How to Read a Poem

Understanding a good poem is like reaching a mountain summit: The limitless views you obtain are worth every effort. Here are a few steps you can take to make the climb a bit easier.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Dictionaries
• Poetry Books
• Clip-on Book Light
• Reading Chairs
• Reading Lamps
• Colored Pens
• Colored pens

1. Skim the poem for its length and form. You can usually (though not always) expect a poem of several pages to tell a story, whereas a short poem of several lines will generally express an idea or a very short argument.

2. Look for divisions in the text. Approach each stanza as you would approach a paragraph in prose - as the detailed development of a single idea.

3. Locate all sentence endings so you can concentrate on one sentence at a time. This is very useful in poems with difficult syntax.

4. Familiarize yourself with terms such as "image," "simile," "metaphor," "symbol" and "allegory," in that order. Consider how each is used.

5. Mark similar or related words, phrases and ideas with the same color of pen. Words such as "death," "ashes," "dust" and "decay" could be marked in brown while "green," "spring," "bud," "life" and "new" could be marked in green. This way, you'll be able to follow the development of ideas and changes in emphasis visually. Use as many colors as you think necessary.

6. Look up all words you don't know.

7. Read the poem aloud as if it were prose. Don't pause at the end of each line unless punctuation requires it.

8. Reread the poem for new insights.

Tips & Warnings

• Find a good dictionary that gives multiple meanings for words as well as the history of their use, such as the Oxford English Dictionary. This can be particularly useful when you're studying very old poems.

• Avoid thinking of a poem as a great mystery to be solved by experts. Every good poem is accessible to the good student, though some are more difficult than others.

• Many small poems, like sonnets, will first present the reader with a problem or a series of related problems, which are then resolved in the final lines.