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How to Write a Thesis for a Poetry Analysis Paper

The thesis statement can be the most difficult part of a poetry analysis to write, but this important component can help you create a powerful and provocative exploration of a poem. The trick is to first decide what you want to write about, followed by making one compelling argument about that subject.

Deciding What to Write About

After selecting or being assigned a poem, read and reread it to see what elements about it jump out at you. Write down how the poet uses figures of speech such as metaphor or imagery that strike you, or whether you sense a particular theme. Consider whether the poem has a particular cultural context or if its form illustrates a particular genre. Also take a look at the poem’s rhyme scheme and meter and how those elements affect the meaning of the poem. Make a list of these different ideas. Narrow your list to one idea you want to write about. For example, you might decide to write about the juxtaposition of plain and surreal language in Mark Strand’s “Eating Poetry” or the imagery in William Blake’s “The Tyger.”

Making an Argument

The purpose of a literary analysis is to make an argument about a work of literature rather than just providing a summary. Take the one idea you wish to write about and make it into a thesis statement. Your thesis statement is one declarative sentence that states the point you are trying to make in your essay. Writing a thesis, such as, “Dylan Thomas’ poem ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’ is about death,” is not a strong statement because it simply states what the poem is about. Make it a persuasive or even controversial statement, such as, “Dylan Thomas’ use of the villanelle form in ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’ creates a sense of urgency and a stronger emotional response for the audience.” In this essay, you might talk about the villanelle form and how forcing the English language into such a strict rhyme scheme, meter and repeated lines is evocative to the reader.

Naming the Poem and Poet

Your thesis statement will be the one thing that every point in your paper refers back to, so you want it to be as clear as possible. When writing about poetry, include the author’s name and title of the poem in your thesis statement. Many statements begin by introducing the poem and author, followed by the point you wish to make. For example, you could write, “In ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn,’ John Keats uses the urn as a symbol describing the relationship between humans and art.” The poem's title should be in quotation marks, and the thesis should be in literary present tense , meaning you should use present tense when commenting about what the writer says or describing events in the poem.

Choosing the Best Words

Once you have a draft of your thesis, consider whether you are using the strongest words possible. For example, instead of saying a poet “writes about” a particular topic, it might be appropriate to use more interesting verbs , such as “argues” or “illustrates.” Choosing the best verbs for your thesis statement can make it pop and make your argument more controversial or exciting for the reader.

Purdue Online Writing Lab: Writing About Poetry
Bucks County Community College: How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay

Cara Batema is a musician, teacher and writer who specializes in early childhood, special needs and psychology. Since 2010, Batema has been an active writer in the fields of education, parenting, science and health. She holds a bachelor's degree in music therapy and creative writing.

Poetry & Poets

Explore the beauty of poetry – discover the poet within

How To Write A Thesis Statement For Poetry Analysis

How to write a thesis statement for poetry analysis

Poetry analysis can be a daunting task for anyone, even seasoned writers and academicians. To help guide you through the process of writing a thesis statement for poetry analysis, there are a few key steps that you need to consider. The process can be broken down into five easy to understand steps so you can produce a well-crafted thesis statement that can be used to effectively write a full essay. The process starts by learning about the author, analyzing the poem’s structure, and researching the background of the poem.

Know Your Poet

The first step in writing a thesis statement for poetry analysis is to learn as much as you can about the poet. Learning about your poet’s style, believes, and intentions can help you gain a better understanding of the poem. It can also give you inspiration for your thesis statement. Focus on what the poet is trying to convey in the piece. Research the poet’s biography and any other related literary works that he or she may have written.

Also, take note of the time period in which the poem was written. Historical context is often an important part of a poet’s work and can help to shed light on the intentions of the poem. Understanding these elements of the poem can help to create a more meaningful thesis statement. It can also allow the reader to see how the poem fits into the greater context of the poet’s works.

Analyze the Poem

The next step in writing a thesis statement for poetry analysis is to analyze the poem. Analyzing the poem allows you to understand the poem’s structure, themes, and identify key words. As you analyze the poem, consider the tone and imagery of the piece. Identify any symbols that might be present. Pay close attention to the meter, rhyme, and stanzas used by the poet.

By thoroughly analyzing the poem you can uncover important aspects of the poem’s writing that should be highlighted in your thesis statement. This analysis can also provide you with insight into the poet’s style and thought processes. Make sure to note any questions that arise during your analysis that could help you to further develop your thesis statement.

Research the Poem

Once you have a better understanding of the poem’s structure, themes, and author, you should begin researching the poem. Do some research into any cultural, philosophical, or theological symbols in the poem, as well as the poem’s possible historical context. Go through the poem line by line, examining any personifications, metaphors, or allusions used by the poet. Take the time to research any allusions or symbols used in the poem.

Finding critical reviews and scholarly articles about the poem can also provide you with important information about the poem that can help you to create a thesis statement. This research can also help you to understand the perspective of the poem’s creator.

Formulate the Thesis Statement

Once you have a thorough understanding of the poem, it’s time to formulate the thesis statement. Start by summarizing the main points that you found during your research, analysis, and reading of the poem. Summarize the main themes, symbols, and other critical aspects of the poem. Use these points to help you develop a single statement that goes beyond simply summarizing the poem.

Formulate a statement that explores the poet’s intent and ideas behind the poem. Focus on how these points are woven into the poem to create a unique, meaningful statement. The thesis statement should be concise, but still reflect the main points of the poem.

Revise the Thesis Statement

The last step in writing a thesis statement for poetry analysis is to revise the thesis statement until it is clear and concise. Take the time to look over the statement and make sure it is an accurate representation of the poem. The statement should not be too general, vague, or difficult to understand.

Ensure that your thesis statement reflects the main ideas of the poem and proofread your statement for any spelling or grammar errors. Once you are satisfied with your statement, you should incorporate it into the introduction of your essay.

Poetry Analysis Techniques

When beginning a poetry analysis, it is important to conduct a close reading of the poem to gain a better understanding of the text. This can be done by carefully examining the various elements of the poem. Some key elements to consider during a close reading include the speaker or narrators, figurative language, repetition, and rhyme scheme.

In addition, look for any possible historical context or underlying messages in the poem. Lastly, consider the poet’s use of symbolism, meter, and allusions when conducting a thorough analysis. By understanding the elements of poetry and taking the time to conduct a thorough analysis, you can easily create a meaningful thesis statement that can be used to effectively write a full essay.

Interpretive Analysis

Interpretive analysis looks for the deeper meaning behind a poem. It attempts to uncover what the poet is trying to convey through his or her work. To conduct an interpretive analysis, focus on the poem’s structure, imagery, and other elements. Consider the language used in the poem and look for any shared themes, ideas, or sentiments.

In addition to the figurative language used in the poem, look at how the speakers, narrators, and characters within the poem interact. Drawing connections between the poem and its underlying themes can help to bring a deeper understanding of the poem to the surface. By taking the time to conduct an interpretive analysis, you can gain a better understanding of the poem and form a more meaningful thesis statement.

Literary Themes

Many poets use recurring literary themes in their work. Some of the most common literary themes in poetry include love, nature, death, and time. In addition to these, poets also use themes surrounding war, religion, identity, and more. By looking at the common themes of the poem, you can get a deeper understanding of the poet’s intent.

Consider the context of the poem to help you find the surrounding themes. Look for any religious or political messages in the poem, as well as any underlying emotions that the poet is attempting to convey. By understanding the poem’s themes, you can create a more meaningful thesis statement.

Symbolism is a common element used in poetry. Symbols can be words, images, or concepts that stand for or represent something else. Symbolism can be used to represent larger themes in the poem or to help convey a certain emotion or feeling. Look for any symbols throughout the poem, paying special attention to which symbols the poet focuses on the most.

Symbols can take on many forms and can have different meanings for different readers. Consider the context of the poem and the time period in which it was written. Think about the meaning of the symbol in the context of the poem and what the poet is attempting to communicate. Analyzing symbolism within a poem can help to form a more meaningful thesis statement.

Conclusions

In conclusion, writing a thesis statement for poetry analysis can be a daunting task. However, by following these five steps you can break the process down into manageable pieces. Start by learning as much as possible about the poet and the poem, then analyze and research the poem. Once you have a better understanding, begin to formulate and revise your thesis statement. By the end of the process, you will have an effective thesis statement that can be used to write a full essay.

Minnie Walters

Minnie Walters is a passionate writer and lover of poetry. She has a deep knowledge and appreciation for the work of famous poets such as William Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and many more. She hopes you will also fall in love with poetry!

Writing About Poetry

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This section covers the basics of how to write about poetry, including why it is done, what you should know, and what you can write about.

Writing about poetry can be one of the most demanding tasks that many students face in a literature class. Poetry, by its very nature, makes demands on a writer who attempts to analyze it that other forms of literature do not. So how can you write a clear, confident, well-supported essay about poetry? This handout offers answers to some common questions about writing about poetry.

What's the Point?

In order to write effectively about poetry, one needs a clear idea of what the point of writing about poetry is. When you are assigned an analytical essay about a poem in an English class, the goal of the assignment is usually to argue a specific thesis about the poem, using your analysis of specific elements in the poem and how those elements relate to each other to support your thesis.

So why would your teacher give you such an assignment? What are the benefits of learning to write analytic essays about poetry? Several important reasons suggest themselves:

To help you learn to make a text-based argument. That is, to help you to defend ideas based on a text that is available to you and other readers. This sharpens your reasoning skills by forcing you to formulate an interpretation of something someone else has written and to support that interpretation by providing logically valid reasons why someone else who has read the poem should agree with your argument. This isn't a skill that is just important in academics, by the way. Lawyers, politicians, and journalists often find that they need to make use of similar skills.
To help you to understand what you are reading more fully. Nothing causes a person to make an extra effort to understand difficult material like the task of writing about it. Also, writing has a way of helping you to see things that you may have otherwise missed simply by causing you to think about how to frame your own analysis.
To help you enjoy poetry more! This may sound unlikely, but one of the real pleasures of poetry is the opportunity to wrestle with the text and co-create meaning with the author. When you put together a well-constructed analysis of the poem, you are not only showing that you understand what is there, you are also contributing to an ongoing conversation about the poem. If your reading is convincing enough, everyone who has read your essay will get a little more out of the poem because of your analysis.

What Should I Know about Writing about Poetry?

Most importantly, you should realize that a paper that you write about a poem or poems is an argument. Make sure that you have something specific that you want to say about the poem that you are discussing. This specific argument that you want to make about the poem will be your thesis. You will support this thesis by drawing examples and evidence from the poem itself. In order to make a credible argument about the poem, you will want to analyze how the poem works—what genre the poem fits into, what its themes are, and what poetic techniques and figures of speech are used.

What Can I Write About?

Theme: One place to start when writing about poetry is to look at any significant themes that emerge in the poetry. Does the poetry deal with themes related to love, death, war, or peace? What other themes show up in the poem? Are there particular historical events that are mentioned in the poem? What are the most important concepts that are addressed in the poem?

Genre: What kind of poem are you looking at? Is it an epic (a long poem on a heroic subject)? Is it a sonnet (a brief poem, usually consisting of fourteen lines)? Is it an ode? A satire? An elegy? A lyric? Does it fit into a specific literary movement such as Modernism, Romanticism, Neoclassicism, or Renaissance poetry? This is another place where you may need to do some research in an introductory poetry text or encyclopedia to find out what distinguishes specific genres and movements.

Versification: Look closely at the poem's rhyme and meter. Is there an identifiable rhyme scheme? Is there a set number of syllables in each line? The most common meter for poetry in English is iambic pentameter, which has five feet of two syllables each (thus the name "pentameter") in each of which the strongly stressed syllable follows the unstressed syllable. You can learn more about rhyme and meter by consulting our handout on sound and meter in poetry or the introduction to a standard textbook for poetry such as the Norton Anthology of Poetry . Also relevant to this category of concerns are techniques such as caesura (a pause in the middle of a line) and enjambment (continuing a grammatical sentence or clause from one line to the next). Is there anything that you can tell about the poem from the choices that the author has made in this area? For more information about important literary terms, see our handout on the subject.

