Poetry Analysis

1
Poetry Analysis

• English 1302 Ebersbaker

See Chapter 7 in Arguing Through Literature
2
Review of Poetic Elements

• Sound Patterns
• Rhyme
• Alliteration
• Assonance
• Consonance
• Line breaks
• Syntactic pressure
• enjambment

3
Poetic Meter

• Scansion marking stressed unstressed
  syllables to determine meter
• 1 metric foot 2 syllables (dimeter, trimeter,
  tetrameter, pentameter)
• iamb u /
• Trochee / u
• Spondee / /
• Pyrrhic u u

4
Methods of Poetry Analysis

• TPCASTT
• Title before you read
• Paraphrase line by line literal meaning
• Connotation interpret deeper meaning,
  symbolism, metaphoric content, etc.
• Attitudes of speaker, author, characters
• Shifts in speaker, attitude, topic
• Title after analysis
• Theme universal message
• p. 540 Dunbars We Wear the Mask

5
Methods of Poetry Analysis

• Tone Analysis
• Tone attitude
• Diction word choice
• Image figurative language (metaphor, simile,
  onomatopoeia, symbol, personification, etc.)
• Detail specific facts, description
• Theme universal message of poem
• (P. 1088 Owens Dulce et Decorum Est)

Tone Tone Tone
Diction Image Detail
Theme Theme Theme
6
Poetry Exam

• The poetry exam will be a cold tone analysis
  essay that you will write in class on April 14
  for another 10 of the grade. The poem will be
  similar to those we will have discussed in class.