How to read poetry - what to look for according to the literary

glossary for literature:

Stepping into poetry routine (before 'stepping out') - Read the

whole poem through first, then go back and closely look at the 5
steps:

1. Words – diction, connotations

2. Phrases – imagery, sound devices
3. Lines – line breaks, enjambment, rhyme & rhythm patterns
4. Stanzas – structure, development of ideas, changes
5. Whole Text – shape, tone, voice, narrative/ theme
 1. Words:

• Diction
• Pronouns
• Title
• Verbs, nouns, adjectives
• Look for patterns- similarities and contrasts
• Repetition of certain words
• Think about connotations

Remember to make notes on both HOW and WHAT (identify techniques, devices, conventions and
their effects)

2. Phrases:

• Include figurative language eg. metaphor, simile, personification

• Descriptive phrases, adjectival phrases
• Sound devices, patterns (alliteration – the repetition of beginning consonant sounds,
assonance – similar vowel sounds, sibilance – repetition of ‘s’ sounds)

3. Lines

• Movement from one line to the next

• Are there rhyme or rhythm patterns?
• Enjambment (lines that run on from one another, that are read continuously)
• Line breaks
• Contrast between lines

4. Stanzas

• How is the poem broken up?

• What is the focus of each stanza?
• Is there a development of ideas?
• How does it start? End?
• Is imagery built upon through each stanza or does it shift and change?

5. Whole Text

• Shape on the page

• Tone - consistent or shifting and changing?
• Persona/voice- consistent? Who? Is a character developed?
• Is there a narrative? Or more a group of impressions? Emotions?

Drafting and Planning a Response:

 • Draft a thesis/ topic sentence:
• This poem explores/ conveys/ constructs . . . through the use of . . .
• This poem describes . . . This is achieved through the use of . . .
• This poem employs . . . and . . . to construct ideas about/ to explore the idea/feeling of . . .

A good thesis...
• What + How
• Specific as possible
• Clear and concise

Examples responding to 'Daffodils by William Wordsworth:

• ‘Daffodils’ by William Wordsworth is reflective of finding joy in isolation with nature. This is
achieved through use of personal pronouns, metaphors and verbs.
• The poem represents the Romantic idea that joy is more easily and better gained through
simple acts such as viewing nature rather than the materialistic pleasures such as monetary
wealth through the use of diction connoting happiness & joy, personification and motifs.
• In ‘Daffodils’ the use of rich diction to construct a utopian setting and emotionally complex
persona, conveys the belief that one can find happiness by simply being present. In doing
so, it challenges trad ideas which link happiness to the pursuit of material pleasures.

After stepping into the poem, we then 'Step Out' - this involves
three steps.
Step out of the text (look at it more broadly) and look for:

1. Representations (of the world; people; ideas; places) – you can do this at this stage.
2. Context: of production (cannot do this until you learn about the time period) and your own
personal context
3. Genre (cannot do this until you learn about the conventions of romantic poetry).

Revise your thesis to include some reference to representation, context or genre.

Draft 2-4 topic sentences.

To include reference to context or genre:

o My understanding of the context of the Romantic period influences/ allows me to read this
poem as …
o I read this poem as constructing a representation of . . . as a result of my understanding of
the 18th-19th Century context as . . .
o My understanding of the genre (and period) of Romantic poetry influences me to read ‘xxx’
as a meditation upon the soothing influences of nature.

In terms of the Romantic movement and characteristics often

attributed to Romanticism, you may wish to discuss (depending on
the poem, of course):
 ▪ A new preoccupation with and surrender to Nature
▪ A fascination with the past, particularly the Middle Ages and legends of medieval chivalry
▪ A turn towards the mystic and supernatural, both religious and merely spooky
▪ A longing for the infinite
▪ Mysterious connotations of remoteness, the unusual and fabulous, the strange and
surprising
▪ A focus on the nocturnal, the ghostly, the frightful, and terrifying
▪ fantastic seeing and spiritual experiences
▪ A new attention given to national identity
▪ Interest in the autobiographical
▪ The Romantics believed that we are born with unique qualities that should be nurtured,
preserved. There was a special emphasis placed on the significance of the child and
childhood as a place unsullied.

Close Reading Reminder

Your reading can be based on your understanding of any of the following:

Stepping in to
Language—imagery, figurative language, rhetorical devices ✓
words/phrases/lines/stanzas/structure ✓
poetic devices ✓

Stepping out to
representations or ideas ✓
genre of romantic poetry
the context of production: historical/political/social
and/or your personal context