critical essay on a poem

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A comprehensive guide to writing a poem analysis essay.

Delving into the intricate world of poetry analysis can be a rewarding and enlightening experience. A poem analysis essay allows you to explore the nuances of a poem, dissect its themes, and uncover the hidden meanings within its verses. It offers a unique opportunity to delve into the poet’s mind and understand their perspective.

When crafting a poem analysis essay, it is essential to approach the task with a critical eye and an open mind. Careful attention to detail, a keen understanding of poetic devices, and a thoughtful analysis of the poem’s structure are key components of a successful essay. By following a systematic approach and employing effective writing techniques, you can create a compelling and insightful analysis that showcases your literary prowess.

In this article, we will provide you with valuable tips and strategies to help you craft a thought-provoking poem analysis essay. From conducting a thorough analysis of the poem to structuring your essay effectively, we will guide you through the process of analyzing a poem with skill and finesse. By mastering the art of poetry analysis, you can unlock the deeper layers of meaning hidden within the lines of a poem and gain a deeper appreciation for the art of poetry.

Understand the Poem’s Context

When analyzing a poem, it’s essential to understand the context in which it was written. Consider the historical, cultural, and social background that influenced the poet and the poem itself. Research the time period in which the poem was written, the poet’s biography, and any significant events or movements that may have impacted the poet’s work.

Furthermore, pay attention to the poet’s intentions and motivations for writing the poem. Understanding the context can provide valuable insights into the poem’s themes, symbols, and stylistic choices. By delving into the context, you can deepen your interpretation and appreciation of the poem’s meaning.

Analyze the Poem’s Structure

Examining the structure of a poem is crucial in understanding the poet’s intentions and the overall impact of the work. Consider the poem’s form, including the stanza structure, line length, and rhyme scheme. Look for patterns in the organization of the poem, such as repetition, enjambment, or other structural techniques. Pay attention to the rhythm and meter of the poem, as this can contribute to the tone and mood of the piece. By analyzing the structure of the poem, you can uncover deeper meanings and insights that may not be immediately apparent.

Identify Key Themes and Symbols

One important aspect of crafting a poem analysis essay is identifying the key themes and symbols within the poem. Themes are recurring ideas or messages that the poet conveys through the poem, while symbols are objects, characters, or elements that represent deeper meanings.

When analyzing a poem, pay attention to the themes that emerge as you read. Consider what the poet is trying to communicate about topics such as love, nature, life, or death. Look for recurring symbols or images that carry symbolic meaning, such as birds symbolizing freedom or light symbolizing hope.

By identifying the key themes and symbols in a poem, you can gain a deeper understanding of the poet’s message and the significance of the poem as a whole. This analysis can help you craft a thoughtful and insightful essay that explores the poem’s meaning in depth.

Discuss the Poem’s Tone and Mood

One key aspect to consider when analyzing a poem is its tone and mood. The tone of a poem refers to the attitude or feelings that the poet expresses towards the subject matter. It can be playful, serious, sarcastic, melancholic, or any other emotion that the poet conveys through the language and imagery used in the poem. On the other hand, the mood of a poem is the overall feeling or atmosphere that the poem evokes in the reader. The mood can be somber, joyful, contemplative, or any other emotional response that the reader experiences when reading the poem. To analyze the tone and mood of a poem, pay attention to the language, imagery, and metaphors used by the poet, as these elements can reveal the underlying emotions and attitudes that the poet is trying to convey.

Provide Evidence from the Text

When analyzing a poem, it is crucial to support your interpretations with evidence directly from the text. This evidence can include specific lines, phrases, or stanzas that illustrate the themes, imagery, or language used by the poet.

For example: If you are discussing the theme of love in a poem, quote lines where the poet describes emotions, interactions, or relationships to demonstrate how the theme is developed throughout the poem.

Remember: Providing textual evidence not only strengthens your analysis but also shows your deep engagement with the poem and your ability to support your interpretations with concrete examples.

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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:

• You can be 100% sure your poem analysis essay will be completed brilliantly. All the research processes, outlines, structuring, editing, and proofreading will be performed instead of you. 
• You will get an absolutely unique plagiarism-free piece of writing that deserves the highest score.
• All the authors are extremely creative, talented, and simply in love with poetry. Just tell them what poetry you would like to build your analysis on and enjoy a smooth essay with the logical structure and amazing content.
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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 Poetry Essay: Step-By-Step-Guide

Table of contents

• 1 What Is A Poetry Analysis?
• 2 How to Choose a Poem for Analysis?
• 3.0.1 Introduction
• 3.0.2 Main Body
• 3.0.3 Conclusion
• 4.1 Title of the Poem
• 4.2 Poetry Background
• 4.3 Structure of the Poem
• 4.4 Tone and Intonation of the Poetry
• 4.5 Language Forms and Symbols of the Poetry
• 4.6 Poetic devices
• 4.7 Music of the Poem
• 4.8 Purpose of Poem
• 5 Poetry Analysis Template
• 6 Example of Poem Analysis

Edgar Allan Poe once said:

“Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.” 

The reader’s soul enjoys the beauty of the words masterfully expressed by the poet in a few lines. How much meaning is invested in these words, and even more lies behind them? For this reason, poetry is a constant object of scientific interest and the center of literary analysis.

As a university student, especially in literary specialties, you will often come across the need to write a poetry analysis essay. It may seem very difficult when you encounter such an essay for the first time. This is not surprising because even experienced students have difficulty performing such complex studies. This article will point you in the right direction and can be used as a poetry analysis worksheet.

What Is A Poetry Analysis?

Any poetry analysis consists in an in-depth study of the subject of study and the background details in which it is located. Poetry analysis is the process of decomposing a lyrical work into its smallest components for a detailed study of the independent elements. After that, all the data obtained are reassembled to formulate conclusions and write literary analysis . The study of a specific lyric poem also includes the study of the hidden meaning of the poem, the poet’s attitude and main idea, and the expression of individual impressions. After all, the lyrics aim to reach the heart of the reader.

The goal of the poetry analysis is to understand a literary work better. This type of scientific research makes it possible to study entire categories of art on the example of specific works, classify them as certain movements, and find similarities and differences with other poems representing the era.

A poetry analysis essay is a very common type of an essay for university programs, especially in literary and philological areas. Students are often required to have extensive knowledge as well as the ability of in-depth analysis. Such work requires immersion in the context and a high level of concentration.

How to Choose a Poem for Analysis?

You are a really lucky person if you have the opportunity to choose a poem to write a poetry analysis essay independently. After all, any scientific work is moving faster and easier if you are an expert and interested in the field of study. First of all, choose a poet who appeals to you. The piece is not just a set of sentences united by a common meaning. Therefore, it is primarily a reflection of the thoughts and beliefs of the author.

