Poetry Analysis

Well, I didn't do as badly as I thought I would.  That's always a good thing.  And even as I worked through the five examples, I could tell that I was improving.  Still, there are specific things I should probably focus on, which will make my improvement easier, I think.

1.  Learn more poetry terms.

2.  Read every word carefully.

3.  Different kinds of figurative language.

4.  When looking at themes, focus on the big picture.

5.  Context, context, context.

Runner ups: Review meter and review poetry forms.

A lot of these are probably pretty self-explanatory.  Poetry terms.  Yes, I know this tripped me up a couple of times.  I'd never even heard of masculine vs. feminine rhyming before.  Half-rhymes I've heard of but aren't familiar with.  Same with consonance.  Knowing these terms would have been helpful in answering more of these questions correctly.

Reading every word is actually very important.  I'm a skimmer; I always have been when I read things for tests and such.  But it's way too easy to skip over something that might be of vital importance.  Poetry is different from prose in that poetry has to be very concise.  Every word matters.  I need to remember that.

As much as I feel like I know figurative language pretty well, they still managed to trip me up a few times.  The differences between simply using a term as a descriptor and using it as a metaphor.  What is a synecdoche?  I know how to use some of them in my writing and others I might use without knowing the technical name for them, but recognizing them in literature appears to be an entirely different story.

Focusing on the big picture is important.  I know myself.  I know that I like to get sidetracked by little things that catch my attention.  When I'm answering questions on the main idea, however, this can trip me up.  My brain remembers some little detail that suddenly seems really important and I get an urge that the small detail, not the main idea, is what the theme of the poem is.  This is actually also applicable to normal literature as well.  The main idea is often related in the text, but hidden.  It's not a small detail.

By context, I mainly mean relating things in the poem to other things.  At least twice, I was caught on not knowing what "manna dew" or "relish" was (from the first poem).  As such, I guessed on one and missed the point on the other.  Reading in context, and hopefully reading more in general, will help me work out this problem.  Context also refers to everything else earlier in the list as well.  Some things are different in different context.  Recognizing context will help in recognizing that particular aspect of poetry.

And I might as well address the runner-ups as well.  I usually do not have much trouble with meter, but that question in the first poem about the meter confused me.  Counting the syllables gave me 4-4-4-2, which doesn't fit with any of the answers.  Reviewing meter (and terms related to meter) will likely help in the future.  Furthermore, poetry forms are also a bit of trouble.  Sonnets are easily recognizable, but other forms can seem very similar and I should review those as well.