How to Analyze Poetry

Whether you are looking to analyze a poem for your literature course or just want to learn how for pure enjoyment, hopefully I can help you out. Analyzing poetry is easier than you realize. Nonetheless, it can be time consuming depending on the length of the poem and its subject matter.

Each poem is unique, and there is no one way analyzing a specific poem. However, there are some areas which should be addressed.
Type. What type of poem is it? Is it a sonnet? A ballad? A cinquain? The type of poem can often determine what the overall purpose of the poem is. Rhyme scheme (if applicable). What type of rhyme is being used (end, front? abab?) Meaning. What does the poem mean? Is it concrete or abstract?Other areas which may or may not be addressed include:
Voice. Who is the speaker? What point of view does the poem take? What perspective does the author take? Does the voice show? Setting. Where does the poem take place? Is it symbolic? Sound. What does the sound (when read aloud) attribute to the poem? For example, does it speed up or slow down during main events such as the climax? Language use. How do the words used affect the poem? Do the words have double meanings? Are there puns, connotations or alliteration used? Ideology. What ideals and values does the poetic world hold? How are they different from ares?Nothing particular is off-game when you are analyzing poetry. However, when trying to dissect the poem it is important to have at least some basic knowledge of the poet's background. This may do wonders when trying to find the true meaning of the poet's written word.

How To Write A Sonnet

How to Analyze Poetry

How to Analyze Poetry Easter Parade (No Music) Tube. Duration : 3.27 Mins.

Easter Parade by Bing Crosby (1943) Nice old and new Easter parade pictures. Music removed by You Tube on request of UMC.

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How to Write Bad Poetry

"All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling."--Oscar Wilde

People write poetry for a plethora of reasons, but this article has a sharpened arrowhead aimed directly at the fingertips of amateur poets who wish to be published yet refuse to learn the attributes of a well-crafted poem. These poets are the ones who plop their pieces, shining with every beam of ambiguity, vagueness and hackney, into cyberspace for review. I have encountered a few of these poets to whom I have given a courteous critique, only to be backhanded in the face by sore comments such as, "You must be too dense to get it," or "Everyone I know tells me how great I am. You're the only one..."

How To Write A Sonnet

Of course I am usually left wondering why someone would care to post a poem in a critique forum if any constructive comment given to the poet gets immediately flushed down the cyber-potty. Many new poets seem to think that writing a poem is one hundred percent emotion. They overlook the notion that, as with any craft, poetry entails a good deal of practice and learning as well as desire and talent. So instead of writing about the importance of concrete imagery, figurative language, and the art of minimizing abstractions, I thought it might be fun, (and might even tick a few people off) to write a small compendium of attributes of bad poetry.

How to Write Bad Poetry

Recipe for a Really Bad Poem

- A bad poem should not have any original language. If you aim to write a bad poem, avoid coming up with stark images. The last thing you would want to do is write something fresh, innovative, and evocative. Use as many hackneyed expressions as possible, such as "crystal clear," "dark as ebony," "blue as the sky," "dark as night," "...paints a picture," "climb the highest mountain," Etc.

- An especially bad poem should be heavily weighted with abstract words such as "heart," "love" "sadness," "despair," "hate," and "destiny." The more abstract and generalized your poem, the better suited it will be to mean absolutely nothing to the reader. Aim for zero concrete images if you want a particularly bad poem. For example, "The world is a sorrowful place/ filled with sadness and hate...blah blah blah." Also, be sure to TELL the poet how to describe something by using superfluous abstract adjectives! "The water is pretty;" "The world is ugly;" "His eyes were beautiful..." A bad poem should never use figurative language or descriptive imagery to SHOW the reader a slice of life.

- No matter how odd the sentence becomes, or how unlikely the phrase would be concocted in normal language, make it RHYME. Rhyme anyway!! That's right, a bad poem is going to have very forced rhyme. If you have to rearrange the structure of a sentence just to make the rhyme fit, go for it! For example: "The apple blossoms fell in May/ on the grassy field is where they lay." (Notice how I just couldn't say, "They lay on the grassy field?" That wouldn't rhyme, so I had to make up a funky sentence.