Also, choose a topic that is interesting and close to you. It doesn’t matter if it is an intimate sonnet, a patriotic poem, or a skillful description of nature. The main thing is that it arouses your interest. However, pay attention to the size of the work to make your work easier. The volume should be sufficient to conduct extensive analysis but not too large to meet the requirement for a poem analysis essay.

Well, in the end, your experience and knowledge of the poetry topic are important. Stop choosing the object of study that is within the scope of your competence. In this way, you will share your expert opinion with the public, as well as save yourself from the need for additional data searches required for better understanding.

Poem Analysis Essay Outline

A well-defined structure is a solid framework for your writing. Sometimes our thoughts come quite chaotically, or vice versa, you spend many hours having no idea where to start writing. In both cases, a poem analysis outline will come to your aid. Many students feel that writing an essay plan is a waste of time. However, you should reconsider your views on such a work strategy. And although it will take you time to make a poetry analysis essay outline, it will save you effort later on. While a perfect way out is to ask professionals to write your essays online , let’s still take a look at the key features of creating a paper yourself. Working is much easier and more pleasant when you understand what to start from and what to rely on. Let’s look at the key elements of a poem analysis essay structure.

The essence of a poetry essay outline is to structure and organize your thoughts. You must divide your essay into three main sections: introduction, body, and conclusions. Then list brainstormed ideas that you are going to present in each of these parts.

Introduction

Your essay should begin with an introductory paragraph . The main purpose of this section is to attract the attention of the reader. This will ensure interest in the research. You can also use these paragraphs to provide interesting data from the author of the poem and contextual information that directly relates to your poem but is not a part of the analysis yet.

Another integral part of the poem analysis essay introduction is the strong thesis statement . This technique is used when writing most essays in order to summarize the essence of the paper. The thesis statement opens up your narrative, giving the reader a clear picture of what your work will be about. This element should be short, concise, and self-explanatory.

The central section of a literary analysis essay is going to contain all the studies you’ve carried out. A good idea would be to divide the body into three or four paragraphs, each presenting a new idea. When writing an outline for your essay, determine that in the body part, you will describe:

• The central idea.
• Analysis of poetic techniques used by the poet.
• Your observations considering symbolism.
• Various aspects of the poem.

Make sure to include all of the above, but always mind the coherence of your poem literary analysis.

In the final paragraph , you have to list the conclusions to which your poetry analysis came. This is a paragraph that highlights the key points of the study that are worth paying attention to. Ensure that the information in the conclusion matches your goals set in the introduction. The last few lines of a poem usually contain the perfect information for you to wrap up your paper, giving your readers a ground for further thought.

Tips on How to Analyze a Poem

Now, having general theoretical information about what a poetry analysis essay is, what its components are, and how exactly you can make an outline, we are ready to move on to practical data. Let’s take a closer look at the key principles that you should rely on in the poetry analysis. As you might guess, just reading a poem will not be enough to make a comprehensive analysis. You have to pay attention to the smallest details to catch what other researchers have not noticed before you.

Title of the Poem

And although the poems do not always have a title, if the work you have chosen has a name, then this is a good basis for starting the poetry analysis. The title of the poetic work gives the understanding of what the poet considers to be the key ideas of his verse. In some cases, this element directly reflects the theme and idea of the poem. However, there are also common cases when the poet plays with the name, putting the opposite information into it. Look at the correlation between the title and the content of the poem. This may give you new clues to hidden meanings.

Poetry Background

To fully immerse yourself in the context of the verse, you need to study the prerequisites for its writing. Analyze poetry and pay attention to the period of the author’s life in which the work was written. Study what emotions prevailed in a given time. The background information will help you study the verse itself and what is behind it, which is crucial for a critical analysis essay . What was the poet’s motivation, and what sensations prompted him to express himself specifically in this form? Such in-depth research will give you a broad understanding of the author’s intent and make your poem analysis essay writing more solid.

This fragment of your poem analysis essay study also includes interpretations of all the difficult or little-known words. Perhaps the analyzed poem was written using obsolete words or has poetic terms. For a competent poem analysis, you need to have an enhanced comprehension of the concepts.

Structure of the Poem

Each lyrical work consists of key elements. The theory identifies four main components of a poem’s structure: stanza, rhyme, meter, and line break. Let’s clarify each of the terms separately so that you know exactly what you are supposed to analyze.

The stanza is also called a verse. This element is a group of lines joined together and separated from other lines by a gap. This component of the poem structure exists for the ordering of the poem and the logical separation of thoughts.

The next crucial element is rhyme. This is a kind of pattern of similar sounds that make up words. There are different types of a rhyme schemes that a particular poem can follow. The difference between the species lies in the spaces between rhyming words. Thus, the most common rhyme scheme in English literature is iambic pentameter.

The meter stands for a composite of stressed and unstressed syllables, following a single scheme throughout the poem. According to the common silabotonic theory, the poem’s rhythm determines the measure of the verse and its poetic form. In other words, this is the rhythm with which lyrical works are written.

Finally, the line break is a technique for distinguishing between different ideas and sentences within the boundaries of one work. Also, the separation serves the reader as a key to understanding the meaning, thanks to the structuring of thoughts. If the ideas went continuously, this would create an extraordinary load on perception, and the reader would struggle to understand the intended message.

Writing an essay about poetry requires careful attention and analysis. Poems, although short, can be intricate and require a thorough understanding to interpret them effectively. Some students may find it challenging to analyze poetry and may consider getting professional help or pay to do an assignment on poetry. Regardless of the approach, it is essential to create a well-structured essay that examines the poem’s meaning and provides relevant examples.

Tone and Intonation of the Poetry

The tone and intonation of the poem could be analyzed based on two variables, the speaker and the recipient. Considering these two sides of the narrative, you can reach a better overview of the analyzed poem.

The first direction is to dig deeper into the author’s ideas by analyzing thematic elements. Pay attention to any information about the poet that can be gleaned from the poem. What mood was the author in when he wrote it, what exactly he felt, and what he wanted to share? What could he be hiding behind his words? Why did the poet choose the exact literary form? Is it possible to trace a life position or ideology through analysis? All of this information will help you get a clue on how to understand a poem.

The analysis of the figure of the recipient is also going to uncover some crucial keys to coherent study. Analyze a poem and determine whether the poem was written for someone specific or not. Find out whether the poet put motivational value into his work or even called readers to action. Is the writer talking to one person or a whole group? Was the poem based on political or social interests?

Language Forms and Symbols of the Poetry

Having sufficiently analyzed the evident elements of the poem, it is time to pay attention to the images and symbols. This is also called the connotative meaning of the work. It can sometimes get challenging to interpret poems, so we will see which other poetic techniques you should consider in the poetry analysis essay.