Figures of speech: Are there literary devices being used that affect how you read the poem? Here are some examples of commonly discussed figures of speech:

metaphor: comparison between two unlike things
simile: comparison between two unlike things using "like" or "as"
metonymy: one thing stands for something else that is closely related to it (For example, using the phrase "the crown" to refer to the king would be an example of metonymy.)
synecdoche: a part stands in for a whole (For example, in the phrase "all hands on deck," "hands" stands in for the people in the ship's crew.)
personification: a non-human thing is endowed with human characteristics
litotes: a double negative is used for poetic effect (example: not unlike, not displeased)
irony: a difference between the surface meaning of the words and the implications that may be drawn from them

Cultural Context: How does the poem you are looking at relate to the historical context in which it was written? For example, what's the cultural significance of Walt Whitman's famous elegy for Lincoln "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed" in light of post-Civil War cultural trends in the U.S.A? How does John Donne's devotional poetry relate to the contentious religious climate in seventeenth-century England? These questions may take you out of the literature section of your library altogether and involve finding out about philosophy, history, religion, economics, music, or the visual arts.

What Style Should I Use?

It is useful to follow some standard conventions when writing about poetry. First, when you analyze a poem, it is best to use present tense rather than past tense for your verbs. Second, you will want to make use of numerous quotations from the poem and explain their meaning and their significance to your argument. After all, if you do not quote the poem itself when you are making an argument about it, you damage your credibility. If your teacher asks for outside criticism of the poem as well, you should also cite points made by other critics that are relevant to your argument. A third point to remember is that there are various citation formats for citing both the material you get from the poems themselves and the information you get from other critical sources. The most common citation format for writing about poetry is the Modern Language Association (MLA) format .

A Full Guide to Writing a Perfect Poem Analysis Essay

01 October, 2020

14 minutes read

Author: Elizabeth Brown

Poem analysis is one of the most complicated essay types. It requires the utmost creativity and dedication. Even those who regularly attend a literary class and have enough experience in poem analysis essay elaboration may face considerable difficulties while dealing with the particular poem. The given article aims to provide the detailed guidelines on how to write a poem analysis, elucidate the main principles of writing the essay of the given type, and share with you the handy tips that will help you get the highest score for your poetry analysis. In addition to developing analysis skills, you would be able to take advantage of the poetry analysis essay example to base your poetry analysis essay on, as well as learn how to find a way out in case you have no motivation and your creative assignment must be presented on time.

What Is a Poetry Analysis Essay?

A poetry analysis essay is a type of creative write-up that implies reviewing a poem from different perspectives by dealing with its structural, artistic, and functional pieces. Since the poetry expresses very complicated feelings that may have different meanings depending on the backgrounds of both author and reader, it would not be enough just to focus on the text of the poem you are going to analyze. Poetry has a lot more complex structure and cannot be considered without its special rhythm, images, as well as implied and obvious sense.

While analyzing the poem, the students need to do in-depth research as to its content, taking into account the effect the poetry has or may have on the readers.

Preparing for the Poetry Analysis Writing

The process of preparation for the poem analysis essay writing is almost as important as writing itself. Without completing these stages, you may be at risk of failing your creative assignment. Learn them carefully to remember once and for good.

Thoroughly read the poem several times

The rereading of the poem assigned for analysis will help to catch its concepts and ideas. You will have a possibility to define the rhythm of the poem, its type, and list the techniques applied by the author.

While identifying the type of the poem, you need to define whether you are dealing with:

Lyric poem – the one that elucidates feelings, experiences, and the emotional state of the author. It is usually short and doesn’t contain any narration;
Limerick – consists of 5 lines, the first, second, and fifth of which rhyme with one another;
Sonnet – a poem consisting of 14 lines characterized by an iambic pentameter. William Shakespeare wrote sonnets which have made him famous;
Ode – 10-line poem aimed at praising someone or something;
Haiku – a short 3-line poem originated from Japan. It reflects the deep sense hidden behind the ordinary phenomena and events of the physical world;
Free-verse – poetry with no rhyme.

The type of the poem usually affects its structure and content, so it is important to be aware of all the recognized kinds to set a proper beginning to your poetry analysis.

Find out more about the poem background

Find as much information as possible about the author of the poem, the cultural background of the period it was written in, preludes to its creation, etc. All these data will help you get a better understanding of the poem’s sense and explain much to you in terms of the concepts the poem contains.

Define a subject matter of the poem

This is one of the most challenging tasks since as a rule, the subject matter of the poem isn’t clearly stated by the poets. They don’t want the readers to know immediately what their piece of writing is about and suggest everyone find something different between the lines.

What is the subject matter? In a nutshell, it is the main idea of the poem. Usually, a poem may have a couple of subjects, that is why it is important to list each of them.

In order to correctly identify the goals of a definite poem, you would need to dive into the in-depth research.

Check the historical background of the poetry. The author might have been inspired to write a poem based on some events that occurred in those times or people he met. The lines you analyze may be generated by his reaction to some epoch events. All this information can be easily found online.

Choose poem theories you will support

In the variety of ideas the poem may convey, it is important to stick to only several most important messages you think the author wanted to share with the readers. Each of the listed ideas must be supported by the corresponding evidence as proof of your opinion.

The poetry analysis essay format allows elaborating on several theses that have the most value and weight. Try to build your writing not only on the pure facts that are obvious from the context but also your emotions and feelings the analyzed lines provoke in you.

How to Choose a Poem to Analyze?

If you are free to choose the piece of writing you will base your poem analysis essay on, it is better to select the one you are already familiar with. This may be your favorite poem or one that you have read and analyzed before. In case you face difficulties choosing the subject area of a particular poem, then the best way will be to focus on the idea you feel most confident about. In such a way, you would be able to elaborate on the topic and describe it more precisely.

Now, when you are familiar with the notion of the poetry analysis essay, it’s high time to proceed to poem analysis essay outline. Follow the steps mentioned below to ensure a brilliant structure to your creative assignment.

Best Poem Analysis Essay Topics

Mother To Son Poem Analysis
We Real Cool Poem Analysis
Invictus Poem Analysis
Richard Cory Poem Analysis
Ozymandias Poem Analysis
Barbie Doll Poem Analysis
Caged Bird Poem Analysis
Ulysses Poem Analysis
Dover Beach Poem Analysis
Annabelle Lee Poem Analysis
Daddy Poem Analysis
The Raven Poem Analysis
The Second Coming Poem Analysis
Still I Rise Poem Analysis
If Poem Analysis
Fire And Ice Poem Analysis
My Papa’S Waltz Poem Analysis
Harlem Poem Analysis
Kubla Khan Poem Analysis
I Too Poem Analysis
The Juggler Poem Analysis
The Fish Poem Analysis
Jabberwocky Poem Analysis
Charge Of The Light Brigade Poem Analysis
The Road Not Taken Poem Analysis
Landscape With The Fall Of Icarus Poem Analysis
The History Teacher Poem Analysis
One Art Poem Analysis
The Wanderer Poem Analysis
We Wear The Mask Poem Analysis
There Will Come Soft Rains Poem Analysis
Digging Poem Analysis
The Highwayman Poem Analysis
The Tyger Poem Analysis
London Poem Analysis
Sympathy Poem Analysis
I Am Joaquin Poem Analysis
This Is Just To Say Poem Analysis
Sex Without Love Poem Analysis
Strange Fruit Poem Analysis
Dulce Et Decorum Est Poem Analysis
Emily Dickinson Poem Analysis
The Flea Poem Analysis
The Lamb Poem Analysis
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night Poem Analysis
My Last Duchess Poetry Analysis

Poem Analysis Essay Outline

As has already been stated, a poetry analysis essay is considered one of the most challenging tasks for the students. Despite the difficulties you may face while dealing with it, the structure of the given type of essay is quite simple. It consists of the introduction, body paragraphs, and the conclusion. In order to get a better understanding of the poem analysis essay structure, check the brief guidelines below.

Introduction

This will be the first section of your essay. The main purpose of the introductory paragraph is to give a reader an idea of what the essay is about and what theses it conveys. The introduction should start with the title of the essay and end with the thesis statement.

The main goal of the introduction is to make readers feel intrigued about the whole concept of the essay and serve as a hook to grab their attention. Include some interesting information about the author, the historical background of the poem, some poem trivia, etc. There is no need to make the introduction too extensive. On the contrary, it should be brief and logical.

Body Paragraphs

The body section should form the main part of poetry analysis. Make sure you have determined a clear focus for your analysis and are ready to elaborate on the main message and meaning of the poem. Mention the tone of the poetry, its speaker, try to describe the recipient of the poem’s idea. Don’t forget to identify the poetic devices and language the author uses to reach the main goals. Describe the imagery and symbolism of the poem, its sound and rhythm.

Try not to stick to too many ideas in your body section, since it may make your essay difficult to understand and too chaotic to perceive. Generalization, however, is also not welcomed. Try to be specific in the description of your perspective.

Make sure the transitions between your paragraphs are smooth and logical to make your essay flow coherent and easy to catch.

In a nutshell, the essay conclusion is a paraphrased thesis statement. Mention it again but in different words to remind the readers of the main purpose of your essay. Sum up the key claims and stress the most important information. The conclusion cannot contain any new ideas and should be used to create a strong impact on the reader. This is your last chance to share your opinion with the audience and convince them your essay is worth readers’ attention.

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Poem Analysis Essay Examples

A good poem analysis essay example may serve as a real magic wand to your creative assignment. You may take a look at the structure the other essay authors have used, follow their tone, and get a great share of inspiration and motivation.

Check several poetry analysis essay examples that may be of great assistance:

https://study.com/academy/lesson/poetry-analysis-essay-example-for-english-literature.html
https://www.slideshare.net/mariefincher/poetry-analysis-essay

Writing Tips for a Poetry Analysis Essay

If you read carefully all the instructions on how to write a poetry analysis essay provided above, you have probably realized that this is not the easiest assignment on Earth. However, you cannot fail and should try your best to present a brilliant essay to get the highest score. To make your life even easier, check these handy tips on how to analysis poetry with a few little steps.

In case you have a chance to choose a poem for analysis by yourself, try to focus on one you are familiar with, you are interested in, or your favorite one. The writing process will be smooth and easy in case you are working on the task you truly enjoy.
Before you proceed to the analysis itself, read the poem out loud to your colleague or just to yourself. It will help you find out some hidden details and senses that may result in new ideas.
Always check the meaning of words you don’t know. Poetry is quite a tricky phenomenon where a single word or phrase can completely change the meaning of the whole piece.
Bother to double check if the conclusion of your essay is based on a single idea and is logically linked to the main body. Such an approach will demonstrate your certain focus and clearly elucidate your views.
Read between the lines. Poetry is about senses and emotions – it rarely contains one clearly stated subject matter. Describe the hidden meanings and mention the feelings this has provoked in you. Try to elaborate a full picture that would be based on what is said and what is meant.

Write a Poetry Analysis Essay with HandmadeWriting

You may have hundreds of reasons why you can’t write a brilliant poem analysis essay. In addition to the fact that it is one of the most complicated creative assignments, you can have some personal issues. It can be anything from lots of homework, a part-time job, personal problems, lack of time, or just the absence of motivation. In any case, your main task is not to let all these factors influence your reputation and grades. A perfect way out may be asking the real pros of essay writing for professional help.

There are a lot of benefits why you should refer to the professional writing agencies in case you are not in the mood for elaborating your poetry analysis essay. We will only state the most important ones:

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As you see, there are a lot of advantages to ordering your poetry analysis essay from HandmadeWriting . Having such a perfect essay example now will contribute to your inspiration and professional growth in future.

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How to write a literary analysis essay | A step-by-step guide

How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay | A Step-by-Step Guide

Published on January 30, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on August 14, 2023.

Literary analysis means closely studying a text, interpreting its meanings, and exploring why the author made certain choices. It can be applied to novels, short stories, plays, poems, or any other form of literary writing.

A literary analysis essay is not a rhetorical analysis , nor is it just a summary of the plot or a book review. Instead, it is a type of argumentative essay where you need to analyze elements such as the language, perspective, and structure of the text, and explain how the author uses literary devices to create effects and convey ideas.