- Don't worry about punctuation, grammar, or spelling. What you really want to do is to make the reader scratch her head and read it a zillion times trying to figure out what it means. Bad spelling and poor grammar will really detract from the meaning, so get reckless with your words. Try this poem out for size:

i watch as the sun/
sets over the horisen/
the ocean pants/
like a wild monster/
breaths with heavy/
breath and then falls/
something small/
always gets lost/
in the mouth/
of agony

-------or-------

u r reel speciol/
like honi sweet/
from a candy bee.

- A good practice for a cleverly bad poet is to make the objects of the poem plural! Globalize your subject for an incredibly weak impact! "Trees are..." "People cry..." "Flowers bloom..." By pluralizing all the objects of the poem, you are blurring the imagery, thus making it sappy, intangible, and simply boring.

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Frequently Asked Questions of bad poets who want to be published but don't want to work:

-----------------

Q. Who are you to judge what a good poem is? A poem is like beauty; it is in the eye of the beholder!

A. Paul Valery once said, "a poem is never finished, only abandoned." You have to work on your poem. You have to find a certain clarity that will reach the reader. Sometimes we get so fogged up with our own emotions, we don't really see the true poem. Emotional outpours make excellent first drafts, but if you don't go any further then that, you aren't working hard enough to make your poem good--even in your own eyes. Also, as far a judging a poem is concerned, as long as you hope to publish your poetry, it will get judged. Know what these "judgers" are looking for.

Q. If clichés were so bad, why have they been around for so long?

A. Exactly!! Everyone understands clichés--almost to the point where they don't even mean anything anymore. Poetry is an art of expression and exposition. If you are too lazy to come up with the images yourself, then you aren't really writing poetry.

Q. I write poetry for personal reasons. It is my way of dealing with the world. Why should I care what you think about poetry?

A. You shouldn't. Unless you are trying to perfect your craft so that you can express yourself through literature in some publication, you can write any way you want. Just know, though, that if you post your poem for critique, you might get some honest criticism based on poetic technique. If that is not what you are looking to get, please let people know what you are looking to get.

How to Write Bad Poetry Young Love (Spring Breakup cover) Tube. Duration : 4.37 Mins.

The Shmoopies, aka Jess & Logan, perform the beautifully cute song Young Love as a duet. Everyone's a sucker for a happy ending!!! Lyrics: You are so beautiful And you're approximately (exactly) my age So young and beautiful Beautiful, I could gaze at you all day You look strange(ly) like me And it turns me on You are a mirror A mirror, and you found me at last (but Jess likes to say "you found me a glass") And I will never ever let you go, oh no No one else will ever understand me nearly so well All the rest of the world can go to hell for all I care You are my everywhere Something about you makes me light up inside I can't quite put my finger on it I've never felt like this with anyone You make me want to sing, or write a sonnet I'll love you 'til the stars fade from the sky Love you 'til the day I die Please believe this heartfelt message I am sending I promise I will love you, only you I'm a sucker for a happy ending And I will never ever let you go, oh no No one else will ever understand me nearly so well All the rest of the world can go to hell for all I care You are my everywhere Nothing will ever come between us I'll stick to you (I'll stick to you) like flypaper I'll stick to you (I'll stick to you) like velcro I used to measure out my heart in steady small beats Not this joyful wild pitter-patter I'm not afraid, I know you'll never ever let my tender young heart shatter Never take my heart and crush it in your tiny hands Hang me in the sun to dry like meat on a ...

Keywords: iamthejess, Loganberrymusic, Young, Love, Spring, Breakup, duet, guitar, banjo

Onomatopoeia Poems - Examples of Onomatopoeia Poetry and Its Features

Various types of poetry like lyrics, ballads, epic and sonnet examples are of great interest to study. The examples of onomatopoeia poetry will help you learn how the sound of the words can play crucial role in making of onomatopoeia.

Onomatopoeia is sometimes called echoism that means it echoes something. In other words, it denotes a word or a combination of words where whose sounds have some resemblance to the sound it denotes. For instance, the words like "hiss", "buzz", "bang" are associated with a particular sound or as you pronounce them, you will associate that particular sound in your mind.

The following lines of Alfred Tennyson's "Come Down, O Maid" (1847) are often considered as a powerful example of onomatopoeia:

The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
And murmuring of innumerable bees.