To convey intricate ideas and display thoughts more vividly, poets often use figurative language. It mostly explains some terms without directly naming them. Lyrical expression works are rich in literary devices such as metaphor, epithet, hyperbole, personification, and others. It may sometimes get really tough to research those poem elements yourself, so keep in mind buying lit essay online. Descriptive language is also one of the techniques used in poems that requires different literary devices in order to make the story as detailed as possible.

To fully understand poetry, it is not enough just to describe its structure. It is necessary to analyze a poem, find the hidden meanings, multiple artistic means, references the poet makes, and the language of writing.

Poetic devices

Poetic devices, such as rhythm, rhyme, and sounds, are used to immerse the audience. The poets often use figurative techniques in various poems, discovering multiple possibilities for the readers to interpret the poem. To discover the composition dedicated to the precise verse, you need to read the poem carefully. Consider studying poetry analysis essay example papers to better understand the concepts. It is a certain kind of reader’s quest aimed at finding the true meaning of the metaphor the poet has hidden in the poem. Each literary device is always there for a reason. Try to figure out its purpose.

Music of the Poem

Many poems formed the basis of the songs. This does not happen by chance because each poem has its own music. Lyrical works have such elements as rhythm and rhyme. They set the pace for reading. Also, sound elements are often hidden in poems. The line break gives a hint about when to take a long pause. Try to pay attention to the arrangement of words. Perhaps this will reveal you a new vision of the analyzed poem.

Purpose of Poem

While you analyze a poem, you are supposed to search for the purpose. Each work has its purpose for writing. Perhaps this is just a process in which the author shares his emotions, or maybe it’s a skillful description of landscapes written under great impressions. Social lyrics illuminate the situation in society and pressing problems. Pay attention to whether the verse contains a call to action or an instructive context. Your task is to study the poem and analyze the motives for its writing. Understanding the general context, and especially the purpose of the poet will make your analysis unique.

Poetry Analysis Template

To make it easier for you to research, we have compiled a template for writing a poetry analysis essay. The best specialists of the our writing service have assembled the main guides that will serve as a layout for your essay. Choose a poem that suits you and analyze it according to this plan.

Introduction:

•     The title of the poem or sonnet
•     The name of the poet
•     The date the poem was first published
•     The background information and interesting facts about the poet and the poem
•     Identify the structure of the poem, and the main components
•     Find out the data about the speaker and recipient
•     State the purpose of the poem
•     Distinguish the topic and the idea of the verse

Figurative language:

•     Study the literary devices
•     Search for the hidden meanings

Following these tips, you will write a competitive poem analysis essay. Use these techniques, and you will be able to meet the basic requirements for quality work. However, don’t forget to add personality to your essay. Analyze both the choices of the author of the poem and your own vision. First of all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Do not limit yourself to dry analysis, add your own vision of the poem. In this way, you will get a balanced essay that will appeal to teachers.

Example of Poem Analysis

Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise,” is a powerful anthem of strength and resilience that has become an iconic piece of literature. The poem was written in the 1970s during the civil rights movement and was published in Angelou’s collection of poetry, “And Still I Rise,” in 1978. The structure of the poem is unique in that it is not divided into stanzas but is composed of a series of short phrases that are separated by semicolons. This creates a sense of continuity and momentum as the poem moves forward. The lack of stanzas also reflects the speaker’s determination to keep going, regardless of the obstacles she faces. The tone of the poem is confident and defiant, with a strong sense of pride in the speaker’s identity and heritage. The intonation is rhythmic and musical, with a repeated refrain that emphasizes the theme of rising above adversity. The language forms used in the poem are simple and direct. One of the most powerful symbols in the poem is the image of the rising sun… FULL POEM ANALYSIS

Our database is filled with a wide range of poetry essay examples that can help you understand how to analyze and write about poetry. Whether you are a student trying to improve your essay writing skills or a poetry enthusiast looking to explore different perspectives on your favorite poems, our collection of essays can provide valuable insights and inspiration. So take a look around and discover new ways to appreciate and interpret the power of poetry!

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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 .

How to Write a Poem Analysis: 6 Steps for Students and New Reviewers

Elliot Riley

Emily Butler is a librarian and writer. You can discover more of their literary opinions on their YouTube channel, youtube.com/emilybutler, and follow them on Twitter @EmilyFButler1.

View All posts by Elliot Riley

If you’re a student or new reviewer first approaching the task, you may be wondering how to write a poem analysis. Fortunately, there are concrete steps you can take to analyze a poem or collection of poetry. Even if you do not plan on learning how to write a poem analysis essay, building a routine of analysis into your poetry reading can deepen your appreciation for the genre.

Poems have many layers of meaning. A particularly beautiful and well-crafted poem only becomes more enjoyable the more you increase your understanding of the decisions the poet made to craft it. The following steps outline the kinds of questions to ask yourself while writing a poem analysis.

Step 1: Read the Poem Aloud

Poetry has a long oral history. Poets often utilize sound techniques which are easier to detect when reading the poem aloud. Read it once without an analytical focus. Simply notice how you respond to the poem. Begin by asking yourself broad, simple questions such as: How did this make me feel? What do I think the poet is trying to say?

Jot some notes down about your initial impression. Analyzing a poem is a recursive process. You will read the poem several times, and these first impressions can provide interesting clues for what to focus on in your analysis.

Step 2: Identify the Type of Poem

There are several different types of poems, but all poems fall into three overarching categories: free verse, formal verse, and prose poems. Formal poetry itself comes in many more specific forms. Check out A Beginner’s Guide to Different Types of Poems.

There are certain analytical questions you can ask yourself depending on the type of the poem you’re reading. If this is a prose poem, ask yourself, what exactly makes this piece of writing a poem, as opposed to a short piece of prose? Recognizing a specific poetic form allows you to contextualize the poem in history. For example, if you’re reading a sonnet, consider how the poem you’re analyzing fits with or fights against the conventions of sonnets.

Step 3: Mark It Up

There is no one correct way to mark up a poem. You can underline lines which stand out to you. You can take notes in the margins identifying poetic techniques as you see them. You can scan the poem,  a method of marking stressed and unstressed syllables. You can circle words which seem important or stand out as surprising.

If you are reviewing an entire poetry collection, it’s a good idea to take notes in the margins about particular motifs or themes. That way, when you are finished with your first read, you can look for ideas which appeared in multiple poems.

Step 4: Consider Poetic Techniques

Read the poem several times, considering a single poetic technique at a time. For example, free verse and formal poems use line breaks. Read through the poem once, focusing on how the poet has broken lines, and the impact of those decisions. If the poem contains stanzas, do the same for stanzas. You can repeat this process with any poetic technique: similes, metaphors, imagery, assonance, consonance, alliteration. How do these poetic techniques support, enhance, or problematize the overall message of the poem? Your observations will prove crucial when you are ready to sit down and write a poem analysis.

