How to approach an unseen poem.

Grade:11

‘TWISTUP’ METHOD

S – Structure and form: is it open or closed form? Look at the rhyme scheme, rhythm, line length

T – Themes and Tone: What is the message and key ideas of the poem?

U – You: Your personal reaction or emotional response to the poem.

P – Poetic Devices

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T – Title: What does it suggest about the poem?

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W – Words: What stands out? Why have particular word choices been made? Look at the diction.

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I – Imagery: Similes, metaphors, figurative language, etc.

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POETIC TECHNIQUES/DEVICES

Repetition:

An echo of words or sounds.

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Alliteration:

The repetition of consonants.

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Onomatopoeia:

Words that imitate sounds.

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Personification:

Giving human characteristics to inanimate objects.

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Simile:

A comparison between two things using “like” or “as”

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Metaphor:

A direct comparison without using the word “like” or “as”

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HOW TO APPROACH AN UNSEEN POEM: STEP ONE

Read

Read the title, consider the meaning.

Look

Look at the shape – it is a particular style (e.g. sonnet) how many lines and stanzas.

Read

Read the poem slowly.

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STEP TWO

CONSIDER:

• Speaker and tone.
• Subject and setting.
• Themes.
• Mood.

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STEP THREE

• Read closely and annotate (add notes).
• Point out:
• Repetition, rhythm, rhyme scheme.
• Poetic devices.
• Diction used and the affect it has on imagery.

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STEP 4

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• What is your personal opinion of the poem? Its message and its effectiveness?
• Your personal response.

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EXAMPLE: RICHARD CORY E.A ROBINSON

Richard Cory

Whenever Richard Cory went downtown,

We people on the pavement looked at him:

He was a gentleman from sole to crown,

Clean favoured and imperially slim.

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And he was always quietly arrayed

And he was always human when he talked;

But still he fluttered pulses when he said,

“Good-morning”, and he glittered when he walked.

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And he was rich – yes richer than a king –

And admirably schooled in every grace:

In fine, we thought that he was everything

To make us wish that we were in his place.

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So on we worked, and waited for the light,

And went without the meat and cursed the bread;

And Richard Corey, one calm summer night,

Went home and put a bullet through his head.

1. What sort of person is speaking? How do you know this?

2. In the first three stanzas, what picture does the reader get, of Richard Cory?

3. The last stanza is a tremendous anti-climax. What causes it to be an anti-climax?

4. Give the meaning of the following:

a. quietly arrayed (stanza 2)

b. clean favoured (stanza 1)

c. imperially slim (stanza 1)

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QUESTIONS

5. What punctuation might be used in stanza 3, instead of the dashes?

6. What are the four-line stanzas called?

7. What is the rhyme-scheme?

8. What, do you think, is the theme of this poem?

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QUESTIONS CONTINUE...

THANK YOU!

Any questions?

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