Poetry and metaphor are most often seen together. Why not? They’re good friends, and they live in the same neighborhood. Writers often use metaphor in their poetry to communicate a feeling in a way that is either simple to understand or more complex. When a poet includes just the right metaphor, the result commands the […]

In a previous post, we analyzed a poem with stanzas using a five step method. Analyzing a poem with one stanza can be a bit more challenging. You, as the reader, have to determine how to break down the sections in order to summarize the poem. That means that step three (summarize the stanzas) will […]

The truth is that analyzing poetry is difficult. Poets say much with few words–generally. Sometimes they may even use words that are perfect for what they are saying, but that the reader has never encountered. Every word is important in a poem, so that’s where we start–making sure we understand their literal definitions. But to […]