Step 5: Pay Attention to the Turn(s)

In poetry, the term “volta,” sometimes called a “turn,” is a shift in the tone, meaning, or style of a poem. This is a common enough poetic technique that it warrants its own step in the analytic process. Nearly every sonnet contains a turn in the final two lines of the poem, but countless other types of poems contain some sort of shift.

Voltas are so common that if the poem you’re reading does not contain a volta, that is a decision worth incorporating into a poem analysis. You can always ask yourself whether or not a poem contains a turn, and how this impacts the poem overall. Focus on the final lines of a poem, since that is where the volta typically appears.

Step 6: Make an Argument

If you are reviewing an entire poetry collection you can use the above steps for each poem. Then consider the way that the poet has chosen to order the poems within the collection. Revisit the first and last poems, asking yourself how they might function as a kind of introduction and conclusion to the collection.

As with any other essay in the realm of literature, in order to write a poem analysis essay, you should formulate an argument and back it up with evidence. Different readers can have opposing ideas about how a poem or collection of poetry operates, and that’s okay, as long as both readers have evidence to support their claims. How do you back up your claims with evidence? Refer to your notes, especially your observations of poetic techniques. Whenever necessary, quote exact lines or stanzas and use them to support your argument.

Step 7: Consider the Audience

Writing a book review of a poetry collection is considerably different from writing an essay about it. That is because book reviews serve a different purpose than essays do. Individual readers, book buyers, and librarians read reviews in order to decide whether or not to purchase a book.

Ask yourself: what kind of reader might enjoy this collection? It’s always a good idea to compare and contrast to other collections of poetry. You can recommend the poetry collection you’re reviewing to fans of another poet, for example.

Book reviews tend to be considerably shorter than essays, often as short as two or three hundred words. For that reason, it’s important to be concise. Unlike reviewing fiction or nonfiction, you do not exactly need to “summarize” a poetry collection. Most poetry collections cannot be summarized the way that a novel or nonfiction book can. Instead, list some of the central thematic concerns of the collection and describe the poetic style. Tell your readers what kind of poems they will find in this collection. Are these prose poems, free verse, formal verse, or a combination? Are they simple, accessible poems, or complex poems with unusual syntax? Does the collection contain a lot of references?

In a book review, you will want to quote a line or two which represents some aspect of the poetry collection as a whole. Since you do not have a lot of space, choose something representative of the poet’s style. This will give readers an idea of whether or not this collection appeals to them. For more information about writing book reviews, check out How To Write a Book Review: Six Steps to Take .

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How to Write a Critical Essay

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Olivia Valdes was the Associate Editorial Director for ThoughtCo. She worked with Dotdash Meredith from 2017 to 2021.

• B.A., American Studies, Yale University

A critical essay is a form of academic writing that analyzes, interprets, and/or evaluates a text. In a critical essay, an author makes a claim about how particular ideas or themes are conveyed in a text, then supports that claim with evidence from primary and/or secondary sources.

In casual conversation, we often associate the word "critical" with a negative perspective. However, in the context of a critical essay, the word "critical" simply means discerning and analytical. Critical essays analyze and evaluate the meaning and significance of a text, rather than making a judgment about its content or quality.

What Makes an Essay "Critical"? 

Imagine you've just watched the movie "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." If you were chatting with friends in the movie theater lobby, you might say something like, "Charlie was so lucky to find a Golden Ticket. That ticket changed his life." A friend might reply, "Yeah, but Willy Wonka shouldn't have let those raucous kids into his chocolate factory in the first place. They caused a big mess."

These comments make for an enjoyable conversation, but they do not belong in a critical essay. Why? Because they respond to (and pass judgment on) the raw content of the movie, rather than analyzing its themes or how the director conveyed those themes.

On the other hand, a critical essay about "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" might take the following topic as its thesis: "In 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,' director Mel Stuart intertwines money and morality through his depiction of children: the angelic appearance of Charlie Bucket, a good-hearted boy of modest means, is sharply contrasted against the physically grotesque portrayal of the wealthy, and thus immoral, children."

This thesis includes a claim about the themes of the film, what the director seems to be saying about those themes, and what techniques the director employs in order to communicate his message. In addition, this thesis is both supportable  and  disputable using evidence from the film itself, which means it's a strong central argument for a critical essay .

Characteristics of a Critical Essay

Critical essays are written across many academic disciplines and can have wide-ranging textual subjects: films, novels, poetry, video games, visual art, and more. However, despite their diverse subject matter, all critical essays share the following characteristics.

• Central claim . All critical essays contain a central claim about the text. This argument is typically expressed at the beginning of the essay in a thesis statement , then supported with evidence in each body paragraph. Some critical essays bolster their argument even further by including potential counterarguments, then using evidence to dispute them.
• Evidence . The central claim of a critical essay must be supported by evidence. In many critical essays, most of the evidence comes in the form of textual support: particular details from the text (dialogue, descriptions, word choice, structure, imagery, et cetera) that bolster the argument. Critical essays may also include evidence from secondary sources, often scholarly works that support or strengthen the main argument.
• Conclusion . After making a claim and supporting it with evidence, critical essays offer a succinct conclusion. The conclusion summarizes the trajectory of the essay's argument and emphasizes the essays' most important insights.

Tips for Writing a Critical Essay

Writing a critical essay requires rigorous analysis and a meticulous argument-building process. If you're struggling with a critical essay assignment, these tips will help you get started.

• Practice active reading strategies . These strategies for staying focused and retaining information will help you identify specific details in the text that will serve as evidence for your main argument. Active reading is an essential skill, especially if you're writing a critical essay for a literature class.
• Read example essays . If you're unfamiliar with critical essays as a form, writing one is going to be extremely challenging. Before you dive into the writing process, read a variety of published critical essays, paying careful attention to their structure and writing style. (As always, remember that paraphrasing an author's ideas without proper attribution is a form of plagiarism .)
• Resist the urge to summarize . Critical essays should consist of your own analysis and interpretation of a text, not a summary of the text in general. If you find yourself writing lengthy plot or character descriptions, pause and consider whether these summaries are in the service of your main argument or whether they are simply taking up space.
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13.4: Sample essay on a poem

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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. Tomorrow, I’ll be at the table When company comes. Nobody’ll dare Say to me, “Eat in the kitchen,” Then. Besides, They’ll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed — I, too, am America.