John Crowe Ransom, an American critic, has also remarked about the play of sound and its significance in poetry. He suggested that by making only two little changes in the consonants of the last lines above, you will miss the echoic effect because the meaning will get changed. For example, it will look like "And murdering of innumerable beeves".

The sounds of onomatopoeic words are sometimes pleasant or sometimes boring! In "Meeting at Night" (1845), Robert Browning created squishy effects:

As I gain the cove with pushing prow,
And quench its speed i' the slushy sand.
A tape at the pane, the quick sharp scratch
And blue spurt of a lighted match...

The concept of onomatopoeia, in general and broader sense, is applied to words to suggest what they denote; in movement, size, force, feel, or sound. The poetry with the use of such suggestions, the use sound and rhythmic movement are wonderful to read, recite and enjoy. It is very true that poetry can not be read but recited or sung!

Tips on Writing Poetry: The Sestina

One of the hardest, most intimidating forms of poetry is that of the Sestina. Most poetry these days is written free form, without regard for structure and rules, but that's part of the evolution of poetry. The Sestina, like the Sonnet or any other form utilizes such strict rules to focus the mind away from some of the other aspects. If you focus hard enough on one point, the others just sort of fall into place.

Plus it's that much more impressive to produce a work of art from within such strict guidelines. The Sestina is one of the most oppressive forms there is, not because of a meter or a verse, or couplets, but because of six simple words.

So here's the form. Choose six words, versatile words. Words that can be used as nouns, verbs, adjectives. Word that can pluraled and used in past and future tenses. These words will be used a lot so keep them loose and agile. If you pick something long and polysyllabic this is going to be hard.

Your sestina is 39 lines, six stanzas of six lines, and a seventh of three. Each line is of blank verse with a varied meter between four and six beats. The end of these lines is marked by one of your six words. The order of the words is of vital importance as well. Here's a sestina written by Rudyard Kipling, one of the better known Sestina's (and better written I might add):

Speakin' in general, I'ave tried 'em all

The 'appy roads that take you o'er the world.

Speakin' in general, I'ave found them good

For such as cannot use one bed too long,

But must get 'ence, the same as I'ave done,

An' go observin' matters till they die.

What do it matter where or 'ow we die,

So long as we've our 'ealth to watch it all

The different ways that different things are done,

An' men an' women lovin' in this world;

Takin' our chances as they come along,

An' when they ain't, pretendin' they are good?

In cash or credit no, it aren't no good;

You've to 'ave the 'abit or you'd die,

Unless you lived your life but one day long,

Nor didn't prophesy nor fret at all,

But drew your tucker some'ow from the world,

An' never bothered what you might ha' done.

But, Gawd, what things are they I'aven't done?

I've turned my 'and to most, an' turned it good,

In various situations round the world

For 'im that doth not work must surely die;

But that's no reason man should labour all

'Is life on one same shift life's none so long.

Therefore, from job to job I've moved along.

Pay couldn't 'old me when my time was done,

For something in my 'ead upset it all,

Till I'ad dropped whatever 'twas for good,

An', out at sea, be'eld the dock-lights die,

An' met my mate the wind that tramps the world!

It's like a book, I think, this bloomin, world,

Which you can read and care for just so long,

But presently you feel that you will die

Unless you get the page you're readi'n' done,

An' turn another likely not so good;

But what you're after is to turn'em all.

Gawd bless this world! Whatever she'oth done

Excep' When awful long I've found it good.

So write, before I die, "'E liked it all!"

Kipling's six words are "all, world, good, done, good, die". You'll notice they're short, simple words that won't necessarily appear overwhelming to the reader, so the fact that they read each word seven times throughout the 39 lines isn't immediately apparent. In the first stanza he uses the words in the aforementioned order. In the second stanza, you use word six first, then word one, five, two, four, and three.

6

1

5

2

4

3

Using the preceding stanza for each new stanza you follow the pattern above. It's like a math problem with a repeating formula. The key to the Sestina isn't in the formula though. If you can't get the formula down, why bother writing it at all. No, the key is in making it sound as natural as possible without giving up the form.