Before beginning a literary analysis essay, it’s essential to carefully read the text and c ome up with a thesis statement to keep your essay focused. As you write, follow the standard structure of an academic essay :

An introduction that tells the reader what your essay will focus on.
A main body, divided into paragraphs , that builds an argument using evidence from the text.
A conclusion that clearly states the main point that you have shown with your analysis.

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Step 1: reading the text and identifying literary devices, step 2: coming up with a thesis, step 3: writing a title and introduction, step 4: writing the body of the essay, step 5: writing a conclusion, other interesting articles.

The first step is to carefully read the text(s) and take initial notes. As you read, pay attention to the things that are most intriguing, surprising, or even confusing in the writing—these are things you can dig into in your analysis.

Your goal in literary analysis is not simply to explain the events described in the text, but to analyze the writing itself and discuss how the text works on a deeper level. Primarily, you’re looking out for literary devices —textual elements that writers use to convey meaning and create effects. If you’re comparing and contrasting multiple texts, you can also look for connections between different texts.

To get started with your analysis, there are several key areas that you can focus on. As you analyze each aspect of the text, try to think about how they all relate to each other. You can use highlights or notes to keep track of important passages and quotes.

Language choices

Consider what style of language the author uses. Are the sentences short and simple or more complex and poetic?

What word choices stand out as interesting or unusual? Are words used figuratively to mean something other than their literal definition? Figurative language includes things like metaphor (e.g. “her eyes were oceans”) and simile (e.g. “her eyes were like oceans”).

Also keep an eye out for imagery in the text—recurring images that create a certain atmosphere or symbolize something important. Remember that language is used in literary texts to say more than it means on the surface.

Narrative voice

Ask yourself:

Who is telling the story?
How are they telling it?

Is it a first-person narrator (“I”) who is personally involved in the story, or a third-person narrator who tells us about the characters from a distance?

Consider the narrator’s perspective . Is the narrator omniscient (where they know everything about all the characters and events), or do they only have partial knowledge? Are they an unreliable narrator who we are not supposed to take at face value? Authors often hint that their narrator might be giving us a distorted or dishonest version of events.

The tone of the text is also worth considering. Is the story intended to be comic, tragic, or something else? Are usually serious topics treated as funny, or vice versa ? Is the story realistic or fantastical (or somewhere in between)?

Consider how the text is structured, and how the structure relates to the story being told.

Novels are often divided into chapters and parts.
Poems are divided into lines, stanzas, and sometime cantos.
Plays are divided into scenes and acts.

Think about why the author chose to divide the different parts of the text in the way they did.

There are also less formal structural elements to take into account. Does the story unfold in chronological order, or does it jump back and forth in time? Does it begin in medias res —in the middle of the action? Does the plot advance towards a clearly defined climax?

With poetry, consider how the rhyme and meter shape your understanding of the text and your impression of the tone. Try reading the poem aloud to get a sense of this.

In a play, you might consider how relationships between characters are built up through different scenes, and how the setting relates to the action. Watch out for dramatic irony , where the audience knows some detail that the characters don’t, creating a double meaning in their words, thoughts, or actions.

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Your thesis in a literary analysis essay is the point you want to make about the text. It’s the core argument that gives your essay direction and prevents it from just being a collection of random observations about a text.

If you’re given a prompt for your essay, your thesis must answer or relate to the prompt. For example:

Essay question example

Is Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law” a religious parable?

Your thesis statement should be an answer to this question—not a simple yes or no, but a statement of why this is or isn’t the case:

Thesis statement example

Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law” is not a religious parable, but a story about bureaucratic alienation.

Sometimes you’ll be given freedom to choose your own topic; in this case, you’ll have to come up with an original thesis. Consider what stood out to you in the text; ask yourself questions about the elements that interested you, and consider how you might answer them.

Your thesis should be something arguable—that is, something that you think is true about the text, but which is not a simple matter of fact. It must be complex enough to develop through evidence and arguments across the course of your essay.

Say you’re analyzing the novel Frankenstein . You could start by asking yourself:

Your initial answer might be a surface-level description:

The character Frankenstein is portrayed negatively in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein .

However, this statement is too simple to be an interesting thesis. After reading the text and analyzing its narrative voice and structure, you can develop the answer into a more nuanced and arguable thesis statement:

Mary Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to portray Frankenstein in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as.

Remember that you can revise your thesis statement throughout the writing process , so it doesn’t need to be perfectly formulated at this stage. The aim is to keep you focused as you analyze the text.

Finding textual evidence

To support your thesis statement, your essay will build an argument using textual evidence —specific parts of the text that demonstrate your point. This evidence is quoted and analyzed throughout your essay to explain your argument to the reader.

It can be useful to comb through the text in search of relevant quotations before you start writing. You might not end up using everything you find, and you may have to return to the text for more evidence as you write, but collecting textual evidence from the beginning will help you to structure your arguments and assess whether they’re convincing.

To start your literary analysis paper, you’ll need two things: a good title, and an introduction.

Your title should clearly indicate what your analysis will focus on. It usually contains the name of the author and text(s) you’re analyzing. Keep it as concise and engaging as possible.

A common approach to the title is to use a relevant quote from the text, followed by a colon and then the rest of your title.

If you struggle to come up with a good title at first, don’t worry—this will be easier once you’ve begun writing the essay and have a better sense of your arguments.

“Fearful symmetry” : The violence of creation in William Blake’s “The Tyger”

The introduction

The essay introduction provides a quick overview of where your argument is going. It should include your thesis statement and a summary of the essay’s structure.

A typical structure for an introduction is to begin with a general statement about the text and author, using this to lead into your thesis statement. You might refer to a commonly held idea about the text and show how your thesis will contradict it, or zoom in on a particular device you intend to focus on.

Then you can end with a brief indication of what’s coming up in the main body of the essay. This is called signposting. It will be more elaborate in longer essays, but in a short five-paragraph essay structure, it shouldn’t be more than one sentence.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale about the dangers of scientific advancement unrestrained by ethical considerations. In this reading, protagonist Victor Frankenstein is a stable representation of the callous ambition of modern science throughout the novel. This essay, however, argues that far from providing a stable image of the character, Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to portray Frankenstein in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as. This essay begins by exploring the positive portrayal of Frankenstein in the first volume, then moves on to the creature’s perception of him, and finally discusses the third volume’s narrative shift toward viewing Frankenstein as the creature views him.

Some students prefer to write the introduction later in the process, and it’s not a bad idea. After all, you’ll have a clearer idea of the overall shape of your arguments once you’ve begun writing them!

If you do write the introduction first, you should still return to it later to make sure it lines up with what you ended up writing, and edit as necessary.

The body of your essay is everything between the introduction and conclusion. It contains your arguments and the textual evidence that supports them.

Paragraph structure

A typical structure for a high school literary analysis essay consists of five paragraphs : the three paragraphs of the body, plus the introduction and conclusion.

Each paragraph in the main body should focus on one topic. In the five-paragraph model, try to divide your argument into three main areas of analysis, all linked to your thesis. Don’t try to include everything you can think of to say about the text—only analysis that drives your argument.

In longer essays, the same principle applies on a broader scale. For example, you might have two or three sections in your main body, each with multiple paragraphs. Within these sections, you still want to begin new paragraphs at logical moments—a turn in the argument or the introduction of a new idea.

Robert’s first encounter with Gil-Martin suggests something of his sinister power. Robert feels “a sort of invisible power that drew me towards him.” He identifies the moment of their meeting as “the beginning of a series of adventures which has puzzled myself, and will puzzle the world when I am no more in it” (p. 89). Gil-Martin’s “invisible power” seems to be at work even at this distance from the moment described; before continuing the story, Robert feels compelled to anticipate at length what readers will make of his narrative after his approaching death. With this interjection, Hogg emphasizes the fatal influence Gil-Martin exercises from his first appearance.

Topic sentences

To keep your points focused, it’s important to use a topic sentence at the beginning of each paragraph.

A good topic sentence allows a reader to see at a glance what the paragraph is about. It can introduce a new line of argument and connect or contrast it with the previous paragraph. Transition words like “however” or “moreover” are useful for creating smooth transitions:

… The story’s focus, therefore, is not upon the divine revelation that may be waiting beyond the door, but upon the mundane process of aging undergone by the man as he waits.

Nevertheless, the “radiance” that appears to stream from the door is typically treated as religious symbolism.

This topic sentence signals that the paragraph will address the question of religious symbolism, while the linking word “nevertheless” points out a contrast with the previous paragraph’s conclusion.

Using textual evidence

A key part of literary analysis is backing up your arguments with relevant evidence from the text. This involves introducing quotes from the text and explaining their significance to your point.

It’s important to contextualize quotes and explain why you’re using them; they should be properly introduced and analyzed, not treated as self-explanatory:

It isn’t always necessary to use a quote. Quoting is useful when you’re discussing the author’s language, but sometimes you’ll have to refer to plot points or structural elements that can’t be captured in a short quote.

In these cases, it’s more appropriate to paraphrase or summarize parts of the text—that is, to describe the relevant part in your own words:

The conclusion of your analysis shouldn’t introduce any new quotations or arguments. Instead, it’s about wrapping up the essay. Here, you summarize your key points and try to emphasize their significance to the reader.

A good way to approach this is to briefly summarize your key arguments, and then stress the conclusion they’ve led you to, highlighting the new perspective your thesis provides on the text as a whole:

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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By tracing the depiction of Frankenstein through the novel’s three volumes, I have demonstrated how the narrative structure shifts our perception of the character. While the Frankenstein of the first volume is depicted as having innocent intentions, the second and third volumes—first in the creature’s accusatory voice, and then in his own voice—increasingly undermine him, causing him to appear alternately ridiculous and vindictive. Far from the one-dimensional villain he is often taken to be, the character of Frankenstein is compelling because of the dynamic narrative frame in which he is placed. In this frame, Frankenstein’s narrative self-presentation responds to the images of him we see from others’ perspectives. This conclusion sheds new light on the novel, foregrounding Shelley’s unique layering of narrative perspectives and its importance for the depiction of character.

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How to Write the AP Lit Poetry Essay

What’s covered:.

How to Write the AP Literature Poetry Essay
Tips for Writing The AP Lit Poetry Essay

To strengthen your AP Literature Poetry Essay essay, make sure you prepare ahead of time by knowing how the test is structured, and how to prepare. In this post, we’ll cover the structure of the test and show you how you can write a great AP Literature Poetry Essay.

What is the AP Lit Poetry Essay?

The AP Literature exam has two sections. Section I contains 55 multiple choice questions, with 1 hour time allotted. This includes at least two prose fiction passages and two poetry passages.

Section II, on the other hand, is a free response section. Here, students write essays to 3 prompts. These prompts include a literary analysis of a poem, prose fiction, or in a work selected by the student. Because the AP Literature Exam is structured in a specific, predictable manner, it’s helpful to prepare yourself for the types of questions you’ll encounter on test day.

The Poetry Essay counts for one-third of the total essay section score, so it’s important to know how to approach this section. You’ll want to plan for about 40 minutes on this question, which is plenty of time to read and dissect the prompt, read and markup the poem, write a brief outline, and write a concise, well-thought out essay with a compelling analysis.

Tips for Writing the AP Lit Poetry Essay

1. focus on the process.

Writing is a process, and so is literary analysis. Think less about finding the right answer, or uncovering the correct meaning of the poem (there isn’t one, most of the time). Read the prompt over at least twice, asking yourself carefully what you need to look for as you read. Then, read the poem three times. Once, to get an overall sense of the poem. Second, start to get at nuance; circle anything that’s recurring, underline important language and diction , and note important images or metaphors. In your annotations, you want to think about figurative language , and poetic structure and form . Third, pay attention to subtle shifts in the poem: does the form break, is there an interruption of some sort? When analyzing poetry, it’s important to get a sense of the big picture first, and then zoom in on the details.

2. Craft a Compelling Thesis

No matter the prompt, you will always need to respond with a substantive thesis. A meaty thesis contains complexity rather than broad generalizations , and points to specifics in the poem.

By examining the colloquial language in Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem, “We Real Cool”, we can see the tension of choosing to be “cool”. This raises important ideas about education, structure, and routine, and the consequences of living to be “real cool”.