Last name 1

Student Name

Professor Name

English 110

Creating Change by Changing Minds

When I log onto Facebook nowadays and scroll through my feed, if it's not advertisements, it's posts talking about the injustices of the world, primarily from racism. These posts are filled with anger and strong hostility. I'm not saying anger is the wrong emotion to feel when faced with injustice, but when that hostility is channeled into violence, this does not bring about justice or change. Long lasting and effective change can only be made through non-violent methods, which is demonstrated by Langston Huges in his poem, "I, Too." In this short poem, Hughes gives many examples of how to effectively and on-violently address and combat racism.

Huges first uses people's religious morality to enlist his readers to resist racism. He starts the poem with his black narrator asserting, "I am the darker brother" (2). Brother to whom? In the Christian religion, a predominate religion during the times of slavery in the U.S and beyond, the terms brother and sister are used to show equality and kinship, and this human connection transcends race. Everyone is equal as children of God, and are all heirs to the promises of divine love and salvation. Simply by the black narrator calling himself a brother, Hughes is attempting to appeal to white Christian Americans, and to deny this connection is to go against the teachings in the Bible about brotherhood. This is very powerful in multiple ways. Firstly, establishing a sense of brotherhood and camaraderie should make anyone who tarnishes that unity feel ashamed. Secondly if anyone truly wishes to receive God's mercy, they would have to treat everyone as equals, or be punished by God, or even be denied eternal life in heaven all together. This technique is effective and long-lasting because the fear or violence inflicted on a person is temporary, but damnation is eternal.

Hughes further combats racism, not through threats of uprisings or reprisals, but rather by transforming hatred into humor and positivity. In response to his segregation, the narrator says, "They send me to eat in the kitchen/When company comes,/But I laugh,/And eat well/And grow strong" (3-7). With this, Hughes rises about racial exclusion and asks his reader to see it for what it is, ridiculous. He also shows how to effectively combat this injustice which is to learn from it and to feel empowered by not letting racists treatment from others hurt, define or hold you back. Additionally, this approach is an invitation to Hughes' white readers to be "in on the joke" and laugh at the mindless and unwarranted exclusion of this appealing and relatable person who is full of confidence and self-worth. Through his narrator, Hughes diffuses racial tensions in an inclusive and non-threatening way, but the underlying message is clear: equality is coming soon. We know he believes this when the poem's speaker states, "Tomorrow,/I'll be at the table/When company comes" (8-10). There is a strong assertion here that racism will not be permitted to continue, but the assertion is not a threat. Hughes carefully navigates the charged issue of racial unity here, particularly at the time he wrote this poem when segregation was in many places in the U.S. the law. The different forms of segregation-emotional, physical, financial, social-that blacks have suffered has and continues to result in violence, but Hughes here shows another path. Highes shows that despite it all, we can still make amends and site down at a table together. As a human family, we can overcome our shameful past by simply choosing to peacefully come together.

Finally Hughes uses American patriotism as a powerful non-violent method to unite his readers to combat racism. The poem concludes, "Besides,/They'll see how beautiful I am/And be ashamed-/I, too, am American" (15-18). Notice how he uses the word American and not American. He is not simply just an inhabitant of America he IS American in that he represents the promise, the overcoming of struggle, and the complicated beauty that makes up this country. He is integral to America's past, present and future. He is, as equally as anyone else, a critical piece in America's very existence and pivotal to its future. As Hughes united his readers through religion and the use of "brother," here he widens the net beyond religion and appeals to all Americans. As we say in our pledge of allegiance, we stand "indivisible with liberty and justice for all." To hate or exclude someone based on race, therefore, is to violate the foundational and inspirational tenants of this country. Hughes does not force or attack in his poem, and he does not promise retribution for all the harms done to blacks. He simple shows that racism in incompatible and contradictory to being truly American, and this realization, this change of heart, is what can bring about enduring change.

It has been shown over and over that violence leads to more violence. Violence might bring about change temporarily, but when people are stripped of choice, violence will reassert itself. Some of the most dramatic social movements that have brought about real change have used non-violent means as seen in Martin Luther King Jr's non-violent protests helping to change U.S. laws and ensure Civil Rights for all, as seen in Gandhi's use of non-violent methods to rid India of centuries of oppressive British rule, and as seen in Nelson Mandela's persistent and non-violent approaches of finally removing Apartheid from South Africa. However, we are not these men. Mos tof us are not leaders of movements, but we are each important and influential. We as individuals can be immensely powerful if we choose to be. We can choose to apply the examples and advice from enlightened minds like Hughes, King, Gandhi, and Mandela. When we see on Facebook or in the news on in-person people targeting or excluding others, or inciting violence againist a person or group based on race, or sexual orientation, or religion, or any other arbitrary difference selected to divide and pit us against one another, we can choose instead to respond with kindness, with humor, with positivity, and with empathy because this leads to the only kind of change that matters.

Works Cited

Hughes, Langston. "I, Too." African-American Poetry: An Anthology 1773-1927 , edited by Joan R.

Sherman, Dover Publications, Inc. Mineola, New York. 1997, p. 74.

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How to Write a Good Political Poem

Most political poetry is not good. But can it ever be? Yes!

• Alex Skopic

Is there a place in this world for political poetry? The question has always been a vexed one—and over the years, several poets and writers have answered with a firm no . Take Joseph Brodsky, the poet laureate of the United States from 1991 to 1992, who famously said that “the only things which poetry and politics have in common are the letters P and O.” Or consider Vladimir Nabokov, who was a prolific and heartfelt poet as well as a novelist. He went further than Brodsky, saying in a 1964 interview that “A work of art has no importance whatever to society”—that poetry and prose alike are “only important to the individual, and only the individual reader is important to me.” British-American poet W.H. Auden took a slightly different tack, writing that “poetry makes nothing happen” in his elegy for W.B. Yeats—a statement of profound pessimism about a poet’s ability to effect any real change in the world. 

In some ways, it’s understandable why those poets came to the conclusions they did. Brodsky and Nabokov were both scarred , in various ways, by the experience of being exiled from their homes in Russia , where dictators and commissars insisted that literature had to be political at all times. Beyond that, though, it’s an unavoidable fact that a lot of poetry which tries to address political topics is just unreadable hackwork. In theory, there’s no reason why this should be true. Politics should be just another subject, like the moon or a Grecian urn , which can inspire good or bad poetry in equal measure. But somehow, political events and figures seem to bring out the worst in would-be poets. In practice, hearing someone loudly announce “I’m going to write a poem about Donald Trump!” causes one an involuntary wince, whereas “I’m going to write a poem about the moon!” might not. 

