Sankofa Literary Society
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Guidelines for Appreciating
and Understanding Poetry
For each poem you read, answer the following eleven sets of questions. Before analyzing a poem, read it straight through silently from beginning to end without stopping. Then read it again out loud, sounding each word clearly. For each poem you read, answer the following eleven sets of questions in your journals:
1. Write down the title of the poem. What does the title let you know about the poem?
2. What words did you not understand? Write these down and look up their meanings in a dictionary or encyclopedia.
3. What characters, if any, are mentioned in the poem?
4. What is the setting of the poem? When and where do the circumstances take place?
5. What is the subject of the poem? What is it generally about in terms of basic content? The subject refers to what the poem is about.
6. What is the theme of the poem? What idea or ideas are expressed by the poem? The theme refers to what the poem means at a deeper level. In other words, what do you think the author wants us to learn from his or her poem? One poem may contain several ideas or lessons we can glean from it. What parts of the poem suggest the main idea? By answering this question, you will be prepared to write a general explication of a poem (an explanation of the significance of the poem based on a central idea). Explications are written in the present tense. The past tense is used only when it has to be, that is, for prior actions mentioned in a poem.
7. How is the poem organized in terms of lines? Does it rhyme or not? What kind of poem is it? How can the poem be analyzed in terms of metric feet?
8. Who is being addressed in the poem? Who is doing the speaking? From whose perspective is the poem presented? Is the poem a personal statement or is it a story?
9. Write a paraphrase of the poem. A paraphrase is a restatement of the poem in your own words which helps crystallize your understanding of the poem. Paraphrases are written in the present tense. The past tense is used only when it must be used, that is, when prior actions in a poem require it.
10. What parts of the poem did you particularly like? Why? Which parts are memorable and suitable for memorization? Please write these out.
11. What questions were raised in your mind as you read the poem?
Literary Terms
This page will be constantly updated with the week's terms to know for the vocabulary quiz.
Satire - A poem, or in modern use sometimes a prose composition, in which prevailing vices or follies are held up to ridicule. Sometimes, less correctly, applied to a composition in verse or prose intended to ridicule a particular person or class of persons, a lampoon.
Simile - A comparison of one thing with another, esp. as an ornament in poetry or rhetoric, uses the words "like" or "as."
Alliteration - The commencing of two or more words in close connection, with the same letter, or rather the same sound.
Assonance - Resemblance or correspondence of sound between two words or syllables.
Consonance - Correspondence of sounds in words or syllables; recurrence of the same or like sounds, e.g. in a verse.
Metaphor - A figure of speech in which a name or descriptive word or phrase is transferred to an object or action different from, but analogous to, that to which it is literally applicable; an instance of this, a metaphorical expression.
Characterization - the author's expression of a character's personality through the use of action, dialogue, thought, or commentary by the author or another character.
Conflict - the struggle within the story. Character divided against self, character against character, character against society, character against nature, character against God. Without it, there is no story.
Dialogue - vocal exchange between two or more characters. One of the ways in which plot, character, action, etc. are developed.
Imagery - the collection of images within a literary work. Used to evoke atmosphere, mood, and tension. For example, images of crowded, steaming sidewalks flanking streets choked with lines of shimmering, smoking cars suggests oppressive heat and all the psychological tensions that go with it.
point of view - the vantage point from which the author presents action of the story. Who is telling the story? An all-knowing author? A voice limited to the views of one character? The voice and thoughts of one character? Does the author change point of view in the story? Why? Point of view is often considered the technical aspect of fiction which leads the critic most readily into the problems and meanings of the story.
Symbol - related to imagery. It is something which is itself yet stands for or means something else. It tends to be more singular, a bit more fixed than imagery. For example, in Lessing's "A Woman on a Roof," the brief red sun suit seems to symbolize the woman's freedom and independence from externally imposed standards of behavior.
Tone - suggests an attitude toward the subject which is communicated by the words the author chooses. Part of the range of tone includes playful, somber, serious, casual, formal, ironic. Important because it designates the mood and effect of a work.
