How to do verse analysis
Video: How To Analyse A Poem 2024, July
It is not very easy to analyze the lyric work, since much depends on the personal subjective perception of poetry. However, there are certain analysis schemes that help structure the analysis more clearly. There is no single outline or analysis plan for the poetic text, but in any case, it should show how well and deeply the reader understood the poem.
You will need
Poem text, sheet of paper, pen
Instruction manual
one
Write the name and date of birth of the author, the name of the poem and the date of its writing. If required, indicate several events from the poet’s biography that influenced the creation of the analyzed poem.
2
Indicate the theme of the poem. Ask yourself: "What is the poet talking about in this poem?" Poetic works can be about love, patriotism, politics. Some describe landscapes and the beauty of nature, others represent reflections on philosophical topics.
In addition to the topic, sometimes it is also necessary to define the idea or the main idea of the work. Think about what exactly the poet wanted to convey to the reader, what kind of "message" lies in his words. The main idea reflects the poet’s attitude to the written, it is a key factor for a true understanding of a literary work. If the author of the work touched upon several problems at once, list them and highlight one as the main problem.
3
Next, proceed with the analysis of the plot. Write what happens in the work, highlight the main events and conflicts. Skip this section of the analysis if the poem is plotless.
4
Write what artistic means and stylistic techniques the author resorted to in this work. Give specific examples from the poem. Indicate for what purpose the author used this or that device (stylistic figures, paths, etc.), i.e. what effect was achieved. For example, rhetorical questions and appeals increase the reader’s attention, and the use of irony speaks of the mocking attitude of the author, etc.
5
Perform an analysis of the composition of the poem. It consists of three parts. These are size, rhyme and rhythm. The size can be indicated schematically, so that it can be seen on which syllable the stress falls. For example, in a four-foot iamba, the stress falls on every second syllable. Read one line of the poem aloud. This will make it easier for you to understand how stress falls. The rhyming method is usually indicated using the notation "a" and "b", where "a" is one type of ending line of a poem, and "b" is the second type.
6
Indicate the features of the image of the lyrical hero. It is advisable not to skip this point in the analysis of the poem. Remember that in any work there is an author's "I".
7
Write to what literary direction the work belongs (romanticism, sentimentalism, modernism, etc.). Indicate to which genre this poem belongs (elegy, poem, sonnet, etc.).
eight
At the end of the analysis, write your personal attitude to the poem. Indicate what emotions it causes in you, what makes you think.