In fact, we live in something of a golden age for the Bad Political Poem. The example of someone enthusiastically sitting down to write page after page of terrible Trump-themed poetry is, unfortunately, not hypothetical. Such poems actually exist, and what’s worse, they get published . In 2019, the character actor John Lithgow decided to inflict a book of political poetry on the world entitled Dumpty: The Age of Trump in Verse . This, according to the publisher’s description , is a “satirical poetry collection” which is “bound to bring joy to poetry lovers,” particularly if they take a dim view of the former president. Like many anti-Trump books , it became a New York Times bestseller, but “joy-inducing” is not exactly how I’d describe its contents. One sample of Lithgow’s verse goes like this (brace yourself):

Trumpty Dumpty wanted a wall To stir up a rabid political brawl His Republican rivals, both feckless and stodgy Succumbed in the end to his rank demagogy. 

Wow , that’s bad! I feel vaguely guilty even showing it to you—like someone who notices expired milk in the fridge and waves it around the kitchen, bellowing “ Hey, smell this! ” But it’s important to understand why it’s bad and what that means for the broader question of the political poem. The thing about Dumpty —and, God help us, its two sequel books —is that the politics themselves aren’t the problem. The poems aren’t wrong about what they’re saying. Donald Trump actually is a noxious demagogue, and his border wall is stupid and cruel. Expressing those thoughts in a witty, rhyming format should be a perfectly reasonable thing to do. The problem is that the politics in Dumpty come first and foremost, with the poetry itself a distant afterthought. On a technical level, Lithgow’s use of rhyme and meter, his choice of words, and his sense of humor are simplistic, childish, and grating. It’s vaguely sympathetic dreck, and presumably he means well by it, but it’s dreck nonetheless.

Another prominent poet has the opposite problem, pairing prodigious raw talent with a tepid, lifeless politics. I refer, of course, to Amanda Gorman. In the press—and in the liberal press most of all—we’ve been told over and over that Gorman’s political poems are amazing. The New Yorker describes her work as a “stunning vision of democracy,” while Time says that her “tightrope-taut verse” provides “clear-eyed hope to a weary nation.” (That last quote comes from Time guest writer Lin-Manuel Miranda , whose work Gorman says she referenced in her poetry.) And to be fair, some of Gorman’s poems—especially the deeper cuts from her 2021 collection, Call Us What We Carry —are quite good. The problem is that her talents have been devoted to the project of business-friendly Democratic Party liberalism, and to Joe Biden in particular. The only poem most people have heard from Gorman is “ The Hill We Climb ,” which was tailor-made to be delivered at Biden’s inauguration:

Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken but simply unfinished We the successors of a country and a time Where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president only to find herself reciting for one

These are platitudes, and bad ones. “The Hill We Climb” expresses two basic themes: that January 6 was scary (“We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation / rather than share it”) and that things are going to be better now that Joe Biden is president (“This is the era of just redemption.… We will rebuild, reconcile and recover.”). Embedded within the verses is the assumption, quintessentially liberal , that there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the United States or its hierarchies of wealth and power. The country “isn’t broken.” It doesn’t need to be radically changed, just fixed up around the edges, and our old pal Joe’s the man for the job. The whole thing was pretty questionable on the day—how do you proudly declare yourself “descended from slaves” while reciting a poem for a former segregationist ?—but it’s only gotten worse with age. Since Biden’s inauguration, the “era of just redemption” has turned out to include skyrocketing housing costs and homelessness , more deportations and fossil-fuel drilling than under Trump, and a genocide in Palestine which the United States continues to actively support. If we’re climbing a hill, it’s made of corpses. 

The frustrating thing is that Gorman is clearly capable of great poetry. Even her Biden poem contains striking imagery and phrases, despite its topic. If she wanted to, she could genuinely be a generational artist, capturing all the struggle and horror of life as a young person in the 2020s. But there’s no money or fame in that. Instead, Gorman chooses to churn out flattering fluff for the rich and powerful. Biden was just the start; these days, her subject matter includes Oprah’s 70th birthday , which is apparently “Proof that even from embers a woman can build an empire,” and she’s become a “ brand ambassador ” for Estée Lauder. It’s a shame, and a waste.

There are even more wretched political poems out there, though. Some people embody the worst of both worlds, combining heinous political views with a truly abyssal lack of talent. Many of these people can be found in the Society of Classical Poets , a nonprofit group that aims to “support poets who apply classical techniques in modern poetry.” In practice, what this means is to publish and promote poetry with politically conservative themes, regardless of its actual quality. One of the Society’s most notable poets is a guy called Joseph Charles MacKenzie, who could charitably be called an anti-Gorman. In 2017 he wrote an unintentionally hilarious poem celebrating Donald Trump’s inauguration . Among other memorable lines, it called Barack Obama a “tyrant” and referred to immigrants as “a murderous horde, for whom hell is the norm.” (This was rhymed with “our nation deform.”) The Society also hates Karl Marx, devoting multiple poems to hurling schoolyard insults at him: 

If humans ran a Human Race, Karl Marx would not be in it. The human depth that he could trace would leach out in a minute.

The most notable thing about this group, though, is its resistance to any innovation in poetic form that has taken place since 1850 or so. Practically every poem on the Society’s website reads like Alexander Pope could have written it (if you hit him over the head first), and in one long, ranting essay , frequent contributor Phillip Whidden condemns modernism as “the Murder of the People’s Poetry and Art.” For the history buffs at home, this is the same logic that caused the Nazis to brand the works of Picasso and other modern artists as “degenerate art” in the early 20th century. Its goal is to freeze human creativity in time and insist that any change from the supposed classics is a bad thing—just as, implicitly, any change from the established structures of power and wealth must be. The two kinds of conservatism go hand in hand.

From these examples, we can create a taxonomy of the Bad Political Poem, with three broad categories. In one group, there are the poems with more or less sympathetic politics, but terrible aesthetics (as seen in Dumpty ). In another, there are the well-crafted poems that express a morally bankrupt politics (like “The Hill We Climb”). And in a third, there are the poems where everything sucks (looking at you, Society of Classical Poets). But what would it mean to create a political poem that’s actually good? Is such a thing even possible? 

A new book makes a strong case that it is. In Poetry for the Many , Jeremy Corbyn—the much-slandered humanitarian and former leader of the British Labour Party—resurrects a neglected tradition, compiling dozens of poems from around the world that are both politically radical and artistically compelling. He’s joined by co-editor Len McCluskey, a lifelong trade unionist and an influential figure in British politics in his own right. At 198 pages, their book is fairly short, but it serves as an important antidote to the elitism that often surrounds poetry as an art form, encouraging the reader “to embrace poetry and shake off any notion that it is not something to be read, written, or appreciated by working-class people.” At a time when Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his Conservative government are trying to eliminate literature and other humanities degrees from British universities on the grounds that they’re not “practical” for young people seeking a job, Poetry for the Many stands in opposition to that entire way of thinking. Its authors insist that poetry is not only a shared cultural heritage that belongs to everyone, but a vital tool for political liberation. At one point, introducing a poem by the Palestinian writer Mahmoud Darwish , Corbyn calls poetry “the way people under occupation and oppression can best express themselves,” forming a “vehicle for oral history” and for “messages of resistance and hope.”