Poetry Slang
HipHop, Performance Poetry, Spoken Word, Slam
From Bob Holman & Margery Snyder of About.com
Definitions from a Teenager
Eman was just 16, host of two weekly open mics & member of the youth creativity project at the Asian American Writer’s Workshop in New York City, when we did this interview with her in the millennium year, 2000. She was (and is) a striking, energetic presence.
If you’re looking for the definitions of the New Poetry, ask your Poetry Guide Bob Holman first: see his manifesto “Open Mic: Definitions, Rules, Etiquette, Irony.” Then if you want definitions from the younger generation, Eman’s the one to ask. Here are her sometimes startling responses, followed by an in-depth interview &... a poem!
EMAN’S DEFINITIONS
OPEN MIC: When I heard about open mics, I thought it was going to be some little place, with people drinking expresso and wearing berets, sitting in big chairs and snapping their fingers for the people who performed. There are some places like that, but luckily I don’t have to go to that kind of “stuck-upish” places. Our open mics are nothing like that, so I’m glad. I think a lot of teens think the same thing. That it’s going to be a stuffy place, with stuffy people... Not necessarily.
POETRY SLAM: They think competition. Being judged, sometimes unfairly. Rushing through their work. I don’t mind it, but some younger people don’t want to be put through that.
SPOKEN WORD: Most younger people don’t know what that is. It’s like a mix of poetic words, music and hiphop. It’s a movement and state of mind.
PERFORMANCE POETRY: Some people think it’s about acting things out and doing some Shakespeare poetry. They don’t think it’s something fun or cool, but it’s more than that, even. Performance poetry is a state of mind almost, and a lot of teens think it’s dull because of some of the dull people they have seen.
POETRY: This is something even more difficult to explain. Poetry can mean so many different things to young people today. Some think it’s dull and boring and they don’t know the “real deal” about it. They haven’t seen someone amazing read and that’s why they think it’s not that great. But poetry is an explosion of words that should move you, even if the person reading it isn’t moving much.
HIPHOP: This can be a very different kind of meaning than what other people think. Some young people don’t even think there’s a difference between rap and hiphop, but there is. Hiphop is more of a poetic kind of thing, using rhymes and verses to get out what they are feeling and thinking and they do use poetry in it. Hiphop in a way is poetry with a beat.
RAP: This, to me, is less like poetry. More like just using words... There’s less intimacy in rap and people mistake rap for hiphop or hiphop for rap all the time... There’s a difference and it needs to be seen and heard. If people really listened to the words and looked less at image, there would be a lot of rappers out of a job, because people would see the message. People have to listen. They just have to.
This About.com page has been borrowed as a reader's resource. To view this page in its original form, please visit: http://poetry.about.com/od/poeticspoetryanalysis/a/emandefinitions.htm
Writing Tips: Poetry
One of my musician friends told me of the penny whistle (or tin whistle) that it is "easy to play but extremely difficult to play well." I believe the same is true of poetry: it's 'easy' to produce a few verses of poetry, as opposed to a few chapters of a novel, but it's quite challenging to produce quality poems. After all, because of its brevity, a poem's every word holds that much more weight, and must be chosen with great care. Here are some tips to help you choose wisely:
---Narrow your focus: Grandiose themes like 'love' and 'injustice' need to be pared down to manageable size. What sort of love, what kind of injustice?
--- Write around your theme: Is your poem about love? Then don't use the word 'love' in your poem! (What a bland word it has become, after all . . .) Instead, describe the precise feeling, build a metaphor, write around the idea of love to get through to the core of what you're trying to evoke.
--- Express ideas, not emotions: Poetry is more than a venting of feelings (that's what a diary is for!). Put some intellectual distance between yourself and the subject matter of your poetry.
--- Ditch the Rhymes: Don't rhyme for the sake of rhyming. New poets tend to think they can get away with less-than-perfect rhymes, and/or rhymes divorced from meter. Not so! Stick to free verse unless you're prepared to work very hard at mastering formal poetry.
--- Edit your poems: Poetry too must undergo many revisions in order to shine. Don't be afraid of scrapping whole verses, or cutting everything down to a few good lines and rebuilding -- this is a necessary part of the process of producing great poetry.
