2. Reading a Poem Speaker Tone Imagery Figurative Language Sound
ACRONYM: STIFS
Speaker
Tone
Imagery
Figurative Language
Sound

3. STIFS Speaker Identify the Speaker Who is the speaker addressing?
What is the speaker’s topic or argument?

4. STIFS Tone What is the dominant tone of the poem?
Are there any shifts in tone?

5. STIFS Imagery What do you see, hear, smell, taste, feel?
What is suggested by the images?

6. STIFS Figurative Language
What types are in the poem? Metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole?
What is the poet doing with these elements?

7. STIFS Sound What sound elements are most striking and why?
How do these sound elements effect other elements in the poem?

8. The Clod and the Pebble, 1794
"Love seeketh not itself to please, Nor for itself hath any care, But for another gives its ease, And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair." So sung a little Clod of Clay Trodden with the cattle's feet, But a Pebble of the brook Warbled out these metres meet: "Love seeketh only self to please, To bind another to its delight, Joys in another's loss of ease, And builds a Hell in Heaven's despite."