As the book reveals, the “oral history” radical poetry represents is one of immense depth and richness. It runs all the way back to 1381 and the Peasants’ Revolt in England, when the priest and revolutionary leader John Ball wrote a couplet condemning the whole concept of class distinctions as unnatural and inhuman:

When Adam delved and Eve span,  Who then was the gentleman?

Ball was executed by King Richard II for saying things like that, but more than 600 years later, his words live on. Later, during the early 1800s, Percy Bysshe Shelley echoed them with a few couplets of his own:

Men of England, wherefore plough For the Lords who lay ye low? Wherefore weave with toil and care The rich robes your tyrants wear?

It’s also Shelley who gives Corbyn and McCluskey’s book its title, writing in his long poem “The Masque of Anarchy” that the workers of England should:

Rise like lions after slumber In unvanquishable number Shake your chains to earth like dew Which in sleep had fall’n on you Ye are many—they are few. 

As Michael Demson writes in his 2013 book Masks of Anarchy , those lines have been an inspiration to working-class radicals ever since they were written—including to Pauline Newman, the New York labor organizer who was christened “ the New Joan of Arc ” for her leadership of more than 400 women in a 1907 rent strike. As head of the British Labour Party, Corbyn himself frequently recited the “ye are many, they are few” line at his rallies, to roaring approval from crowds of thousands —a prime example of poetry’s power to stir and mobilize people politically. 

One other name stands out from Poetry for the Many : that of the Romantic poet and political firebrand William Blake. For anyone who went through an English class in the U.K. or United States, Blake is known primarily for his “Tyger Tyger burning bright / in the forests of the night,” one of the most anthologized poems in the English language. But his work is a lot more extensive, and politically provocative, than that poem alone suggests. Born in 1757, Blake was a fierce opponent of the English monarchy and the Anglican church, at a time when they were intertwined and all-powerful. In poem after poem, he railed against poverty and economic injustice, blasting the ruling class for forcing poor children to go hungry in “ Holy Thursday ”:

Is this a holy thing to see,  In a rich and fruitful land, Babes reduc’d to misery, Fed with cold and usurous hand?

And excoriating the twin evils of child labor and militarism in “ London ”:

How the Chimney-sweeper’s cry Every blackning Church appalls,  And the hapless Soldier’s sigh Runs in blood down Palace walls

Blake appears twice in Poetry for the Many, once with his 1810 poem “ Jerusalem ” and once with a lesser-known poem called “ The Schoolboy ,” but there are dozens of others that could just as easily have made the cut. Even more than Shelley, his political poems have lost none of their urgency and vitality over the course of the last 200 years. 

Inevitably, I have a few quibbles with Corbyn and McCluskey’s choices. For instance, they include the great Langston Hughes in the book but print his poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”—which has been widely anthologized —and not his more explicitly socialist work, like “ Good Morning Revolution ” or “ One More ‘S’ in the U.S.A. ” which are seldom printed anywhere. That’s an opportunity missed. It’s also a bit weird to print Adrian Mitchell’s elegy for the martyred Chilean folk singer Victor Jara , “His Hands Were Gentle,” and not any of Jara’s own poems, like his heartbreaking “ Estadio Chile .” Meanwhile some absolute titans of politics and poetry, like Assata Shakur , don’t even get a mention. There are any number of possible reasons for these things, including the difficulty of getting permissions from poets’ publishers and estates, and I still think this is a good book. But with a few minor tweaks and additions, it could have been a fantastic one. 

My biggest disappointment with Poetry for the Many, though, is how backward-looking it is. Having given us an excellent primer on the history of radical poems, it doesn’t convey much of a sense that people are still writing them today. In fact, one of the only contemporary poems in the book is one Corbyn wrote himself about his visit to a refugee camp, called “Calais in Winter.” It’s surprisingly subtle and affecting, considering that Corbyn isn’t a poet by training—but there’s an entire movement of young writers working in this field today who are turning out sharp, incisive political poetry and not getting anywhere near the attention they deserve for it. It may be understandable that Corbyn and McCluskey seem to be unaware of them, since both men come from a pre-internet generation. Today, many of the best new poems circulate exclusively online, or in small independent magazines (like Prolit and Protean ) which you can only find out about online. But I’ve been watching the rise of this new wave with great interest, and have even tried to serve as something of a spokesperson for it, reviewing a few of its most important texts for the Cleveland Review of Books. What follows is a brief—and by no means complete—overview of radical political poetry as it stands today.

First, there are the poets we might call the Rust Belt Proletarians: Joe Hall and Brendan Joyce . The former lives and works in Buffalo, New York, and the latter in Cleveland—not cities most people would associate with poetry or with literature of any kind. Both Hall and Joyce are focused intensively on the poetry of place, breaking with the narcissistically Brooklyn and Manhattan-obsessed literary world to chronicle the lives of people who are still working and struggling to get by in the United States’ decaying, neglected ex-industrial cities. In this, they echo an older generation of proletarian poets —most notably Carl Sandburg , the bard of Chicago’s industrial working class in the 1910s. For his part, Joyce has worked as a waiter, busboy, and line cook in Cleveland’s various restaurants—unfortunately, poetry doesn’t always pay the bills—and captured the experience in poems like the marvelously sarcastic “ Nobody Wants to Work ”: 

I watch the flour and sugar and mushrooms and beef tips and bread crumbs go, swirling in the three sink. I put the degreaser in the mop bucket. I slather a slick layer over the kitchen floor. I follow with a deck brush until the food stuff scrapes off. I follow with a dry mop to buff it shiny. When I get in my car I realize my tire’s half flat. I roll the dice. I stop at the grocery store, half a catered Christmas sprayed across my clothes. I check out. On my receipt it says I have 25 cents left in food stamps.

To me, this is a perfect political poem, both stylish and evocative. It captures all the crises of labor, wealth, class, and power that we’re currently living with in the United States in a deeply human way that no economic report or newspaper article ever could. Hall takes a different approach, going fully Surrealist with a poem about Tim Howard , the notorious Erie County sheriff who had 32 suspicious deaths in jails under his watch:

Tim Howard arrests Tim Howard for murder and spends the night looking the other way as Tim Howard knocks Tim Howard’s head against the hardness of the Erie County holding center whispering murderer, murderer, murderer.