I've found that writing a sort of story makes it simpler. It also calls for the reuse of certain words. Similarly, when you write, use simple language. Don't sound flowery and poetic. Tell a simple story with simple words, and make it interesting. Also, don't use each word the same every time. You see Kipling using along sometimes instead of long or 'em all instead of all. It makes it seem like a different word is being used even if it's not.

If you can make it through the first six stanzas, you're presented with the seventh and the task of using all six words, this time in whatever order you desire in three lines. And often this is a sort of conclusion, as if to an essay, summing up the story from your poem. But, don't let it be only summary. Keep it consistent with your tone and progression. If you begin repeating yourself ever in this form, you've failed the form, and abandoned your readers.

Poetry: Nature

This is actually my english homework. Write a sonnet. So I decided, after my hard work, that I would record myself, once again, reciting poetry. My copy on actual paper isn't too neat so that's why I was instead looking at my computer screen. Hope you enjoy.

Poetry in a Speech Class

When I was younger, I tried to make my own dialogues, and expressing myself I wrote a child's poem about creation. I remember I pleased and surprised my English teacher in high school when I delivered my own poem during a speech exam. My classmates got poems they read from books and other reference texts, while I read my own composition. I was the only student in the class with a thick face to impose on everyone, "Please listen, I've got a poem for all!"

Around the world, poets will not stop writing poems and sing their hymns because poetry is made out of life. According to Eliot and Wordsworth it is something recollected in tranquility. I knew poetry should magnify things. Truly, it should make things bigger and vivid and tangible in words.

Here are lines from Ars Poetica by Archibald Machleish

A poem should be equal to:
Not true

For all the history of grief
An empty doorway and a maple leaf

For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea -

A poem should not mean
But be.

II. Check out the following poetry words:

1. metrical literature - A metrical literature is having a regular arrangement of accents.

A= metrical literature
B= imaginative literature
A+B=Poetry

2. prosaic means ordinary, like prose (plain language). It is the language of reason.

"The definition of a good prose is proper words in their proper places." (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

3. imagination - Imagination is a creation of the mind. It is thinking to create or forming pictures in the mind; the imagination of a writer

4. Scrooge- Scrooge is any dingy or stingy person. The old miser in Charles Dickens story, "A Christmas Carol."

5. succor - Succor means assistance or any person or thing that relieves (especially British, succor).

6.epic - An epic is a long narrative poem which is communal in character (...race), rather than those of individual. The style is marked by dignity and sublimity. The same meter is used throughout, and the theme is the same action of unusual interest.

In an epic unity is achieved by concentration on the main character.

7. sonnet - A sonnet can be an Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet with an octave ( 8 lines), a sestet (6 lines).

English or Shakespearean sonnet is divided into 3 quatrains, with a rhyming couplet.

In both types the normal measure is iambic pentameter (14 lines).

8. octave - An octave is a group of eight; first eight lines of a sonnet; a group of 8 lines of poetry; in music the series of tones GABCDEFG

9. elegy - An elegy is a poem of lamentation. As a rule an elegy is less spontaneous than the true lyric. Like the ode, is often elaborate in style and death is sometimes the sole theme.

10. lyric - This can apply to all classes of poetry. Its chief characteristic is its emotional quality or intensity.

The lyric says that the poetic way of the heart follows powerful feelings of brief duration. The lyric as an artistic expression of emotion is short. According to Paul Landis "It has been called the quintessence of momentary mood into words".

"Think not I am Faithful" by Edna St. Vincent Millay (poetry reading)

Edna, who sometimes preferred to be called Vincent, was enamoured with the concept of "free love". Free Love is a misnomer because the term usually means the most costly kind of love: costly because it inflicts the most harm and provides the least valuable returns. The idea of being in love with love where you can find it rather than entering into a mutually committed exclusive relationship is more attractive to the young, who can easily find a new relationship when they've ruined the old one by being selfish and unfaithful. She is right that vows are worthless (unless they relate to a code of morality, such as wedding vows, but even then they are only as strong as that code.) You can't trust a lover's promises because as soon as they get annoyed with you they will deliberately break them. The only person you can trust is one who has high standards of integrity. You can guess what their standards are from how they have behaved in the past. Whatever happened with their last lover will probably happen with you. This sonnet expresses the idea that she won't need other lovers because she had found a lover who is so changeable and fickle thay they supply her need for variety. Of course, like most love poetry, it's not much more than spurious advertising for pretty falsehood. When poets promise undying fidelity or say that, "love is an ever-fixed mark that looks on tempests and is not shaken", they are more concerned about their lover straying - which motivates them to write a ...