Notice how the thesis provides a roadmap of what is to follow in the essay , and identifies key ideas that the essay will explore. It is specific, and not vague. The thesis provides a bigger picture of the text, while zooming in the colloquial language the speaker uses.

A good thesis points out the why as much as the what . Notice how in the above example, the thesis discusses language in the poem as it connects to a bigger message about the poem. For example, it’s not enough to discuss Emily Dickinson’s enjambment and hyphens. A good thesis will make a compelling argument about why those infamous Dickinson hyphens are so widely questioned and examined. Perhaps a good thesis might suggest that this unique literary device is more about self-examination and the lapse in our own judgement.

3. Use Textual Evidence

To support your thesis, always use textual evidence . When you are creating an outline, choose a handful of lines in the poem that will help illuminate your argument. Make sure each claim in your essay is followed by textual evidence, either in the form of a paraphrase, or direct quote . Then, explain exactly how the textual evidence supports your argument . Using this structure will help keep you on track as you write, so that your argument follows a clear narrative that a reader will be able to follow.

Your essay will need to contain both description of the poem, and analysis . Remember that your job isn’t to describe or paraphrase every aspect of the poem. You also need lots of rich analysis, so be sure to balance your writing by moving from explicit description to deeper analysis.

4. Strong Organization and Grammar

A great essay for the AP Literature Exam will contain an introduction with a thesis (not necessarily always the last sentence of the paragraph), body paragraphs that contain clear topic sentences, and a conclusion . Be sure to spend time thinking about your organization before you write the paper. Once you start writing, you only want to think about content. It’s helpful to write a quick outline before writing your essay.

There’s nothing worse than a strong argument with awkward sentences, grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. Make sure to proofread your work before submitting it. Carefully edit your work, paying attention to any run-on sentences, subject-verb agreement, commas, and spelling. You’d be surprised how many mistakes you’ll catch just by rereading your work.

Common Mistakes on the AP Literature Poetry Essay

It can be helpful to know what not to do when it comes time to prepare for the AP Literature Poetry Essay. Here are some common mistakes students make on the AP Literature Poetry Essay:

1. Thesis is not arguable and is too general

Your thesis should be arguable, and indicate the central ideas you will discuss in your essay. Read the prompt carefully and craft your thesis in light of what the prompt asks you to do. If the prompt mentions specific literary devices, find a way to tie those into your thesis. In your thesis, you want to connect to the meaning of the poem itself and what you feel the poet intended when using those particular literary devices.

2. Using vague, general statements rather than focusing on analysis of the poem

Always stay close to the text when writing the AP Literature Poetry Essay. Remember that your job is not to paraphrase but to analyze. Keep explicit descriptions of the poem concise, and spend the majority of your time writing strong analysis backed up by textual evidence.

3. Not using transitions to connect between paragraphs

Make sure it’s not jarring to the reader when you switch to a new idea in a new paragraph. Use transitions and strong topic sentences to seamlessly blend your ideas together into a cohesive essay that flows well and is easy to follow.

4. Textual evidence is lacking or not fully explained

Always include quotes from the text and reference specifics whenever you can. Introduce your quote briefly, and then explain how the quote connects back to the topic sentence after. Think about why the quotes connect back to the poet’s central ideas.

5. Not writing an outline

Of course, to write a fully developed essay you’ll need to spend a few minutes planning out your essay. Write a quick outline with a thesis, paragraph topics and a list of quotes that support your central ideas before getting started.

To improve your writing, take a look at these essay samples from the College Board, with scoring guidelines and commentary.

How Will AP Scores Affect My College Chances?

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Thesis Statements for a Literature Assignment

A thesis prepares the reader for what you are about to say. As such, your paper needs to be interesting in order for your thesis to be interesting. Your thesis needs to be interesting because it needs to capture a reader's attention. If a reader looks at your thesis and says "so what?", your thesis has failed to do its job, and chances are your paper has as well. Thus, make your thesis provocative and open to reasonable disagreement, but then write persuasively enough to sway those who might be disagree.

Keep in mind the following when formulating a thesis:

A Thesis Should Not State the Obvious
Use Literary Terms in Thesis With Care
A Thesis Should be Balanced
A Thesis Can be a Blueprint

Avoid the Obvious

Bland: Dorothy Parker's "Résumé" uses images of suicide to make her point about living.

This is bland because it's obvious and incontestable. A reader looks at it and says, "so what?"

However, consider this alternative:

Dorothy Parker's "Résumé" doesn't celebrate life, but rather scorns those who would fake or attempt suicide just to get attention.

The first thesis merely describes something about the poem; the second tells the reader what the writer thinks the poem is about--it offers a reading or interpretation. The paper would need to support that reading and would very likely examine the way Parker uses images of suicide to make the point the writer claims.

Use Literary Terms in Thesis Only to Make Larger Points

Poems and novels generally use rhyme, meter, imagery, simile, metaphor, stanzas, characters, themes, settings and so on. While these terms are important for you to use in your analysis and your arguments, that they exist in the work you are writing about should not be the main point of your thesis. Unless the poet or novelist uses these elements in some unexpected way to shape the work's meaning, it's generally a good idea not to draw attention to the use of literary devices in thesis statements because an intelligent reader expects a poem or novel to use literary of these elements. Therefore, a thesis that only says a work uses literary devices isn't a good thesis because all it is doing is stating the obvious, leading the reader to say, "so what?"

However, you can use literary terms in a thesis if the purpose is to explain how the terms contribute to the work's meaning or understanding. Here's an example of thesis statement that does call attention to literary devices because they are central to the paper's argument. Literary terms are placed in italics.

Don Marquis introduced Archy and Mehitabel in his Sun Dial column by combining the conventions of free verse poetry with newspaper prose so intimately that in "the coming of Archy," the entire column represents a complete poem and not a free verse poem preceded by a prose introduction .

Note the difference between this thesis and the first bland thesis on the Parker poem. This thesis does more than say certain literary devices exist in the poem; it argues that they exist in a specific relationship to one another and makes a fairly startling claim, one that many would disagree with and one that the writer will need to persuade her readers on.

Keep Your Thesis Balanced

Keep the thesis balanced. If it's too general, it becomes vague; if it's too specific, it cannot be developed. If it's merely descriptive (like the bland example above), it gives the reader no compelling reason to go on. The thesis should be dramatic, have some tension in it, and should need to be proved (another reason for avoiding the obvious).

Too general: Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote many poems with love as the theme. Too specific: Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote "Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink" in <insert date> after <insert event from her life>. Too descriptive: Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink" is a sonnet with two parts; the first six lines propose a view of love and the next eight complicate that view. With tension and which will need proving: Despite her avowal on the importance of love, and despite her belief that she would not sell her love, the speaker in Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink" remains unconvinced and bitter, as if she is trying to trick herself into believing that love really does matter for more than the one night she is in some lover's arms.

Your Thesis Can Be A Blueprint

A thesis can be used as roadmap or blueprint for your paper:

In "Résumé," Dorothy Parker subverts the idea of what a résumé is--accomplishments and experiences--with an ironic tone, silly images of suicide, and witty rhymes to point out the banality of life for those who remain too disengaged from it.

Note that while this thesis refers to particular poetic devices, it does so in a way that gets beyond merely saying there are poetic devices in the poem and then merely describing them. It makes a claim as to how and why the poet uses tone, imagery and rhyme.

Readers would expect you to argue that Parker subverts the idea of the résumé to critique bored (and boring) people; they would expect your argument to do so by analyzing her use of tone, imagery and rhyme in that order.

Citation Information

Nick Carbone. (1994-2024). Thesis Statements for a Literature Assignment. The WAC Clearinghouse. Colorado State University. Available at https://wac.colostate.edu/repository/writing/guides/.

Copyright Information

Thesis Statements for a Literature Assignment

Keep in mind the following when formulating a thesis:

A Thesis Should Not State the Obvious
Use Literary Terms in Thesis With Care
A Thesis Should be Balanced
A Thesis Can be a Blueprint

Avoid the Obvious

Bland: Dorothy Parker's "Résumé" uses images of suicide to make her point about living.

This is bland because it's obvious and incontestable. A reader looks at it and says, "so what?"

However, consider this alternative:

Dorothy Parker's "Résumé" doesn't celebrate life, but rather scorns those who would fake or attempt suicide just to get attention.

Use Literary Terms in Thesis Only to Make Larger Points

Don Marquis introduced Archy and Mehitabel in his Sun Dial column by combining the conventions of free verse poetry with newspaper prose so intimately that in "the coming of Archy," the entire column represents a complete poem and not a free verse poem preceded by a prose introduction .

Keep Your Thesis Balanced

Too general: Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote many poems with love as the theme. Too specific: Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote "Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink" in <insert date> after <insert event from her life>. Too descriptive: Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink" is a sonnet with two parts; the first six lines propose a view of love and the next eight complicate that view. With tension and which will need proving: Despite her avowal on the importance of love, and despite her belief that she would not sell her love, the speaker in Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink" remains unconvinced and bitter, as if she is trying to trick herself into believing that love really does matter for more than the one night she is in some lover's arms.

Your Thesis Can Be A Blueprint

A thesis can be used as roadmap or blueprint for your paper:

In "Résumé," Dorothy Parker subverts the idea of what a résumé is--accomplishments and experiences--with an ironic tone, silly images of suicide, and witty rhymes to point out the banality of life for those who remain too disengaged from it.

Carbone, Nick. (1997). Thesis Statements for a Literature Assignment. Writing@CSU . Colorado State University. https://writing.colostate.edu/guides/guide.cfm?guideid=51

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12.14: Sample Student Literary Analysis Essays

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Heather Ringo & Athena Kashyap
City College of San Francisco via ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative

The following examples are essays where student writers focused on close-reading a literary work.

While reading these examples, ask yourself the following questions:

What is the essay's thesis statement, and how do you know it is the thesis statement?
What is the main idea or topic sentence of each body paragraph, and how does it relate back to the thesis statement?
Where and how does each essay use evidence (quotes or paraphrase from the literature)?
What are some of the literary devices or structures the essays analyze or discuss?
How does each author structure their conclusion, and how does their conclusion differ from their introduction?

Example 1: Poetry

Victoria Morillo

Instructor Heather Ringo

3 August 2022

How Nguyen’s Structure Solidifies the Impact of Sexual Violence in “The Study”

Stripped of innocence, your body taken from you. No matter how much you try to block out the instance in which these two things occurred, memories surface and come back to haunt you. How does a person, a young boy , cope with an event that forever changes his life? Hieu Minh Nguyen deconstructs this very way in which an act of sexual violence affects a survivor. In his poem, “The Study,” the poem's speaker recounts the year in which his molestation took place, describing how his memory filters in and out. Throughout the poem, Nguyen writes in free verse, permitting a structural liberation to become the foundation for his message to shine through. While he moves the readers with this poignant narrative, Nguyen effectively conveys the resulting internal struggles of feeling alone and unseen.

The speaker recalls his experience with such painful memory through the use of specific punctuation choices. Just by looking at the poem, we see that the first period doesn’t appear until line 14. It finally comes after the speaker reveals to his readers the possible, central purpose for writing this poem: the speaker's molestation. In the first half, the poem makes use of commas, em dashes, and colons, which lends itself to the idea of the speaker stringing along all of these details to make sense of this time in his life. If reading the poem following the conventions of punctuation, a sense of urgency is present here, as well. This is exemplified by the lack of periods to finalize a thought; and instead, Nguyen uses other punctuation marks to connect them. Serving as another connector of thoughts, the two em dashes give emphasis to the role memory plays when the speaker discusses how “no one [had] a face” during that time (Nguyen 9-11). He speaks in this urgent manner until the 14th line, and when he finally gets it off his chest, the pace of the poem changes, as does the more frequent use of the period. This stream-of-consciousness-like section when juxtaposed with the latter half of the poem, causes readers to slow down and pay attention to the details. It also splits the poem in two: a section that talks of the fogginess of memory then transitions into one that remembers it all.

