Analysing Poetry

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Analysing Poetry

• Some hints tips

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Dont feature spot!

• If you notice a caesura, ask yourself why the
  poet used that technique.
• If the poet uses enjambment try to explain the
  reason for using it.
• If the poet is using rhyme what effect does it
  create?
• If a word is repeated then the poet chose to
  repeat it rather than use a synonym.

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Caesura a pause within a line of verse.

• He has a job to do. Solutions slop in
  traysbeneath his hands which did not tremble
  thenthough seem to now. Rural England. Home
  again

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Enjambment a line of poetry which is not
end-stopped, i.e. the sentence continues into the
next line.

• He has a job to do. Solutions slop in
  traysbeneath his hands which did not tremble
  thenthough seem to now.

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Repetition of a word for effect

• She keeps on running, you know,
• after the shutter of the camera
• clicks. She's running to us.
• For how can she know,
• her feet beating a path
• on another continent?
• How can she know
• what we really are?
• From the distance, we look
• so terribly human.

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War Photographer In his darkroom he is finally
alonewith spools of suffering set out in ordered
rows.The only light is red and softly glows,as
though this were a church and hea priest
preparing to intone a Mass.Belfast. Beirut.
Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.He has a job to
do. Solutions slop in traysbeneath his hands
which did not tremble thenthough seem to now.
Rural England. Home againto ordinary pain which
simple weather can dispel,to fields which don't
explode beneath the feetof running children in a
nightmare heat.
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War Photographer 11In his darkroom he is finally
alone11/12with spools of suffering set out in
ordered rows.10The only light is red and softly
glows,8as though this were a church and he10a
priest preparing to intone a Mass.10Belfast.
Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.12He has
a job to do. Solutions slop in trays10beneath
his hands which did not tremble then11though
seem to now. Rural England. Home again12to
ordinary pain which simple weather can
dispel,10to fields which don't explode beneath
the feet10of running children in a nightmare
heat.
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War Photographer In his darkroom he is finally
alonewith spools of suffering set out in ordered
rows.The only light is red and softly glows,as
though this were a church and hea priest
preparing to intone a Mass.Belfast. Beirut.
Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.He has a job to
do. Solutions slop in traysbeneath his hands
which did not tremble thenthough seem to now.
Rural England. Home againto ordinary pain which
simple weather can dispel,to fields which don't
explode beneath the feetof running children in a
nightmare heat.
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War Photographer In his darkroom he is finally
alonewith spools of suffering set out in ordered
rows. AThe only light is red and softly glows,
Aas though this were a church and hea priest
preparing to intone a Mass. BBelfast. Beirut.
Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass. BHe has a job
to do. Solutions slop in traysbeneath his hands
which did not tremble then Cthough seem to now.
Rural England. Home again Cto ordinary pain
which simple weather can dispel,to fields which
don't explode beneath the feet Dof running
children in a nightmare heat. D
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Pronouns shift the perspective

• She keeps on running, you know,
• after the shutter of the camera
• clicks. She's running to us.
• For how can she know,
• her feet beating a path
• on another continent?
• How can she know
• what we really are?
• From the distance, we look
• so terribly human.

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Perspective can refer to many aspects of a poem

• From whose point of view the poem is written
• To whom the poem is addressed
• Time