As we analyze all different types of poems in this class I have discovered a few tricks that have made the poems easier to understand, thanks to the help of my best friend who happens to be an English major here. So I thought I would share them with everyone to help!

 For each of the poems we're assigned to read that are online I print them out and then with a pencil circle every word or phrase I know the deffinition of before I even read the poem. I also draw lines to certain stanzas connecting similar ideas, and circle repeated words. However, before I do any of that the first thing I do is examine the title of each poem. I believe you can find out much information about each poem by the title such as the poems genre. I also do some research on the authors as well. For example as I looked at the title of Emily Dickinson's poems I was very confused. After I did my research I learned that she did not intend for any of her poems to be published, so the titles are usually the first line of each poem.

 I then look for similies and metaphors, followed by personification. Personification is my favorite part to look for in poems because I feel like it is very interesting how poets try to give objects human characterisitcs. Last but not least I look to see if the poem contains iambic pentameter because most of the poems we have studied in class tend to. After all of this I look at the title of the poem again!


I hope this helps!!!!!!!!!!!!