This is just haunting. Not a word is wasted. In other poems, Hall writes songs of praise to garbage collectors, bookshop clerks, marijuana growers, and every other member of Buffalo’s working class he can think of, along with meditations on the city’s public transit system . Sometimes he slips a little too far into stream-of-consciousness and free association between words to be easily intelligible, but then again, that’s a deliberate style choice. Altogether it’s a remarkable poetic project, unlike anything else in literature today. 

Another important current is the poetry of Palestinian liberation, which has been flourishing—despite everything—in both the diaspora and Palestine itself. Corbyn and McCluskey touch on this movement with their inclusion of Mahmoud Darwish, but he died in 2008 , and a lot has happened since then. On the Palestinian American side, the last few years have seen the rise of Noor Hindi, whose poem “ Fuck Your Lecture on Craft, My People are Dying ” went viral online in 2020:

Colonizers write about flowers. I tell you about children throwing rocks at Israeli tanks seconds before becoming daisies. I want to be like those poets who care about the moon. Palestinians don’t see the moon from jail cells and prisons. It’s so beautiful, the moon. They’re so beautiful, the flowers.

What’s remarkable about this, beyond the tragic beauty of the poem itself, is that Hindi is directly rebuking the ideas of people like Nabokov and Brodsky. They’re the “poets who care about the moon” and think poetry should stay disconnected from politics. That attitude, Hindi implicitly says, is a luxury for those who can afford it, those whose lives aren’t directly impacted (and ended ) by the political events around them. 

Hindi also pays tribute to the icons of Palestinian literature who came before her, saying that “your canon ain’t shit // compared to Ghassan Kanafani ”—the novelist who was assassinated by the Mossad in 1972—in the wickedly funny “Self-Portrait as Arab/Muslim Teenager in an All-White High School.” In a time when the Israeli military and its accomplices in the U.S. are trying to eradicate Palestinians and their culture from human memory, that alone is an act of resistance. And in Gaza and the West Bank, a new generation of poets persists. The most famous, of course, is Refaat Alareer, who was murdered by an Israeli bomb in December 2023, and whose poem “If I Must Die” has rapidly become one of the most read and translated of the 21st century. But there’s also Mosab Abu Toha —one of Alareer’s friends and colleagues—who wrote the extraordinary Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza , and Khaled Juma , whose poem “Oh Rascal Children of Gaza” has also become popular online since October 2023. At the time of writing, both of them are still alive—if not necessarily well —and still writing. May it stay that way!

Meanwhile in the United States, young, working-class Black poets have been writing with a new intensity about issues of racial injustice, especially in the wake of the nationwide uprisings after George Floyd’s murder in 2020. Here, one of the standout figures is Darius Simpson, whose 2023 collection Never Catch Me is full of stanzas like this one from “ Etymology of ‘Fuck 12’ ”:

once i tried talking a killer, i have the handcuff scars to prove it in a matter of seconds i’ve seen improbable cause devour innocence your prejudicial bloodlust is off its leash chewing on my sister again your great great granddaddy was a double barrel shotgun you sound just like him.

Kyle Carrero Lopez , another poet from this nascent movement, has a more complex relation to race, writing as an Afro-Cuban artist in New Jersey—but his uncompromising enmity to the police echoes Simpson’s. In October 2020—just a few months after George Floyd’s death—he published “ After Abolition ,” writing:

Prisons and cops survive only in tales for the young like twin Atlantises or two drowned boogeymen. A cop’s as harmless a Halloween getup as any monster, while a prisoner costume’s as taboo as a slave one now that schools teach what makes them kin.

Together, these two poems represent two sides of a coin. One depicts the horror of the present, while the other dares to hope for an entirely different future. Simpson and Lopez are very much heirs to the great Black radical poets like Amiri Baraka or (to invoke her name again) Assata Shakur—but at the same time, also entirely new and different, and worth following as their art continues to evolve. 

Finally, another political poet who should be better-known is W.D. Ehrhart, the Vietnam War veteran who’s spent decades warning against U.S. militarism, nationalism , and war in general. I’ll declare up-front that I’m biased toward Bill’s poems since he’s a friend of Current Affairs and a semi-frequent contributor. So I won’t be too effusive; I suspect he’d hate anything that smells like flattery anyway. But let’s just say there’s a reason he’s the only person (so far) to have poems published in this magazine.

Despite their brilliance in other areas, Brodsky, Nabokov, and Auden were wrong about political poetry. Dead wrong. Not only is it possible to write a good political poem, but people have been doing it for centuries. It’s just that it’s difficult to do, and the sheer volume of awful poems often drowns out the good ones. But at its best, a political poem is a powerful thing. It can open hearts, expand minds, and inspire human empathy like nothing else. If you think you can write one, go for it. Just make sure you have the patience, and the technique, to make it work. Be sure that your words won’t just serve the soulless commercial interest of a publishing company, or flatter the ego of some politician or millionaire. And if you find yourself rhyming “stodgy” with “demagogy,” close the document and walk away.  

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The Young Writers Workshops — sponsored by Stony Brook Southampton’s Creative Writing MFA and the Young Artists and Writers Project (YAWP) — mentor young people in the development of creative expression and critical thinking through writing. The workshops pair seasoned writing instructors and adult writers with students, ages 13-18, in fiction, essay, poetry and scriptwriting. All workshops are held online via Zoom.

The Young Writers Creative Writing Workshops Offered: July 8-12, July 22-26, or July 29-August 2 from 10 am-3 pm Student writers explore fiction, poetry, dialogue and personal essay. By week’s end, students have several pieces of completed work to submit or publish, and participate in a reading of their work to be showcased online. Cost: $295

The Young Writers Scriptwriting Workshops Offered: July 15-19 from 10 am-3 pm Each student will create a short, two-character script for stage or screen. The final day is devoted to a rehearsed reading of students’ work to be showcased online. Cost: $295

Sign up online ; faculty/staff can use the discount code “SUNY” for 20 percent off.

For more information, contact William Chandler at  [email protected] .

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Bennington College Curriculum Spring 2025

Spring 2025, native (north) american literature (lit2567.01).

Native storytelling has thrived in recited, sung, painted, etched, sculpted, and danced forms since centuries before European colonists arrived on the North American continent. Against the backdrop of this long, linguistically complex, and multi-national artistic tradition, we will closely read the works of Indigenous North American authors, studying how their formal and thematic decisions draw from and add to their respective traditions, even as they address contemporary intertribal concerns such as language revitalization; land reclamation and sovereignty; decolonizing gender; and the continued struggle against settler-colonial legacies of genocide, land seizure, forced re-“education,” and environmental terrorism. Assigned writers may include Tommy Orange, Louise Erdrich, Morgan Talty, Leslie Marmon Silko, James Welch, Tommy Pico, Natalie Diaz, Joan Kane, dg nanouk okpik, Joy Harjo, Jake Skeets, No’u Revilla, and Layli Long Soldier.