languages, there is a pattern of stressed (accented) and unstressed
syllables in a word, phrase or sentence. In poetry, the variation of stressed and unstressed
syllables and words has a rhythmic effect.
 How many “feet” are in a line?
 Types of “feet”:

Monometer

Iamb

Dimeter

Trochee

Trimeter

Anapest

Tetrameter

Dactyl

Pentameter

Spondee

Hexameter
 How are pauses (caesuras) utilized to affect the rhythm? (Consider punctuation.)
 Is truncation utilized to shorten a specific line?
Repetitive Schemes:
 Alliteration
 Assonance
 Consonance
 Anaphora


Epistrophe
Does repetition affect the
mood of the poem
(euphony/cacophony)?