How to Read Poetry Closely

The following process may help you comprehend poems more easily.

1.   Realize you will need to read the poem more than once. 

2.   Do not try to interpret the poem during the initial reading.  Enjoy
      the experience, listening to the language.

3.   Be attentive to the title. 

4.   Try to read the poem aloud.  Regardless, read the poem slowly,
      carefully.

5.   Freely write about the poem--focusing, first, on the poem as a
      whole and, second, on particular lines. 

6.   Answer the following questions.

• Do you like or dislike the poem and why?
• Is the poem interesting or uninteresting, and which lines evoke your response?
• Is the poem comprehensible or incomprehensible, and which lines do you think are the latter? 

7.   Read the poem again, being attentive to the rhythm and
      punctuation.  Do not stop at the end of a line if it does not have
      punctuation. 

8.   Look for subjects and verbs, and try to paraphrase the poem.

9.   Determine the theme (universal concept) of the poem. 

10. Determine the speaker, for rarely is it the poet. 

      Remember to use the term speaker, not poet, when discussing a
      poem.  The voice you hear in a poem is not necessarily the
      poet's.  However, when discussing general poetic techniques or a
      poem's structure use poet. 

11. Determine the setting (general locale, historical time, and social
      circumstances). 

12. Examine each word, phrase, clause, line and stanza of the poem
      to determine how they work or do not work together.

13. Focus on the elements of the poem that interest you, but ensure
      you address the following: (1) poetic techniques, (2) structure,
      (3) meaning.

14. Do not try to determine the correct reading.  You want to
      produce an interpretation that you feel is accurate because you
      support it with details from the poem. 

      In other words, you will need to quote words, phrases, clauses,
      lines, stanzas and to explicate them.  Let us suppose I want to
      quote the following.
           I went
           to hell 

           and back
           to Mel.
      How would I format my quotation?  First, I would need to
      introduce it: The speaker states in the first and second stanzas
      that "I went / to hell // and back" (1-3).  What do the slashes
      signify?  / is a linear break; // is a stanzaic break.  The numerals
      following the quotation correspond to the lines of the poem--in
      this case, the first through third lines.  Second, I would need to
      explain fully the quotation: The speaker is completely unhappy
      with his life.  He considers his job hellish, and his wife, Mel, is
      the Devil incarnate.