How to Analyze a Poem: Writing Guide, Tips and Examples

Poem Analysis Definition

Let’s start with defining the concept of poetry analysis. In this type of analytical essay, students are expected to examine main independent elements of selected poems on different levels. They are:

1. Imagery
2. Tone of poet’s words
3. Usage of literary devices (e.g. analogy or hyperbola), and so on.

The goal is understanding some literary work in its entirety. You might need to read it several times, paying attention to a different level each time. This would help when analyzing them methodically as you’ll avoid missing some important author’s message. In this terms, poem analysis is very similar to evaluative writing, where you should make an in-depth assesment.

What to Consider When Writing a Poetry Analysis?

In order to reach that goal, one must consider some important things when writing their poem analysis essay. They are:

• Theme Core message which might be hidden and expressed through figurative means. Uncovering it requires good familiarity with poem’s context as well as with contemporary stylistic traditions.
• Language Style and imagery used in poems for conveying different meanings. Author’s language also impacts its rhythm and sound.
• Structure An author places different elements in specific order which defines how we read and interpret it.
• Context What is told about characters, places, time & surrounding circumstances.
• Sound How author uses syllabic patterns and stresses and what message do they convey.

How to Analyze a Poem: Step-By-Step

Staying methodical is important so let’s proceed with “how to” analysis. Poetry may have many layers, as we’ve discussed above. So better pay attention to all important aspects, including:

• speaker’s tone & style,
• play of words,
• messages hidden behind the lines,
• structure + literary devices used in this poem.

Below are seven main steps for completing such an analysis. Following them will make finding hidden sense quite easy.

Step 1. Read a Poem Before Writing an Poem Analysis

A proper poem analysis requires deep understanding of all those layers. The best way of ensuring this is reading main verse at least twice before even starting categorizing its features and making conclusions.

It is often recommended reading this poem to yourself first. Then you should read it again, but aloud, all way through. Hearing the rhythm or sounds may change your perception significantly and help uncovering some hidden messages its author has left in it.

Step 2. Create the Rhyme Scheme for a Poem

Next step of poem analysis essay is mapping its rhyming scheme. There might be different rhyming patterns, particularly some popular ones like ‘terza rima’ (interconnected three-line elements).

In order to map out such pattern, you can assign some letter to each rhyme and write these letters instead of whole lines to depict the usage of rhymes in this verse: e.g. ABAB CDCD or ABBA CDDC. This would make it easier to analyze general style or argue about its details or some contextual connections. Patterns may have parallels with some well-known literary works and thus introduce new meanings.

Step 3. Analyze the Meter of Poetry

The meter scan is another important step of poetry analysis. Your goal is identifying complete number of feet in each line and the general rhythmic pattern: e.g., pentameter or hexameter.

Recommended actions are:

1. Divide lines into syllables
2. Make notes about stressed & unstressed syllables
3. Identify each foot, i.e. a single syllable group which has been stressed
4. Obtain general structure of feet & make assumptions about it.

Once you’ve completed the meter scan, you’ll be able to proceed completing next step.

Step 4. Consider the Structure of Your Poem

Another thing the poem analysis requires is making a statement about the poem’s structure. The typical solution for that is breaking down the entire verse into sections, noticing how many lines are in each one and what is pattern of these line breaks. This would help a lot in extracting additional sense from its text and making additional assumptions about its author’s message.

Note that the structure might be complicated so searching for analogies with other similar poem types might be quite challenging.

Step 5. Pay Attention to the Content of the Poem

The content part is a core part of poetry analysis. As researcher, make sure you understand what language, tools and imagery the poet uses. Poem’s stylistic peculiarities and subtle meanings of certain phrases are to be inspected in detail. Besides, you most probably should understand where these verses have been written and how they are connected with their content.

Analyze different pieces separately and check how they are connected with each other. Make assumptions whether any additional sense can be extracted from these connections. E.g. they can contain references pointing at some political or historical events.

Step 6. Think About the Theme of Poetry

Next step of poem analysis is reviewing its central theme. This part focuses directly on main messages speakers try conveying to their readers.

The main idea may be clearly put in the heading or at the beginning of this text. However, it also might be hidden behind its lines. This is when you need to put all previous results together:

• rhyme pattern
• style it is written in
• author’s language
• structure & logical ties in it, etc.

Step 7. Learn the Context of Poem

Last step of poetry analysis is examining its context in detail. The goal is to understand what references and relations to specific people, events or situations did its author include into it.

Context analysis involves finding out why the poem was created, what had inspired it and what was its author's purpose: e.g., was it a romantic move or some political pamphlet. Making assumptions about that would help achieve a deeper understanding of author's main message. 

Poetry Analysis Essay Example

In case you need an illustration for the guide provided above, we’ve got some real poem analysis example for your convenience. It includes decompositioning each specific line of the chosen verse and preparing a scheme of rhymes and rhythm in accordance with recommended steps. This should help you with writing your winning paper!

You can also look through book reviews examples, they may help with your analysis.

How to Analyze a Poem: Final Thoughts

So these are the key things we needed to learn about the poem analysis concept.

This included analyst’s main goal as well as typical features of a poetical composition. Ways to uncover its author's message have also been reviewed today. We've also provided a clear step by step guide to help you get started and prepared a working example of such analysis.