1. Identifying Key Elements and Annotating a Poem
Poetry
In this unit you will be looking at how to analyse poetry. You may in the past have been asked to look at the language and organization of a poem, but have been unsure of what this means. There are a number of elements that you must consider and be able to comment on when analysing poetry. Today, we will define what these categories are and then go on to consider each of them in detail.
Identifying Key Elements and Annotating a Poem

2. Coming to Terms with a Poem
It is often a good idea to keep notes of your changing responses to a poem as you read it, making notes of what you enjoy, what you find difficult, what you dislike, and in particular what you discover about the poem as you work on your responses to it. There is no one way of coming to terms with a poem. With experience you will find your own individual way of making sense of poetry. Here, however, are a few simple guidelines. When you are asked to write about a poem it will be worth consulting them, at least until you feel confident about your own method of reading poetry.

3. Basic Method
First of all, pay attention to the title of the poem. Does it give you any clues as to what the poem may be about or as to how it should be read?
Secondly, read the poem straight through without worrying about difficulties or about words you do not understand. Try and get a very rough and immediate sense of the poem as a whole and try also to catch its tone of voice.
Thirdly, read through more carefully, a second and third time, pausing at the end of each sentence to see if you have understood its meaning and feeling. You may need a dictionary.
Finally, read the poem through again (You may want to read it out loud). Now see if you can make all the parts connect so that the poem has a convincing unity.

4. Key Elements to Consider
Questions about purpose: What is the poet’s intention in writing the poem? In considering this, look at the message of the poem, its main themes, its point of view and its perspective.
Questions about voice: Who is speaking in the poem? Out of what situation? Out of what feeling? In what tone of voice?
Questions about Audience: Who is the poet writing for? Is it someone specific, or is it a more general audience?
As part of this experience of making sense of poetry you will generally find it helpful to ask the following questions.

5. Questions about structure: How has the poem been structured
Questions about structure: How has the poem been structured? What kind of pattern does the poem make? How many stanzas are there?

6. Questions about Rhythm and Rhyme: What kind of rhythm do the words have? Are rhymes used? If so, in what way? Do the words in the poem flow in a particular pattern? What is the effect of the rhythm in the poem? You should look at which syllables are stressed and which unstressed, if there is a rhyme scheme, and the effects of the rhyme.
Questions about Sentence Structure: How are the lines broken up? How are individual lines formed? You should look to see if the poet alters conventional word order and what effect this has. Look, too, at whether punctuation is used, and how it affects the expression of the poem?

7. Questions about diction: What kind of language is the poem written in
Questions about diction: What kind of language is the poem written in? Is it written in dialect? Does it use a conversational style? Or does it use a high and serious language? Does it use imagery? If so, in what way?

8. Task:
Read the poem by W.H. Auden and identify its key elements through annotation. Use the ‘Basic Method’ of coming to terms with a poem to help you find your way to the heart of the poem.

9. Look, Stranger at this Island Now
Look, stranger, at this island now The leaping light for your delight discovers, Stand stable here And silent be, That through the channels of the ear May wander like a river The swaying sound of the sea Here at the small field’s ending pause Where the chalk wall falls to the foam, and its tall ledges Oppose the pluck And knock of the tide, And the shingle scrambles after the suck- ing surf, and the gull lodges A moment on its sheer side.
Far off like floating seeds the ships
Diverge on urgent voluntary errands;
And the full view
Indeed may enter
And move in memory as now these clouds do,
That pass the harbour mirror
And all the summer through the water saunter.

10. Although it is important to be able to appreciate these different elements in poetry, it is crucial to remember that they are all interlinked and any skilled practical criticism will demonstrate this.