"Sonnet 38 First time he kissed me" by Elizabeth Barrett Browing (poetry reading)

Or, how Robert got to first base. Chrism is a holy oil, used for anointing, such as at confirmation. If Lizzie had any sensations elsewhere in her anatomy she doesn't mention them, as of course one couldn't in polite society then. And all those damned buttons: - still, "unbuttoning" is one of the sexiest words in the language. So is "moisture" or "stocking tops" - and how about "district nurse"? I'm sorry, I seem to have wandered off topic. Robert did write Porphyria's Lover which must have made her wonder.... Perhaps they never used proper names for their parts. It also makes one wonder how their conversations in the bedroom went, what euphemisms they employed. "Oh. my love, I am so very proud..." "Oh so you are, in perfect purple state. Know then that you are welcome in every corner of my being, my love, my own" "Oh I ache for you, but confound there buttons. I sometimes think this 19th century clothing is designed to make the crown of love inaccessible, I do wish they'd hurry up and invent zip fasteners" "You're nearly there, my love, just two more layers and fifty buttons to go" "Oh...oh..oh....too late...I seem to have anticipated and spent my passion on your bustle, I'm so sorry..." "Ooh - what a shame I was so looking forward to accommodating you - feel no shame for your ardour, what greater flattery could I receive? and it will wash off. Oh, what a prodigious load of chrism! Did you have oysters for breakfast, dear heart?" "Stay as you are, I shall not be downcast ...

Sonnet 17 "Who will believe my verse in time to come..." by William Shakespeare (poetry reading)

Like Sonnet 18, there is little doubt that this was written to a young man. Similarly, there is no justification for any presumption of homoeroticism (not that there's anything wrong with that, according to Jerry Seinfeld) The notes attached to Sonnet 18 apply here, too. It might be addressed to Shakespeare's patron, William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, who had already had a son who died at birth. I'm no historian and haven't researched this idea, so perhaps somebody who knows more about Shakespeare will set me straight. tinyurl.com He was a couple of years older than Shakespeare and it is usually accepted that the "Fair Youth" of the Sonnets was younger, so Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton is a more likely candidate. Some analysis of this sonnet here: www.shakespeares-sonnets.com A portait said to be William Herbert is shown, painted in about 1625. The picture of Shakespeare is called the Cobbe Portrait, claimed to have been painted while he was alive in about 1610. Who will believe my verse in time to come, If it were filled with your most high deserts? Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb Which hides your life, and shows not half your parts. If I could write the beauty of your eyes, And in fresh numbers number all your graces, The age to come would say 'This poet lies; Such heavenly touches ne'er touched earthly faces.' So should my papers, yellowed with their age, Be scorned, like old men of less truth than tongue, And your true rights be termed a ...

Heroes Poetry Video

This is an original poem by Samantha Vinzon. I had to write a sonnet for Dr. Gen's English 9 Honors class. Then I had turn it into a video as a homework assignment. Hope you enjoy it!! :)

Shakespeare, Poetry, and the Power of Art

Poetry can have an incredibly polarizing effect: people tend to either swear by at or swear at it. What gives? Well, aside from the fact that good poetry can be dauntingly elitist while bad poetry is, as a rule, truly god-awful, art in general is a very powerful medium - and poetry is one particularly artsy and inaccessible form of art. In fact, poetry is so powerful that it can be wielded against other people. Not just in the sense of intimidating your classmates with a spiffy beret, or holding your book of Keats a foot away from your face so that everyone in the coffee shop can see how brilliant you are; we're talking immortality, manipulation, and objectification here. Shakespeare, that means you.