In tandem with the fluctuating nature of memory, the utilization of line breaks and word choice help reflect the damage the molestation has had. Within the first couple of lines of the poem, the poem demands the readers’ attention when the line breaks from “floating” to “dead” as the speaker describes his memory of Little Billy (Nguyen 1-4). This line break averts the readers’ expectation of the direction of the narrative and immediately shifts the tone of the poem. The break also speaks to the effect his trauma has ingrained in him and how “[f]or the longest time,” his only memory of that year revolves around an image of a boy’s death. In a way, the speaker sees himself in Little Billy; or perhaps, he’s representative of the tragic death of his boyhood, how the speaker felt so “dead” after enduring such a traumatic experience, even referring to himself as a “ghost” that he tries to evict from his conscience (Nguyen 24). The feeling that a part of him has died is solidified at the very end of the poem when the speaker describes himself as a nine-year-old boy who’s been “fossilized,” forever changed by this act (Nguyen 29). By choosing words associated with permanence and death, the speaker tries to recreate the atmosphere (for which he felt trapped in) in order for readers to understand the loneliness that came as a result of his trauma. With the assistance of line breaks, more attention is drawn to the speaker's words, intensifying their importance, and demanding to be felt by the readers.

Most importantly, the speaker expresses eloquently, and so heartbreakingly, about the effect sexual violence has on a person. Perhaps what seems to be the most frustrating are the people who fail to believe survivors of these types of crimes. This is evident when he describes “how angry” the tenants were when they filled the pool with cement (Nguyen 4). They seem to represent how people in the speaker's life were dismissive of his assault and who viewed his tragedy as a nuisance of some sorts. This sentiment is bookended when he says, “They say, give us details , so I give them my body. / They say, give us proof , so I give them my body,” (Nguyen 25-26). The repetition of these two lines reinforces the feeling many feel in these scenarios, as they’re often left to deal with trying to make people believe them, or to even see them.

It’s important to recognize how the structure of this poem gives the speaker space to express the pain he’s had to carry for so long. As a characteristic of free verse, the poem doesn’t follow any structured rhyme scheme or meter; which in turn, allows him to not have any constraints in telling his story the way he wants to. The speaker has the freedom to display his experience in a way that evades predictability and engenders authenticity of a story very personal to him. As readers, we abandon anticipating the next rhyme, and instead focus our attention to the other ways, like his punctuation or word choice, in which he effectively tells his story. The speaker recognizes that some part of him no longer belongs to himself, but by writing “The Study,” he shows other survivors that they’re not alone and encourages hope that eventually, they will be freed from the shackles of sexual violence.

Works Cited

Nguyen, Hieu Minh. “The Study” Poets.Org. Academy of American Poets, Coffee House Press, 2018, https://poets.org/poem/study-0 .

Example 2: Fiction

Todd Goodwin

Professor Stan Matyshak

Advanced Expository Writing

Sept. 17, 20—

Poe’s “Usher”: A Mirror of the Fall of the House of Humanity

Right from the outset of the grim story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Edgar Allan Poe enmeshes us in a dark, gloomy, hopeless world, alienating his characters and the reader from any sort of physical or psychological norm where such values as hope and happiness could possibly exist. He fatalistically tells the story of how a man (the narrator) comes from the outside world of hope, religion, and everyday society and tries to bring some kind of redeeming happiness to his boyhood friend, Roderick Usher, who not only has physically and psychologically wasted away but is entrapped in a dilapidated house of ever-looming terror with an emaciated and deranged twin sister. Roderick Usher embodies the wasting away of what once was vibrant and alive, and his house of “insufferable gloom” (273), which contains his morbid sister, seems to mirror or reflect this fear of death and annihilation that he most horribly endures. A close reading of the story reveals that Poe uses mirror images, or reflections, to contribute to the fatalistic theme of “Usher”: each reflection serves to intensify an already prevalent tone of hopelessness, darkness, and fatalism.

It could be argued that the house of Roderick Usher is a “house of mirrors,” whose unpleasant and grim reflections create a dark and hopeless setting. For example, the narrator first approaches “the melancholy house of Usher on a dark and soundless day,” and finds a building which causes him a “sense of insufferable gloom,” which “pervades his spirit and causes an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart, an undiscerned dreariness of thought” (273). The narrator then optimistically states: “I reflected that a mere different arrangement of the scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps annihilate its capacity for sorrowful impression” (274). But the narrator then sees the reflection of the house in the tarn and experiences a “shudder even more thrilling than before” (274). Thus the reader begins to realize that the narrator cannot change or stop the impending doom that will befall the house of Usher, and maybe humanity. The story cleverly plays with the word reflection : the narrator sees a physical reflection that leads him to a mental reflection about Usher’s surroundings.

The narrator’s disillusionment by such grim reflection continues in the story. For example, he describes Roderick Usher’s face as distinct with signs of old strength but lost vigor: the remains of what used to be. He describes the house as a once happy and vibrant place, which, like Roderick, lost its vitality. Also, the narrator describes Usher’s hair as growing wild on his rather obtrusive head, which directly mirrors the eerie moss and straw covering the outside of the house. The narrator continually longs to see these bleak reflections as a dream, for he states: “Shaking off from my spirit what must have been a dream, I scanned more narrowly the real aspect of the building” (276). He does not want to face the reality that Usher and his home are doomed to fall, regardless of what he does.

Although there are almost countless examples of these mirror images, two others stand out as important. First, Roderick and his sister, Madeline, are twins. The narrator aptly states just as he and Roderick are entombing Madeline that there is “a striking similitude between brother and sister” (288). Indeed, they are mirror images of each other. Madeline is fading away psychologically and physically, and Roderick is not too far behind! The reflection of “doom” that these two share helps intensify and symbolize the hopelessness of the entire situation; thus, they further develop the fatalistic theme. Second, in the climactic scene where Madeline has been mistakenly entombed alive, there is a pairing of images and sounds as the narrator tries to calm Roderick by reading him a romance story. Events in the story simultaneously unfold with events of the sister escaping her tomb. In the story, the hero breaks out of the coffin. Then, in the story, the dragon’s shriek as he is slain parallels Madeline’s shriek. Finally, the story tells of the clangor of a shield, matched by the sister’s clanging along a metal passageway. As the suspense reaches its climax, Roderick shrieks his last words to his “friend,” the narrator: “Madman! I tell you that she now stands without the door” (296).

Roderick, who slowly falls into insanity, ironically calls the narrator the “Madman.” We are left to reflect on what Poe means by this ironic twist. Poe’s bleak and dark imagery, and his use of mirror reflections, seem only to intensify the hopelessness of “Usher.” We can plausibly conclude that, indeed, the narrator is the “Madman,” for he comes from everyday society, which is a place where hope and faith exist. Poe would probably argue that such a place is opposite to the world of Usher because a world where death is inevitable could not possibly hold such positive values. Therefore, just as Roderick mirrors his sister, the reflection in the tarn mirrors the dilapidation of the house, and the story mirrors the final actions before the death of Usher. “The Fall of the House of Usher” reflects Poe’s view that humanity is hopelessly doomed.

Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Fall of the House of Usher.” 1839. Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library . 1995. Web. 1 July 2012. < http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/PoeFall.html >.

Example 3: Poetry

Amy Chisnell

Professor Laura Neary

Writing and Literature

April 17, 20—

Don’t Listen to the Egg!: A Close Reading of Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky”

“You seem very clever at explaining words, Sir,” said Alice. “Would you kindly tell me the meaning of the poem called ‘Jabberwocky’?”

“Let’s hear it,” said Humpty Dumpty. “I can explain all the poems that ever were invented—and a good many that haven’t been invented just yet.” (Carroll 164)

In Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass , Humpty Dumpty confidently translates (to a not so confident Alice) the complicated language of the poem “Jabberwocky.” The words of the poem, though nonsense, aptly tell the story of the slaying of the Jabberwock. Upon finding “Jabberwocky” on a table in the looking-glass room, Alice is confused by the strange words. She is quite certain that “ somebody killed something ,” but she does not understand much more than that. When later she encounters Humpty Dumpty, she seizes the opportunity at having the knowledgeable egg interpret—or translate—the poem. Since Humpty Dumpty professes to be able to “make a word work” for him, he is quick to agree. Thus he acts like a New Critic who interprets the poem by performing a close reading of it. Through Humpty’s interpretation of the first stanza, however, we see the poem’s deeper comment concerning the practice of interpreting poetry and literature in general—that strict analytical translation destroys the beauty of a poem. In fact, Humpty Dumpty commits the “heresy of paraphrase,” for he fails to understand that meaning cannot be separated from the form or structure of the literary work.

Of the 71 words found in “Jabberwocky,” 43 have no known meaning. They are simply nonsense. Yet through this nonsensical language, the poem manages not only to tell a story but also gives the reader a sense of setting and characterization. One feels, rather than concretely knows, that the setting is dark, wooded, and frightening. The characters, such as the Jubjub bird, the Bandersnatch, and the doomed Jabberwock, also appear in the reader’s head, even though they will not be found in the local zoo. Even though most of the words are not real, the reader is able to understand what goes on because he or she is given free license to imagine what the words denote and connote. Simply, the poem’s nonsense words are the meaning.

Therefore, when Humpty interprets “Jabberwocky” for Alice, he is not doing her any favors, for he actually misreads the poem. Although the poem in its original is constructed from nonsense words, by the time Humpty is done interpreting it, it truly does not make any sense. The first stanza of the original poem is as follows:

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogroves,

An the mome raths outgrabe. (Carroll 164)

If we replace, however, the nonsense words of “Jabberwocky” with Humpty’s translated words, the effect would be something like this:

’Twas four o’clock in the afternoon, and the lithe and slimy badger-lizard-corkscrew creatures

Did go round and round and make holes in the grass-plot round the sun-dial:

All flimsy and miserable were the shabby-looking birds

with mop feathers,

And the lost green pigs bellowed-sneezed-whistled.

By translating the poem in such a way, Humpty removes the charm or essence—and the beauty, grace, and rhythm—from the poem. The poetry is sacrificed for meaning. Humpty Dumpty commits the heresy of paraphrase. As Cleanth Brooks argues, “The structure of a poem resembles that of a ballet or musical composition. It is a pattern of resolutions and balances and harmonizations” (203). When the poem is left as nonsense, the reader can easily imagine what a “slithy tove” might be, but when Humpty tells us what it is, he takes that imaginative license away from the reader. The beauty (if that is the proper word) of “Jabberwocky” is in not knowing what the words mean, and yet understanding. By translating the poem, Humpty takes that privilege from the reader. In addition, Humpty fails to recognize that meaning cannot be separated from the structure itself: the nonsense poem reflects this literally—it means “nothing” and achieves this meaning by using “nonsense” words.

Furthermore, the nonsense words Carroll chooses to use in “Jabberwocky” have a magical effect upon the reader; the shadowy sound of the words create the atmosphere, which may be described as a trance-like mood. When Alice first reads the poem, she says it seems to fill her head “with ideas.” The strange-sounding words in the original poem do give one ideas. Why is this? Even though the reader has never heard these words before, he or she is instantly aware of the murky, mysterious mood they set. In other words, diction operates not on the denotative level (the dictionary meaning) but on the connotative level (the emotion(s) they evoke). Thus “Jabberwocky” creates a shadowy mood, and the nonsense words are instrumental in creating this mood. Carroll could not have simply used any nonsense words.

For example, let us change the “dark,” “ominous” words of the first stanza to “lighter,” more “comic” words:

’Twas mearly, and the churly pells

Did bimble and ringle in the tink;

All timpy were the brimbledimps,

And the bip plips outlink.

Shifting the sounds of the words from dark to light merely takes a shift in thought. To create a specific mood using nonsense words, one must create new words from old words that convey the desired mood. In “Jabberwocky,” Carroll mixes “slimy,” a grim idea, “lithe,” a pliable image, to get a new adjective: “slithy” (a portmanteau word). In this translation, brighter words were used to get a lighter effect. “Mearly” is a combination of “morning” and “early,” and “ringle” is a blend of “ring” and "dingle.” The point is that “Jabberwocky’s” nonsense words are created specifically to convey this shadowy or mysterious mood and are integral to the “meaning.”

