Overview Very often, students struggle with the compressed, highly dense language of poetry, but having a game plan certainly helps. Teachers and students can use this material formatively or simply as a resource list to help guide their own reading.
How to Deal with a Difficult Poem
Replace all pronouns with specific nouns.
Read for SENTENCES, not line breaks. If needed, write the SENTENCE of the poem out as if it were prose. Eliminating the line breaks can greatly help you understand the poem.
If a line sounds like Yoda said it (i.e., with inverted syntax), rewrite it so it's written in a more normal syntax.
Underline modifiers and draw arrows to the exact words (the nouns) they modify.
Whenever a line is using really lofty language, rewrite it so that it's simpler and specific.
DRAW LINES WHERE THINGS SHIFT. For example, does the tone shift? Draw a horizontal line to "fence off" where that moment began.
What's the main idea in each poem sentence?
Take note of repetition! Look for repetition of...
Words
Sounds
Rhymes
Images
ideas
Take note when there are BREAKS in repetition. How does this break affect thr reader's understanding of the poem's ideas?
Identify incidents of paradox, incongruity, "weird stuff," tension, contradiction.
How do those "weird things" affect your impression of the speaker? Of the larger meaning?
Identify figurative langauge and rewrite it in clear terms.
This information was taken or adapted from material by Tom Reynolds, Rockton, Illinois