Just about everybody is familiar with the opening lines of Shakespeare's "Sonnet 18," which read, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate." Pretty romantic stuff. Until you read the next 14 lines. Shakespeare goes on to describe the fleetingness of natural beauty in comparison to the subject of the poem, yadda yadda yadda, and ultimately decides that death could never claim his beloved "When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st." Whaa?! Lines of what, exactly? Well, considering that this is poetry, it's pretty safe to assume that the "eternal lines to time" in which the subject grow'st are referring to the lines of Shakespeare's own poem. Roughly translated: "death can't touch you so long as you're in my poem, Sweetcheeks." Or something to that effect. In other words, there's nothing inherently wonderful or eternal about the beloved of this poem (whom we've learned absolutely nothing about, by the way); it's merely the fact that (s)he happens to be in the poem that gives Shakespeare's beloved any greatness.

In case he wasn't being clear enough, Shakespeare closes the poem with: "So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee." Kind of presumptuous to declare that your poetry will exist "so long as men can breathe," but that's Shakespeare for you. If you still aren't convinced, stop and think about the fact that "Sonnet 18" ends in the word "thee." The significance? Sonnets are written in iambic pentameter with alternating stresses (shall I compare thee TO a Summer's DAY / thou ART more Lovely AND more Temperate), meaning certain syllables are given importance while others are not. You might have noticed that, already in the first two lines, "I" is stressed while "thee" and "thou" are not. Who's the subject of this poem again? In fact, "thee" and "thou" appear in the sonnet a total four times, but only one of these - the final "thee" - falls on a stressed syllable. Long story short, the person to whom "Sonnet 18" is addressed only receives any special importance at the very culmination of the poem - i.e., when Shakespeare's mad poetry skills have had a chance to work their trans formative magic. Throw all this on top of the fact that Shakespeare is writing a supposedly intimate love poem... but fully expects it to be read the whole world over for, you know, the rest of eternity, and you've got yourself one hell of a power trip.

Moral of the story? Skip the beret and write yourself some poetry. Ya arrogant jerk.

"Reflections From the Wilderness" is a Superb Volume of Western Poetry

Stoney Greywolf Bowers, a cowboy and wilderness adventurer, is a man who has lived the life that many dream of living, but few have the courage to. This life is both celebrated, and mourned, in his unforgettable first volume of poetry entitled, Reflections from the Wilderness (Moonlight Mesa Associates, Inc. 2009).

A working cowboy for over 35 years, Bowers is able to describe events and sights few will ever experience. Whether driving broomtails over the Divide, "riding for the lead while heading off a stampede," lamenting the abysmal treatment of Native Americans, or living alone in the wilderness for years on end, Bowers is able to capture the moment with a sincerity not found elsewhere.

His writing, at times classic, at other times uniquely his own, is overall extremely mournful. Sadness pervades his work, with only a few exceptions, most notably "Jake and the Snake" and "A Horse Called Bladder." Other poems are solemn and heart-felt. All are philosophical and poignant. This is a cowboy who saw much, and felt much, and who miraculously managed to record his experiences on bits of paper out on the trail.

His Western poems, comprising the largest portion of the book, are unforgettable as he talks about the Cowboy way, "riding for the brand," stampedes, and the disappearing West, slowly sectioned off by miles of barbed wire. Some of the poems are downright, starkly unsettling, such as "Trails End," where the riders, caught in a blizzard while driving cattle, come upon the frozen remains of an old cowboy, to the haunting "High Plains Drifter," and the traditional "Code of the West."

Even though Bowers' cowboy poems are excellent and authentic, for some readers the Native American selection in this book will be the highlight. These poems are truly written with intensity and passion, with the author almost surgically revealing the deep wounds of having lived and worked with youngsters "on the 'rez." Each poem brings emotion and pain with it, yet pride too. Never has the Native American's plight been so graphically, tragically, and explicitly expressed.

Finally, Bowers' poems of the American Wilderness reveal a man who is not afraid to be alone, to go into that vast unknown territory for years at a time, and to emerge singing of its glory, but also lamenting the environmental destruction that became so apparent.

This is a book that truly captures the West and sings gloriously of cattle and the rugged men who drove them. It deeply laments the ending of a way of life. Bowers' pages are filled with sorrow and loss, but also pride and love. It's a remarkable volume of poetry. Some are brilliant; all are good.

Truly, Reflections from the Wilderness is a work of Art. It is History. It is a slice American History. Reflections from the Wilderness is available from the publisher at www.moonlightmesaassociates.com, Amazon, and retail book stores.