How to Improve your Poetry Analysis for English GCSE, A-Level and IB Success in 2024
What is poetry analysis?
Analysis involves examining something in a detailed way and breaking it down into its constituent parts to understand how it works. So, when you’re asked to analyse a poem, you’re being asked to deconstruct it; this means explaining its message and exploring how the language, structure and form communicate that message.
Where should I start?
The first step when you are analysing a poem is pretty straightforward: read it. Spend about five minutes reading through the whole thing, and then read it again to make sure you understand each word. Look up unfamiliar words in a dictionary and think about how the sentences fit together. Think about who the ‘speaker’ is.
Next steps
Once you’ve read through the poem twice, you’re ready to think about what the poem might be about. Try and sum up the poem into a single sentence; for example, you might think, ‘this poem is about moving to a new country’ or ‘this poem is about life in the city’.
Then, when you’ve understood the content of the poem, you’re ready to think about the wider themes or issues which it raises. So, a poem about moving to a new country might have themes of loneliness or alienation. Think broadly about what the poem is saying about human experience.
Delving deeper
Language
Now that you’re confident that you’ve grasped the message and overriding theme(s) of the poem, think about how the language of the poem communicates those ideas. Go through the poem slowly, line by line, and think about the poet’s choice and positioning of words. Here are some starting points:
Is there any figurative language, such as metaphors, similes or personification?
Are there any striking adjectives used? Think about where the poet pairs up words which don’t usually go together; for example, the phrase ‘blissful light’ would be worth commenting on because light isn’t usually described as ‘blissful’, so it grabs our attention.
Which words are at the start and the end of the line? The poet will often use the positioning of words to add emphasis to them.
Are there any superlatives used?
Are the verbs in the past, present or future tense?
Is the poem in the first or third person?
As you’re identifying these linguistic features, examine what the effect of them is. How does the language make you feel? How does it relate to the broader issues of the poem?
Form
Think about how the poem is set out and structured. Just as with the linguistic analysis, think about the effect of form.
Is the poem divided into separate stanzas? Are the stanzas all the same size?
Does it rhyme? Can you identify the rhyme scheme? (For example, ABAB means that alternating lines rhyme, and AABB means that the lines fall into rhyming couplets).
Is the poem a sonnet? (Sonnets have 14 lines).
Can you identify the metre? For example, iambic pentameter means that there are five ‘unstressed’ syllables and five ‘stressed’ syllables per line.
Bringing it all together
Now that you’ve spent some time analysing the language and form of the poem and have examined how these contribute to the overall effect of the poem, you’ll have a detailed sense of how the poem functions. This means that when you discuss or write about the poem, you’ll be able to back up each point you make with a specific textual example. Use the PQA formula: point-quotation-analysis (also known as PEA: Point-evidence-analysis). The point of analysis is being precise in your discussion of the poem, and this will help you to appreciate the poet’s craft in generating ideas through language.
Words to describe the effect of language techniques:
Animates.
Makes vivid/ visual.
Lively.
Creates tension.
Creates suspense.
Dramatic.
Creates a gloomy/ positive/ melancholy/ peaceful/ noisy/ relaxed/ thoughtful/ tense/ joyful/ energetic/ sad/ dark/ warm/ mellow/ comical/ romantic/ violent/ celebratory/ harmonious/ dreamy/ animated/ cold/ playful/
nostalgic/ humorous atmosphere.Comedy/ humour.
Appeal to our senses.
Sympathy.
Poetic.
Terms to indicate how the poet conveys effect:
Suggests.
Demonstrates.
Shows.
Illustrates.
Emphasises/ highlights/ underlines. - Creates a ................. atmosphere.
Appeals to...
Allows the reader to...
Adds to...
Now you have all you need to analyse that knotty poem. Remember, meaning can be found in the most innocuous of words, and returning to the same piece of work over multiple days can be a good way to refine and hone your craft. So what are you waiting for? Dig out that dusty copy of The Waste Land and get started!
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