What you'll learn
How to read and analyse a poem you have never seen before.
Approach
- Work out the meaning and the speaker/voice.
- Analyse language: word choice (diction), imagery, similes/metaphors, personification, sound (alliteration, assonance).
- Analyse form and structure: stanza pattern, line length, rhyme and rhythm/metre, enjambment and caesura.
- Identify the tone and mood, and how they shift.
Writing the answer
- Track how the poem develops; link method to effect on the reader.
Exam tips
- Quote briefly and analyse individual words.
- Comment on why a technique is used, not just that it appears.
Common mistakes
- 'Feature-spotting' devices with no analysis.
- Ignoring form and structure.