Tips for Analyzing Structure and Meaning of Poetry

Word Choice Imagery/Sensory Language Figurative Language

Use context or a
dictionary to
understand word
denotations (literal
meanings) and
connotations
(associated ideas and
feelings).
Connotation and
denotation help create
the tone of the poem.
Ask yourself what the
connotations of key
words show about the
subject and the speaker
(the voice that says the
poem).
Sound Devices Structure
Identify any instances of
alliteration (the
repetition of sounds at
the beginning of
words).
Identify any instances of
onomatopoeia (words
with sounds that imitate
what they name).
Sensory language
creates images that
appeal to one or more
of the five senses.
Identify images
descriptions that
appear to one or more
of the five senses.
Determine your
emotional response to
each.
Analyze ways in which
images are connected
and considered what
they show about the
poems subject.
Rhythm
Determine the poems Identify the pattern of
form and notice is
patterns such as rhyme,
line breaks and stanzas.
If the poem divides into
stanzas, determine the
main idea of each.
Identify similes
(comparisons using like
or as).
Identify metaphors
(comparisons which one
this is spoken as if it
were another).
Identify
personifications
(comparisons giving
human characteristics
to a nonhuman subject).
stressed and unstressed
syllables in each line.
Rhythm gives a poem a
musical quality.
Consider how meter
reinforces ideas.

Consider ways in which

Identify instances of changes in the rhythm
repetition (the reuse of reinforce surprises or
the same word or shifts in meaning.
closely related words).

Identify any instances of

rhyme (the repetition of All of this information can be
sounds at the end of found in your Literature book
words). on page 576 (Blue) or 554
(Yellow)