Consequently, Humpty’s rendering of the poem leaves the reader with a completely different feeling than does the original poem, which provided us with a sense of ethereal mystery, of a dark and foreign land with exotic creatures and fantastic settings. The mysteriousness is destroyed by Humpty’s literal paraphrase of the creatures and the setting; by doing so, he has taken the beauty away from the poem in his attempt to understand it. He has committed the heresy of paraphrase: “If we allow ourselves to be misled by it [this heresy], we distort the relation of the poem to its ‘truth’… we split the poem between its ‘form’ and its ‘content’” (Brooks 201). Humpty Dumpty’s ultimate demise might be seen to symbolize the heretical split between form and content: as a literary creation, Humpty Dumpty is an egg, a well-wrought urn of nonsense. His fall from the wall cracks him and separates the contents from the container, and not even all the King’s men can put the scrambled egg back together again!

Through the odd characters of a little girl and a foolish egg, “Jabberwocky” suggests a bit of sage advice about reading poetry, advice that the New Critics built their theories on. The importance lies not solely within strict analytical translation or interpretation, but in the overall effect of the imagery and word choice that evokes a meaning inseparable from those literary devices. As Archibald MacLeish so aptly writes: “A poem should not mean / But be.” Sometimes it takes a little nonsense to show us the sense in something.

Brooks, Cleanth. The Well-Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry . 1942. San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1956. Print.

Carroll, Lewis. Through the Looking-Glass. Alice in Wonderland . 2nd ed. Ed. Donald J. Gray. New York: Norton, 1992. Print.

MacLeish, Archibald. “Ars Poetica.” The Oxford Book of American Poetry . Ed. David Lehman. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006. 385–86. Print.

Attribution

Sample Essay 1 received permission from Victoria Morillo to publish, licensed Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International ( CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 )
Sample Essays 2 and 3 adapted from Cordell, Ryan and John Pennington. "2.5: Student Sample Papers" from Creating Literary Analysis. 2012. Licensed Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported ( CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 )

How to Write a Well-Developed Poem Analysis Essay

11 December 2023

last updated

Poems are literary works that shed light on different social and cultural aspects. Therefore, if students want to learn how to write a well-developed poem analysis essay, an essential educational undertaking requires them to familiarize certain technical features. Basically, these features include the refrain, narrators and characters, setting, diction, imagery, figurative language, voice and tone, storyline, rhyme scheme, and structure. In this case, the extent to which a student examines these elements in poetry determines whether their analysis is shallow or deep. Hence, an in-depth analysis poem essay goes beyond reviewing the prominent features in a written piece, and it interrogates other “behind the scenes” aspects of writing.

General Guidelines on How to Write a Poem Analysis Essay

Poems are literary works that help to shed light on particular historical or present social issues. As such, students must critically analyze poetry pieces if they wish to understand the issues that people espouse and what written pieces inform them. Unlike other academic texts, such as essays and reports, poetry does not follow the introduction-body-conclusion outline. Instead, they use stanzas (same as paragraphs in other literary texts), where each espouses specific issues relevant to the poet’s primary mission. Therefore, a poem analysis essay requires an appraisal of the different technical features that authors use in their writings.

For writing your paper, these links will be helpful:

Essay Writers Online
How to Write an Explication Essay
How to Write a Literary Analysis
How to Write a Character Analysis Essay
How to Write a Rhetorical Précis

Poem Analysis Essay Examples

A practical poetry analysis essay requires one to break down the text into essential elements. Then, students must explain how these technical features work together to reinforce the poem’s meaning. Basically, the primary purpose of these features is to create an effect on the readers’ minds about the topic or the poetry’s meaning. In this case, the most effective approach in the poetry analysis is to have a solid understanding of poetry pieces they intend to analyze. Ultimately, a poetry analysis essay must examine ten technical features: refrain, narrators and characters, setting, diction, imagery, figurative language, voice and tone, storyline, rhyme scheme, and structure.

Every poem has a central message that gives its meaning. Therefore, any poem analysis essay must identify this meaning by interrogating what happens in the written piece, what authors are trying to communicate, and how powerfully they try to pass along their messages. In this case, the answer to these questions is the refrain – the line or group of lines that people repeat in every stanza. In turn, the primary function of a refrain is to emphasize the author’s central message and give poetry meaning.

2. Narrators and Characters

When analyzing a poem, one must identify the narrator – the person voicing the words. In many instances, the narrator is different from the author, who is the author. Then, another factor that one must consider when analyzing poetry is the audience – people that the narrator or the poet addresses. In this case, both narrators and authors act as speakers in poetry. Also, their role is to pass along the central message. Therefore, anyone analyzing a poem must determine how these speakers affect the poetry’s message and why the author chose them as conveyors of the central message.

To understand how to write a good poem analysis essay, an individual must consider its context from the poet’s perspective. In particular, the setting is the technical feature that gives poetry its boundaries. It captures various issues, including the author’s personal history. Then, other aspects that define a poem’s context are the political, social, cultural, and environmental aspects that prevail during the writing of poetry. As such, time is a critical aspect for one to consider when analyzing poetry.

A poem is a short text, meaning every word is significant to the poet’s mission. Therefore, a compelling analysis essay of a poem must consider diction (choice of words) and how the author uses it to create an impression. Here, one must determine why the author uses particular words and whether these words carry any significant meaning. In this case, essential concepts, such as the line or lines that the poet repeats in every stanza, tend to stand out. Thus, a compelling poem analysis essay should examine whether these important words emphasize or reduce the meaning of poetry.

One of the goals of poets is to impress their audience, and imagery helps a great deal. Basically, imagery is what the author uses to evoke the senses of touch, taste, smell, sight, or sound in the audience. Imagery, also termed as symbolism, represents the object, action, and idea that authors espouse, and it allows them to appeal to the senses. In this case, the importance of imagery is that it enables readers to empathize with speakers (narrator and characters) by imagining a similar sensory experience.

6. Figurative Language (Metaphor, Simile, Irony, and Personification)

Another feature that a poem analysis essay must include is how the author utilizes figures of speech, including metaphor, simile, irony, and personification, to create an impression or convey an idea. Ideally, what drives the author to use this language is the need to create a powerful emotional and intellectual impact. In turn, this outcome comes by ensuring the figures of speech that the poet uses help to enrich poetry to the extent that it becomes more memorable to the audience.

7. Voice and Tone

Just like any literary text, a poem has a voice and a tone. In this case, the factor determining these two features is the persona that the poet adopts, whether they are only the writer or they are both the writer and the narrator. One of the elements that reflect the voice and tone of poetry is the poet’s mood. This means that in analyzing a poem, one must identify the tone that the author uses by determining whether they (poets) are angry, ardent, regretful, or suicidal.

8. Storyline

One of the features of a literary text that makes readers interested from the first paragraph to the last is a storyline, also known as the plot. For instance, there are many issues that a person analyzing a poem should consider to determine the poet’s storyline. Basically, these issues include conflicts, tragedies, disappointments, or events. By examining these issues and how the author deals with them, a person can understand what direction poetry takes. In essence, a storyline reflects characters that a poet uses and their roles. Also, suspense is a powerful tool that helps the author to develop a storyline.

9. Rhyme Scheme

Unlike essays and novels, a poem has a rhyme scheme, which helps create a rhyme pattern. For example, one of the most notable features that help to create a rhyme in poetry is a refrain, the line or group of lines that come at the end of every stanza. Therefore, examining whether a poem has wordings that create a rhyme is crucial in determining the poet’s approach in writing the text. Then, poetry pieces that follow a free verse style do not incorporate the rhyme scheme feature. In turn, there are many types of rhymes that authors can use in their works, including internal, slant, and identical rhymes. Also, the most common strategy that the poet uses in creating a rhyme is to utilize a rhyme scheme composed of shared vowel sounds or consonants.

10. Structure

In many literary works, the most common structure is the introduction-body-conclusion outline. However, this outline cannot be applied to poetry. When analyzing poetry, one determines the structure that the poet has used by examining how they have written the stanzas. In this case, the author can either use a regular stanzaic form, which involves the use of two or the same clusters of lines, or an irregular form. Whichever structure poets have used, one must determine why they used them to understand the poetry’s meaning. In turn, the author relates the poem’s structure to the central message (the purpose of poetry).

How to Write an Effective Poem Analysis Essay With Different Types

There are different forms of poetry that an author can choose when writing a poetry analysis essay. Two examples of poetry are haiku and epic poems. As such, when analyzing poetry, the form that the author adopts plays a significant role in determining the approach of the analysis. In analyzing a haiku, one must consider its 5-7-5 structure. Basically, this structure means that, in every stanza, the first line has five syllables, the second – seven syllables, and the third – five syllables. For instance, haiku poetry has three lines and 17 syllables. In analyzing an epic, one must consider its lengthy, narrative structure, where the poet details remarkable feats and adventures of historical characters.

How to Cite Poetry and Use Quotes in a Poem Analysis Essay

As a literary text, a poem can serve as a reference point in an academic paper. In the case of an educational poem analysis essay, a student can identify different elements of poetry to make a point. Basically, these elements include the technical features named above. As such, students must cite the poem and the specific place within the poem’s structure to locate the item they are citing. For example, when citing a poem in the MLA format, one must list the last name of the poet followed by the line or lines in the poem where the information cited originates. In turn, the information that a student cites when analyzing poetry must be in quotation marks.

Meaning of a Deep Poem Analysis Essay

There are many approaches that one can use to analyze a literary text, including a poem. For instance, a shallow analysis is where a person takes the most prominent details of a text and expounds on it. However, this type of analysis reflects a lack of an in-depth understanding of a text. In a deep analysis, one goes beyond the details that are obvious to consider other factors that might be irrelevant to a shallow analysis. Also, these factors include the author’s background, the time they wrote the poem, imagery, and other technical features (as named above). When analyzing a poem, these factors influence not only the meaning of poetry but also how someone understands it. Therefore, a casual reader, who ignores these elements, cannot have a full grasp of the author’s meaning when analyzing a poem.

How to Outline a Poem Analysis Essay

As indicated, a poem’s outline is different from the introduction-body-conclusion of a typical essay. However, when writing a poem analysis essay, one can choose this outline. In the introduction, one would mention the poetry title and highlight critical information, such as the author’s background and the context within which this poet wrote his or her poetry piece. Basically, this part must be concluded with a thesis statement . In the essay’s body, the goal is to explore the meaning of poetry, which must link with the thesis sentence. Also, the most critical information in this part should focus on analyzing the poem’s technical features. It includes imagery, symbolism, figurative language, diction, and others. In turn, the conclusion should restate the thesis claim and conclude with a thought-provoking remark.

Summing up on How to Write a Good Poetry Analysis Essay

Even though poetry is not a typical literary text, one must approach it as academic writing when making a poem analysis essay. Hence, some of the tips worth noting in an essay on a poetry analysis include:

Read poetry pieces carefully at least twice.
Learn about the poem’s context, including the author’s background and the time when the person wrote it.
Identify key statements – those that the poet repeats in every stanza.
Define the subject matter by paying attention to the theme, tone, mood, and meaning of poetry.
Develop different ideas about what the poet is trying to communicate and pick one.
Avoid opinions and conjectures by focusing on provable facts.

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The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Poetry Explications

What this handout is about.

A poetry explication is a relatively short analysis which describes the possible meanings and relationships of the words, images, and other small units that make up a poem. Writing an explication is an effective way for a reader to connect a poem’s subject matter with its structural features. This handout reviews some of the important techniques of approaching and writing a poetry explication, and includes parts of two sample explications.

Preparing to write the explication

Before you try to tackle your first draft of the explication, it’s important to first take a few preliminary steps to help familiarize yourself with the poem and reveal possible avenues of analysis.

Read the poem or excerpt of poetry silently, then read it aloud (if not in a testing situation). Repeat as necessary.
Circle, highlight, underline, or otherwise note specific moments that caught your attention as you were reading, and reflect on why you noticed them. These could be moments that made sense to you, profoundly confused you, or something in between. Such moments might be single words, phrases, or formal features (e.g., rhyme, meter, enjambment).
Reflect on the poem and what it conveyed to you as a reader. You might not be able to fully and logically describe this, but take note of what you noticed. You might consider jotting down your initial thoughts after your first reading, and then noting how your ideas changed after you re-read the poem.

