English 2F - Children's Lit
Response 4 - Analyzing Poetry

Purpose: To demonstrate familiary with the techniques of literary analysis, particularly formalism and New Criticism, to examine and identify the elements of poetry, to formulate and express a thesis about a work of poetry.

Directions: 

Note: The responses are intended to be a way for you to explore ideas that you might later wish to refine in a paper or a discussion.  I will not censor these responses in any way, nor will I grade them on content or grammar (though, like the seminars, they must be coherent and display some measure of critical thinking about the question at hand). You do not have to answer all the questions, nor do you have to confine yourself to these questions.  You can write as much as you want, as long as you meet the minimum length requirements for the assignment

1. Review the resources in Module 4 on poetry. This is an important step, since you will need to include at least one quote from the web resources provided for module 4.

2.  Read poems by the following poets, and pick one from the list to analyze.

3.  Choose one of the following questions, and answer with 3-5 paragraphs. Your response must incoude at least one quote from the resources provided in Module 4. Introduce the quote and give credit to the author in a bibliography.

  • Who is the speaker of the poem?  What do we know about the speaker, or what can we infer, based on what we see in the poem?
  • Identify some areas where the language is ambiguous – are there any words that could be interpreted in more than one way? How do the differing interpretations of the word change the interpretation of the poem?
  • How would you describe the tone of the poem?  What “feeling” do you think the author is trying to convey to the reader?
  • Imagine the poem being read out loud.  How does the poet use sound as a way of conveying ideas or emotion?
  • Identify some vocabulary words or phrases that might be unfamiliar to a child reader. What kinds of contextual clues might the child use to interpret the unfamiliar word or phrases?
  • Analyze the images in the poem. How does the poet use sensory, concrete details?  What effect do these imags have on the poem's audience?

4. Submit your response to the assignments chamber.

5. Extra Credit Option: Post your response to the extra credit forums, "Response 4 - Analyzing Poetry ".  You will receive extra credit if you post your response and/or respond to at least one other student's posting.