1.What is the poem about? Describe the action of the poem. 2.Who is the speaker of the poem? It is not the author necessarily. What can you tell about the speaker from the poem? 3.What is the organization of the poem? Look at lines, stanzas, sentences, and/or rhyme schemes. How does that affect the meaning of the poem? 4.How is language used in this poem? Do you find metaphors, analogies, symbols, alliteration, figures of speech that carry connotations as well as denotations. (Connotations would be the suggested meaning as opposed to denotations which would be the literal meaning—see glossary for literary terms in The Norton.) 5.What do you have problems with or do not quite understand in this poem? Be as specific as possible, and look at what the section might possibly mean. (Hint: use a dictionary if a word isn’t clear; sometimes poets use a word or phrase with a different meaning than the common one.)
