Poetry I

A poem's speaker reveals an attitude and a way of seeing the world through word choice, details and what they focus on. You learn to describe the speaker's perspective and to keep the speaker separate from the poet.

Lines and stanzas are a poem's building blocks. Where a line ends, in the middle of a sentence (enjambment) or at a natural pause (end-stopped), changes what gets emphasized, and stanza breaks group or separate ideas.

A shift is a turn in a poem, such as a change in tone, time, attitude or subject. Shifts are often signaled by words like "but" or "yet", a stanza break or punctuation, and contrasts around them often point to what the poem means.

Poets choose words for their connotations and their sounds as well as their dictionary meanings. You learn to explain why a word was chosen, how repeated words or sounds build emphasis, and how a pronoun with an unclear antecedent can allow more than one reading.

A simile compares two different things using "like" or "as". You learn to ask which qualities of the thing being compared to (the comparison subject) the writer wants you to see in the thing being described (the main subject).

A metaphor says one thing is another, without "like" or "as", so qualities move from the comparison subject to the main subject. You learn to unpack exactly which qualities carry over and why that matters in the poem.

Writing about a poem means making a claim about what it means and how it works, then backing it up with exact words and lines. You practice choosing the strongest lines and explaining them instead of retelling the poem.