The large issues

Before you really delve into linguistic and formal elements, it’s first important to take a step back and get a sense of the “big picture” of a poem. The following key questions can be helpful when assessing a poem’s overall message:

How did the poem affect you as a reader? The word “affect” can be helpful to consider here since it denotes the overall subjective experience one has in response to reading something (or seeing or experiencing anything, really). This can encompass thoughts, emotions, moods, ideas, etc.—whatever the experience produced in you as a person. You can ask yourself what affective, or emotional, atmosphere the poem produced, even if something about it is difficult to describe. What adjective would you use to describe the tone of the poem? Happy? Sad? Thoughtful? Despairing? Joyous? How did the poem make you feel generally? Did the poem bring to mind certain ideas or images, etc.?

Does the poem have an identifiable speaker or addressee? Is the poem attributed to a specific speaker, or is this unclear or ambiguous? Is the speaker clearly addressing a specific second person audience, or a general one, or does this not come up? Is there a specific dramatic motivation driving the speaker to speak? You may have to make decisions about how to discuss the speaker or addressee in your explication, so it’s worth noticing how the poem is framed.

What seems to be the larger theme, or point, of the poem? This is the first question to try to address. Even if the larger message of the poem seems highly ambiguous, it’s important to first try to get a sense of this before you can move into analyzing the poem more fully. Does the poem seem to be an attempt to understand something? To appreciate something? To express a feeling? To work through a complex idea? To convey an image? Some combination of motivations?

After considering these questions, keep in mind that it’s okay if the poem still confuses you or eludes your full understanding. In fact, this sense of mystery can encourage further thought when trying to explicate a poem. Keep thinking carefully about the intricacies of the language and you may be able to convey some of this sense in your explication.

The details

To analyze the design of the poem, we must focus on the poem’s parts, namely how the poem dramatizes conflicts or ideas in language. By concentrating on the parts, we develop our understanding of the poem’s structure, and we gather support and evidence for our interpretations. Some of the details we should consider include the following:

Form: Does the poem represent a particular form (sonnet, sestina, etc.)? Does the poem present any unique variations from the traditional structure of that form?
Rhetoric: How does the speaker make particular statements? Does the rhetoric seem odd in any way? Why? Consider the predicates and what they reveal about the speaker.
Syntax: Consider the subjects, verbs, and objects of each statement and what these elements reveal about the speaker. Do any statements have convoluted or vague syntax?
Vocabulary: Why does the poet choose one word over another in each line? Do any of the words have multiple or archaic meanings that add other meanings to the line? Use the Oxford English Dictionary as a resource.

The patterns

As you analyze the design line by line, look for certain patterns to develop which provide insight into the dramatic situation, the speaker’s state of mind, or the poet’s use of details. Some of the most common patterns include the following:

Rhetorical Patterns: Look for statements that follow the same format.
Rhyme: Consider the significance of the end words joined by sound; in a poem with no rhymes, consider the importance of the end words.
Patterns of Sound: Alliteration and assonance create sound effects and often cluster significant words.
Visual Patterns: How does the poem look on the page?
Rhythm and Meter: Consider how rhythm and meter influence our perception of the speaker and language.

Basic terms for talking about meter

Meter (from the Greek metron, meaning measure) refers principally to the recurrence of regular beats in a poetic line. In this way, meter pertains to the structure of the poem as it is written.

The most common form of meter in English verse since the 14th century is accentual-syllabic meter, in which the basic unit is the foot. A foot is a combination of two or three stressed and/or unstressed syllables. The following are the four most common metrical feet in English poetry:

IAMBIC (the noun is “iamb”): an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, a pattern which comes closest to approximating the natural rhythm of speech. Note line 23 from Shelley’s “Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples”: ⏑ / ⏑ / ⏑ / ⏑ / And walked | with in | ward glo | ry crowned
TROCHAIC (the noun is “trochee”): a stressed followed by an unstressed syllable, as in the first line of Blake’s “Introduction” to Songs of Innocence: / ⏑ / ⏑ / ⏑ / Piping | down the | valleys | wild
ANAPESTIC (the noun is “anapest”): two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable, as in the opening to Byron’s “The Destruction of Sennacherib”: ⏑ ⏑ / ⏑ ⏑ / ⏑ ⏑ / ⏑ ⏑ / The Assyr | ian came down | like the wolf | on the fold
DACTYLIC (the noun is “dactyl”): a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables, as in Thomas Hardy’s “The Voice”: / ⏑ ⏑ / ⏑ ⏑ / ⏑ ⏑ / ⏑ ⏑ Woman much | missed, how you | call to me, | call to me

Meter also refers to the number of feet in a line:

Any number above six (hexameter) is heard as a combination of smaller parts; for example, what we might call heptameter (seven feet in a line) is indistinguishable (aurally) from successive lines of tetrameter and trimeter (4-3).

To scan a line is to determine its metrical pattern. Perhaps the best way to begin scanning a line is to mark the natural stresses on the polysyllabic words. Take Shelley’s line:

And walked with inward glory crowned.

Then mark the polysyllabic nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs that are normally stressed:

Then fill in the rest:

Then divide the line into feet:

Then note the sequence:

The line consists of four iambs; therefore, we identify the line as iambic tetrameter.

I got rhythm

Rhythm refers particularly to the way a line is voiced, i.e., how one speaks the line. Often, when a reader reads a line of verse, choices of stress and unstress may need to be made. For example, the first line of Keats’ “Ode on Melancholy” presents the reader with a problem:

No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist

If we determine the regular pattern of beats (the meter) of this line, we will most likely identify the line as iambic pentameter. If we read the line this way, the statement takes on a musing, somewhat disinterested tone. However, because the first five words are monosyllabic, we may choose to read the line differently. In fact, we may be tempted, especially when reading aloud, to stress the first two syllables equally, making the opening an emphatic, directive statement. Note that monosyllabic words allow the meaning of the line to vary according to which words we choose to stress when reading (i.e., the choice of rhythm we make).

The first line of Milton’s Paradise Lost presents a different type of problem.

Of Man’s First Disobedience, and the Fruit

Again, this line is predominantly iambic, but a problem occurs with the word “Disobedience.” If we read strictly by the meter, then we must fuse the last two syllables of the word. However, if we read the word normally, we have a breakage in the line’s metrical structure. In this way, the poet forges a tension between meter and rhythm: does the word remain contained by the structure, or do we choose to stretch the word out of the normal foot, thereby disobeying the structure in which it was made? Such tension adds meaning to the poem by using meter and rhythm to dramatize certain conflicts. In this example, Milton forges such a tension to present immediately the essential conflicts that lead to the fall of Adam and Eve.

Writing the explication

The explication should follow the same format as the preparation: begin with the large issues and basic design of the poem and work through each line to the more specific details and patterns.

The first paragraph

The first paragraph should present the large issues; it should inform the reader which conflicts are dramatized and should describe the dramatic situation of the speaker. The explication does not require a formal introductory paragraph; the writer should simply start explicating immediately. According to UNC ‘s Professor William Harmon, the foolproof way to begin any explication is with the following sentence:

“This poem dramatizes the conflict between …”

Such a beginning ensures that you will introduce the major conflict or theme in the poem and organize your explication accordingly.

Here is an example. A student’s explication of Wordsworth’s “Composed upon Westminster Bridge” might begin in the following way:

This poem dramatizes the conflict between appearance and reality, particularly as this conflict relates to what the speaker seems to say and what he really says. From Westminster Bridge, the speaker looks at London at sunrise, and he explains that all people should be struck by such a beautiful scene. The speaker notes that the city is silent, and he points to several specific objects, naming them only in general terms: “Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples” (6). After describing the “glittering” aspect of these objects, he asserts that these city places are just as beautiful in the morning as country places like “valley, rock, or hill” (8,10). Finally, after describing his deep feeling of calmness, the speaker notes how the “houses seem asleep” and that “all that mighty heart is lying still” (13, 14). In this way, the speaker seems to say simply that London looks beautiful in the morning.

The next paragraphs

The next paragraphs should expand the discussion of the conflict by focusing on details of form, rhetoric, syntax, and vocabulary. In these paragraphs, the writer should explain the poem line by line in terms of these details, and they should incorporate important elements of rhyme, rhythm, and meter during this discussion.

The student’s explication continues with a topic sentence that directs the discussion of the first five lines:

However, the poem begins with several oddities that suggest the speaker is saying more than what he seems to say initially. For example, the poem is an Italian sonnet and follows the abbaabbacdcdcd rhyme scheme. The fact that the poet chooses to write a sonnet about London in an Italian form suggests that what he says may not be actually praising the city. Also, the rhetoric of the first two lines seems awkward compared to a normal speaking voice: “Earth has not anything to show more fair. / Dull would he be of soul who could pass by” (1-2). The odd syntax continues when the poet personifies the city: “This City now doth, like a garment, wear / The beauty of the morning” (4-5). Here, the city wears the morning’s beauty, so it is not the city but the morning that is beautiful …

The conclusion

The explication has no formal concluding paragraph; do not simply restate the main points of the introduction! The end of the explication should focus on sound effects or visual patterns as the final element of asserting an explanation. Or, as does the undergraduate here, the writer may choose simply to stop writing when they reach the end of the poem:

The poem ends with a vague statement: “And all that mighty heart is lying still!” In this line, the city’s heart could be dead, or it could be simply deceiving the one observing the scene. In this way, the poet reinforces the conflict between the appearance of the city in the morning and what such a scene and his words actually reveal.

Tips to keep in mind

Refer to the speaking voice in the poem as the “speaker” or “the poet.” For example, do not write, “In this poem, Wordsworth says that London is beautiful in the morning.” However, you can write,

“In this poem, Wordsworth presents a speaker who…”

We cannot absolutely identify Wordsworth with the speaker of the poem, so it is more accurate to talk about “the speaker” or “the poet” in an explication.

Use the present tense when writing the explication. The poem, as a work of literature, continues to exist!

To avoid unnecessary uses of the verb “to be” in your compositions, the following list suggests some verbs you can use when writing the explication:

An example of an explication written for a timed exam

The Fountain

Fountain, fountain, what do you say Singing at night alone? “It is enough to rise and fall Here in my basin of stone.” But are you content as you seem to be So near the freedom and rush of the sea? “I have listened all night to its laboring sound, It heaves and sags, as the moon runs round; Ocean and fountain, shadow and tree, Nothing escapes, nothing is free.”

—Sara Teasdale (American, 1884-1933)

As a direct address to an inanimate object “The Fountain” presents three main conflicts concerning the appearance to the observer and the reality in the poem. First, since the speaker addresses an object usually considered voiceless, the reader may abandon his/her normal perception of the fountain and enter the poet’s imaginative address. Secondly, the speaker not only addresses the fountain but asserts that it speaks and sings, personifying the object with vocal abilities. These acts imply that, not only can the fountain speak in a musical form, but the fountain also has the ability to present some particular meaning (“what do you say” (1)). Finally, the poet gives the fountain a voice to say that its perpetual motion (rising and falling) is “enough” to maintain its sense of existence. This final personification fully dramatizes the conflict between the fountain’s appearance and the poem’s statement of reality by giving the object intelligence and voice.

The first strophe, four lines of alternating 4- and 3-foot lines, takes the form of a ballad stanza. In this way, the poem begins by suggesting that it will be story that will perhaps teach a certain lesson. The opening trochees and repetition stress the address to the fountain, and the iamb which ends line 1 and the trochee that begins line 2 stress the actions of the fountain itself. The response of the fountain illustrates its own rise and fall in the iambic line 3, and the rhyme of “alone” and “stone” emphasizes that the fountain is really a physical object, even though it can speak in this poem.

The second strophe expands the conflicts as the speaker questions the fountain. The first couplet connects the rhyming words “be” and “sea” these connections stress the question, “Is the fountain content when it exists so close to a large, open body of water like the ocean?” The fountain responds to the tempting “rush of the sea” with much wisdom (6). The fountain’s reply posits the sea as “laboring” versus the speaker’s assertion of its freedom; the sea becomes characterized by heavily accented “heaves and sags” and not open rushing (7, 8). In this way, the fountain suggests that the sea’s waters may be described in images of labor, work, and fatigue; governed by the moon, these waters are not free at all. The “as” of line 8 becomes a key word, illustrating that the sea’s waters are not free but commanded by the moon, which is itself governed by gravity in its orbit around Earth. Since the moon, an object far away in the heavens, controls the ocean, the sea cannot be free as the speaker asserts.

