Breaking it Down

Poetry can be difficult to read at times, in fact a poet may want you to read a poem several times to fully understand it. Following these steps can help you better break down a poem to understand.

1. Read the poem once in your head.
2. Circle all of the words that are not clear.
3. Look up those words and write the definitions above the words.
4. Now read the poem ALOUD and see if the poem is easier to understand.


Let's go through the steps with William Shakespeare's Sonnet 130.

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

Here's is the same poem with any unclear words in bold and the definitions beside them.

My mistress' (sweetheart's) eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral (a deep pink) is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be (is) white, why then her breasts are dun (marked by dullness or drabness);
If hairs be (are) wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked (a hardy rose with large fragrant pink and white flowers), red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight (satisfaction)
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks (to give off; also a disagreeable odor).
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant (assume to be true) I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads (stomps, tramples) on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare (rarely found)
As any she belied (contradict) with false compare (comparison).

Now read the poem again but this time read it ALOUD. Is this a nice poem about his mistress? Would you call this a love poem? If you are still unsure, watch this video and see if the poem makes more sense.




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Caution: Advanced Learning Ahead!

While it isn't always necessary to recognize the meter in a poem to understand it, it may at least help you appreciate a poem a bit more (and help you recognize the skill that's involved). Another perk to knowing meter is you can impress your friends by saying "I only write poems written in trochaic pentameter" or "[insert equally snooty quote here]."

To learn about recognizing meter (also known as "Scansion") keep reading, if not please skip to the next post HERE.

Meter is determined by two things, "feet" and line length.

A "foot" is a unit of poetry that measures the stresses in a line. When you read a poem aloud some words are louder (or stronger than others), those words are "stressed" (or accented syllables) and the soft words are "unstressed" (or unaccented syllables).

Usually poets make a / mark above syllables that are "stressed" and a U mark above syllables that are "unstressed."

Here is a cheet sheet of common metrical feet, the CAPITALIZED words are the stressed or accented syllables.

Sometimes clapping or tapping your foot can help you find the rhythm in a poem and help you recognize which syllable is stressed or unstressed. Read this sentence aloud and see if you can recognize the stressed syllables:

I do not eat green eggs and ham,

I do not eat them Sam-I-am.


While you can stress any syllable in poetry, most would read this line:

i DO not EAT green EGGS and HAM,

i DO not EAT them SAM-i-AM.

Hint: Many times small words like the, an, and, are, to, a, of, is are unstressed while short nouns (sky, bath, love, hand) are usually stressed syllables.

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A Line in poetry is measured by the amount of "feet" they contain.

Here is a cheat sheet of common metrical lines:

When you "scan" a poem you are counting the number of "feet" in a poem and recognizing what type of "feet" they are.

In other words, if a line had four iambs and one spondee it would be a pentameter (just add up the "feet", i.e. the iambs and spondees, to know how many feet are in a line, in this case there are five making it a pentameter).

If all those feet were iambs then it would be iambic pentameter just like if all the lines were trochees then it would be trochaic pentameter.
Is all this starting to make sense yet?

Read the lines aloud a few times and try and figure out which line is anapestic, iambic, and trochaic, try writing them and adding the / above the word for stressed syllables and U for unstressed syllables like this:

"Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?"

"Listen, the hay bells tinkle as the cart

Wavers on rubber tyres along the tar"

"But lo, the old inn, and the lights, and the fire

And the fiddler's old tune and the shuffling of feet;"

Remember:

Iambic sounds like tee TUM tee TUM

Trochaic sounds like TUM tee TUM tee

Anapest sounds like tee tee TUM

Dactyl sounds like TUM tee tee

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The Building Blocks

Do you think you are starting to get it? Poetry can be complex and without knowing the building blocks of poetry it can be easy to get overwhelmed.

Here's is a great video from BrainPop that explains poetry a bit better than I can.


So now that you're a pro, why don't you play a few games of SCATTER to test your knowledge. After playing it once, try it again and see if you can beat your own time!


Now that I've pumped you full of information, let's see how much you remember. Click on TEST and see how well you do with the quiz I made especially for you!

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Seeing is Understanding

Here are some examples of poems that use metaphor, simile, personification, and alliteration effectively.

Metaphor:

"'Hope' is the thing with feathers -" By Emily Dickinson

"Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.

Simile:

1st Stanza of "A Red, Red Rose" By Robert Burns

My love is like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June :
My love is like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune.

Personification:

"Fog" By Carl Sandburg

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

Alliteration:

1st three lines of "The Death of the Hired Man" By Robert Frost

Marty sat musing on the lamp-flame at the table
Waiting for Warren. When she heard his step,
She ran on tip-toe down the darkened passage...

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Baby Steps

Reading and understanding poetry doesn't happen overnight and always takes time so I recommend starting slow. Start with the basics.

Whether you want to read poetry or write it, you have to crawl before you can walk. This can be frustrating for those that like to dive right in, but its all about baby steps.

Do you know about metaphors? Similes? Personification? Onomatopoeia?

Before you start learning the different types of meter and rhyme, I would suggest becoming familiar with common poetic devices.

Here's a fun video that shows some of the different poetry terms in context.



Now that you've seen some poetry terms in use, try and familiarize yourself with the following commonly used poetic devices:

Simile
Alliteration
Metaphor
Personification
Onomatopoeia
Hyperbole
Symbolism
Puns
Idioms
Foot
Meter
Rhythm
Lyrics
Mood

Check out this website for definitions and examples:

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