The poet reveals the fountain’s intelligence in rhyming couplets which present closed-in, epigrammatic statements. These couplets draw attention to the contained nature of the all objects in the poem, and they draw attention to the final line’s lesson. This last line works on several levels to address the poem’s conflicts. First, the line refers to the fountain itself; in this final rhymed couplet is the illustration of the water’s perpetual motion in the fountain, its continually recycled movement rising and falling. Second, the line refers to the ocean; in this respect the water cannot escape its boundary or control its own motions. The ocean itself is trapped between landmasses and is controlled by a distant object’s gravitational pull. Finally, the line addresses the speaker, leaving him/her with an overriding sense of fate and fallacy. The fallacy here is that the fountain presents this wisdom of reality to defy the speaker’s original idea that the fountain and the ocean appear to be trapped and free. Also, the direct statement of the last line certainly addresses the human speaker as well as the human reader. This statement implies that we are all trapped or controlled by some remote object or entity. At the same time, the assertion that “Nothing escapes” reflects the limitations of life in the world and the death that no person can escape. Our own thoughts are restricted by our mortality as well as by our limits of relying on appearances. By personifying a voiceless object, the poem presents a different perception of reality, placing the reader in the same position of the speaker and inviting the reader to question the conflict between appearance and reality, between what we see and what we can know.

Suggestions for improvement

The writer observes and presents many of the most salient points of the short poem, but they could indeed organize the explication more coherently. To improve this explication, the writer could focus more on the speaker’s state of mind. In this way, the writer could explore the implications of the dramatic situation even further: why does the speaker ask a question of a mute object? With this line of thought, the writer could also examine more closely the speaker’s movement from perplexity (I am trapped but the waters are free) to a kind of resolution (the fountain and the sea are as trapped as I am). Finally, the writer could include a more detailed consideration of rhythm, meter, and rhyme.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Behind the Meaning of John Denver’s “Poems, Prayers and Promises”

I’ve been lately thinking about my life’s time / All the things I’ve done and how it’s been , John Denver sings in the opening line to “Poems, Prayers and Promises.” It’s also somewhat of a thesis statement for Denver‘s music as a whole. The singer-songwriter often reminisced on his life in great detail. At any rate, he was always introspective even when marveling at the great wonders of the world.

That being said, this track feels like a singular force in Denver’s discography. It’s sentimental, meditative, and somewhat elegiac in the aftermath of his death. Check out the meaning behind this track, below.

[RELATED: Almost Heaven: The Story Behind “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver]

Behind the Meaning of “Poems, Prayers and Promises”

I’ve been lately thinking

About my life’s time

All the things I’ve done

And how it’s been

And I can’t help believing

In my own mind

I know I’m gonna hate to see it end

Denver died in a fatal plane crash on October 12, 1997. Though this song was released decades before that event, it feels almost prescient. The lyrics nearly read like someone nearing the end of their life, looking back on everything that colored their days. I know I’m gonna hate to see it end , he sings.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Denver song without some references to nature. In the second verse, he makes sure to mention the sunshine, the rain, and all other outdoorsy elements he will miss once his time comes.

In the chorus, Denver takes stock of his life–weighing out the good and the bad. In the end, he comes to a positive conclusion: I have to say it now / It’s been a good life all in all .

Talk of poems and prayers and promises

And things that we believe in

How sweet it is to love someone

How right it is to care

Later in the chorus, Denver shifts his focus from one love (nature) to another (romance). He thinks fondly of talking for hours on end with a loved one. How sweet it is to love someone / How right it is to care , he sings.

In many ways, this is the Denver song. It encapsulates everything fans knew and loved about the singer-songwriter: his love of the outdoors, keen attention to detail, and heartwarming sensibilities. Revisit this track, below.

(Photo by Tony Russell/Redferns)

The post Behind the Meaning of John Denver’s “Poems, Prayers and Promises” appeared first on American Songwriter .

Remember When John Denver Topped the ‘Billboard’ 200 and Hot 100 Charts for the First Time 50 Years Ago

COMMENTS

How to Write a Thesis for a Poetry Analysis Paper
The poem's title should be in quotation marks, and the thesis should be in literary present tense, meaning you should use present tense when commenting about what the writer says or describing events in the poem. Choosing the Best Words. Once you have a draft of your thesis, consider whether you are using the strongest words possible.
How to Write a Poetry Essay (Complete Guide)
Main Paragraphs. Now, we come to the main body of the essay, the quality of which will ultimately determine the strength of our essay. This section should comprise of 4-5 paragraphs, and each of these should analyze an aspect of the poem and then link the effect that aspect creates to the poem's themes or message.
How To Write A Thesis Statement For Poetry Analysis
The next step in writing a thesis statement for poetry analysis is to analyze the poem. Analyzing the poem allows you to understand the poem's structure, themes, and identify key words. As you analyze the poem, consider the tone and imagery of the piece. Identify any symbols that might be present. Pay close attention to the meter, rhyme, and ...
Thesis Statement
A thesis statement is the main argument of a piece of writing. It can be found in academic/formal writing novel writing. A thesis statement is a position the author holds and that which they're going to prove through the text. It summarizes the writing that's going to follow and is usually found in the first paragraph of the introduction.
Writing About Poetry
This specific argument that you want to make about the poem will be your thesis. You will support this thesis by drawing examples and evidence from the poem itself. In order to make a credible argument about the poem, you will want to analyze how the poem works—what genre the poem fits into, what its themes are, and what poetic techniques and ...
A Full Guide to Writing a Perfect Poem Analysis Essay
Analyzing poetry is complicated, especially if you need to write an essay. Explore our poetry analysis essay example and generate your perfect paper. ... In a nutshell, the essay conclusion is a paraphrased thesis statement. Mention it again but in different words to remind the readers of the main purpose of your essay. Sum up the key claims ...
How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay
Step 2: Coming up with a thesis. Your thesis in a literary analysis essay is the point you want to make about the text. It's the core argument that gives your essay direction and prevents it from just being a collection of random observations about a text. If you're given a prompt for your essay, your thesis must answer or relate to the prompt.
13.4: Sample essay on a poem
Example: Sample essay written on a Langston Hughes' poem. The following essay is a student's analysis of Langston Hughes' poem "I, Too" (poem published in 1926) I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen. When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong.
PDF Developing a Thesis for a Critical Analysis of a Poem
Follow the steps below to develop a thesis for your essay on your chosen poem. The work involves brainstorming and writing answers to questions, so get pencil and paper or boot up your computer. Note that some questions apply more directly to one or the other of the two poems: Read the poem several times. Read it out loud at least once.
Writing about Poetry: Questions and Answers
Question 1: So what is a poetry paper, and how is it different from summary papers or compare-and-contrast essays? Answer: A poetry paper is actually called an explication, or a close reading of a poem. It is a line-by-line commentary about what is happening there. However, when writing an explication, is it important to remember that it is ...
Poetry Analysis Essay: Expert Guide with Examples and Tips
It introduces the poem and the poet, establishes the focus of the analysis, and presents the thesis statement. Include the following: Provide the title, poet's name, and publication date. Add brief background information about the poet and the poem's context. State your main argument or poem interpretation. Poem analysis essay example:
How to Write the AP Lit Poetry Essay
It is specific, and not vague. The thesis provides a bigger picture of the text, while zooming in the colloquial language the speaker uses. A good thesis points out the why as much as the what. Notice how in the above example, the thesis discusses language in the poem as it connects to a bigger message about the poem. For example, it's not ...
Developing A Thesis
A good thesis has two parts. It should tell what you plan to argue, and it should "telegraph" how you plan to argue—that is, what particular support for your claim is going where in your essay. Steps in Constructing a Thesis. First, analyze your primary sources. Look for tension, interest, ambiguity, controversy, and/or complication.
How to Write Literary Analysis
Literary analysis involves examining all the parts of a novel, play, short story, or poem—elements such as character, setting, tone, and imagery—and thinking about how the author uses those elements to create certain effects. A literary essay isn't a book review: you're not being asked whether or not you liked a book or whether you'd ...
Thesis Statements for a Literature Assignment
The first thesis merely describes something about the poem; the second tells the reader what the writer thinks the poem is about--it offers a reading or interpretation. The paper would need to support that reading and would very likely examine the way Parker uses images of suicide to make the point the writer claims.
PDF Writing a Poetry Explication
Writing a Poetry Explication A poetry explication is a short, but in-depth analysis of a poem that relates the structure of the poem to its overall meaning. Don't worry if this definition sounds complicated; when you break it down, it's really just a close reading of a poem that results in a controlling idea, or thesis statement.
Guide: Thesis Statements for a Literature Assignment
The first thesis merely describes something about the poem; the second tells the reader what the writer thinks the poem is about--it offers a reading or interpretation. The paper would need to support that reading and would very likely examine the way Parker uses images of suicide to make the point the writer claims.
12.14: Sample Student Literary Analysis Essays
City College of San Francisco via ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative. Table of contents. Example 1: Poetry. Example 2: Fiction. Example 3: Poetry. Attribution. The following examples are essays where student writers focused on close-reading a literary work. While reading these examples, ask yourself the following questions:
Learning Lab Tips on Critical Analysis -- Poetry
The thesis of a critical paper should include a statement of the poem's theme; everything in the body of the paper should apply in some way towards proving the thesis statement. In critical analysis, one looks both analytically and critically at a short story, a novel, or a poem and makes an argument about what the meaning of the story or poem is.
How to Write a Well-Developed Poem Analysis Essay
As such, time is a critical aspect for one to consider when analyzing poetry. 4. Diction. A poem is a short text, meaning every word is significant to the poet's mission. Therefore, a compelling analysis essay of a poem must consider diction (choice of words) and how the author uses it to create an impression.
Poetry Explications
A poetry explication is a relatively short analysis which describes the possible meanings and relationships of the words, images, and other small units that make up a poem. Writing an explication is an effective way for a reader to connect a poem's subject matter with its structural features. This handout reviews some of the important ...
PDF Writing About Poetry: Q and A
A: A poetry paper is actually called an explication, or a close reading of a poem. It is a line-by-line commentary about what is happening there. However, when writing an explication, is it important to remember that it is more than just a long summary. Although you may have to summarize the poem in certain parts of your paper (like in the ...
Behind the Meaning of John Denver's "Poems, Prayers and Promises"
Behind the Meaning of "Poems, Prayers and Promises". About my life's time. All the things I've done. And how it's been. And I can't help believing. In my own mind. I know I'm gonna ...

How to Write a Thesis for a Poetry Analysis Paper

Deciding What to Write About

Making an Argument

Naming the Poem and Poet

Choosing the Best Words

How To Write A Thesis Statement For Poetry Analysis

How to write a thesis statement for poetry analysis

Know Your Poet

Analyze the Poem

Research the Poem

Formulate the Thesis Statement

Revise the Thesis Statement

Poetry Analysis Techniques

Interpretive Analysis

Literary Themes

Conclusions

Minnie Walters

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Writing About Poetry

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A Full Guide to Writing a Perfect Poem Analysis Essay

What Is a Poetry Analysis Essay?

Preparing for the Poetry Analysis Writing

Thoroughly read the poem several times

Find out more about the poem background

Define a subject matter of the poem

Choose poem theories you will support

How to Choose a Poem to Analyze?

Best Poem Analysis Essay Topics

Poem Analysis Essay Outline

Introduction

Body Paragraphs

Poem Analysis Essay Examples

Writing Tips for a Poetry Analysis Essay

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Table of contents

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How to Write the AP Lit Poetry Essay

What is the AP Lit Poetry Essay?

Tips for Writing the AP Lit Poetry Essay

2. Craft a Compelling Thesis

3. Use Textual Evidence

4. Strong Organization and Grammar

Common Mistakes on the AP Literature Poetry Essay

1. Thesis is not arguable and is too general

2. Using vague, general statements rather than focusing on analysis of the poem

3. Not using transitions to connect between paragraphs

4. Textual evidence is lacking or not fully explained

5. Not writing an outline

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