Reading a poem
When you read a poem, particularly a short poem, it is best to think through some of the "mechanics" of the poem; make observations about the poem and then think about what those observations might mean.  One of the first places to start thinking about the poem is to consider the “plot” of the poem:  what is the action or series of events that the poem is describing?  Is there a narrator in the poem?  Does the narrator seem to have an individual personality, or is the narrator just an observer?  Consider the grammatical structure of the poem: is each line a sentence by itself, or is one sentence several lines long? where and how are pauses indicated; where does a particular word seem emphasized?  Make sure that you know the definitions of any unfamiliar words—poets choose their language very carefully because they are interested in the connotations of words. Try reading the poem out loud, following the punctuation indicated by the poet: are there places where the poem speeds up or slow down?

After thinking about the plot and the structure of the lines themselves, look for specific figures of speech, like metaphors, similes, symbols; look also for rhymes, alliteration, ambiguity, irony.  Reading complete sentences rather than just specific lines will help you untangle some of the more complex components of the poem.  Ask yourself about the tone of the poem: how does it sound to you; what words does the poet using to create her meaning, and what sorts of emotions are created by this language?

Now that you've made these various observations, start putting them:  what themes or ideas are emerging from the poem?  Does the structure of the poem connect to any of these themes?  How does the title connect to these themes?

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Discussion questions for “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” and “Design.”

“Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” - Adrienne Rich
1.  What does “denizens” mean; what is “chivalric”?  How does this add to our understanding of the tigers’ attitudes?
 

2.  What actions are being described in the poem?  What is Aunt Jennifer doing?
 

3.  Look at the two sentences that make up the third stanza.  Explain the contrast between “fluttering” and “massive weight.”  What does this tell us about Aunt Jennifer, about Uncle?   Is this “massive weight” literal or metaphoric?
 
 

4.  Why is Aunt Jennifer terrified?   Why does she create the tigers?
 
 

5.  What are the “ordeals” Aunt Jennifer is “ringed” by, and why is it significant that the poet uses the word “ringed”?  What is the double meaning of that word?
 

6.  Who is the speaker of the poem?  Even if you’re not sure, what would you say is the attitude of the speaker towards Aunt Jennifer?  What gives you that idea?
 
 

“Design” – Robert Frost

1.  What actions or events are described in the poem?  What is its setting? What is the narrator’s position?
 
 

2.  What are the definitions of “blight,” “kindred,”  and “appall” ?
 
 
 

4. What similes are used to describe the moth?  What do these descriptions suggest about the poet’s perspective or point of view?
 
 

5. Why is it ironic that the poet sees this scene of “death and blight” in the morning?
 
 
 

6. How is the poet using the word “design” in this poem? Does he mean it as decoration or pattern, exactly?
 

7. Although the last line of the poem is not a question, exactly, the poet does begin the line with the word “If,” which means that this statement is conditional, not certain. What is the “thing so small” that he refers to in this line? Why would it be significant if design did not govern a thing so small?
 
 

Wordsworth, “The World Is Too Much With Us”

1.  What actions or events are being described in the poem?
 

2.  How have “we” wasted our powers, according to the poet?   When the poet says that we are “out of tune,” what does he mean?  Out of tune with what?
 

3.  What would the speaker rather be?
 
 

4.  What problem is this poem addressing?
 

5.  What does the poet mean when he says that the world is “too much with us”?  What alternative(s) does he seem to prefer?
 

6.  Triton and Proteus are mythic figures; why might the poet refer to these figures in the concluding couplet?
 
 

“Love is not all…”  St. Vincent Millay

1.  What problem does the poem address?
 

2.  What isn’t love, in the speaker’s opinion?  Why does the poet make such extensive comparisons, do you suppose?
 
 

3.  Why do “many a man” make friends with death?  Does this statement seem to contradict what the previous lines have just said?
 
 

4.  What might drive the speaker to sell her memories of love?
 

5.  Does the poem’s conclusion agree with or contradict the title of the poem and its first line?
 

“Leda and the Swan” – WB Yeats

1.  What actions or events are being described in the poem?
 
 

2.  What is the tone of this poem?  Does the tone stay the same throughout the poem? What words contribute to the mood of the poem?
 
 

3.  How does the poet create a contrast between Leda and the swan?  What images help create these contrasts?
 
 

4.  What question about Leda does the poet ask in the last stanza?
 

5.  Does the poet seem to identify with either figure in the poem, or is the poet simply an observer?
 

“The Female and the Silence of a Man” – June Jordan

1.  What actions or events are described in this poem?
 

2.  What is the mood or tone of the poem?  What images and words help create this mood?
 
 

3.  In what specific ways does this poem pattern itself after Yeats’ poem?
 
 

4.  How does this poem revise Yeats’s poem?
 
 

5.  What metaphors are used to describe the girl in the concluding stanza?  What is the possible irony of the concluding line?
 
 

6.  Explain the significance of the title.
 

“In an Artist’s Studio” – Christina Rossetti

1.  What actions or events are described in the poem?
 

2.  Is the speaker of the poem an observer or a participant?
 

3.  Who is the “she” of the poem?  Who is the “he”?  What are the various ways that “she” is portrayed?  To what does the speaker of the poem compare her?
 
 

4.  What is the meaning of the final couplet?  What has the artist painted on his canvases?   What seems to be the role of the “she”?
 
 

“If We Must Die” – Claude McKay

1.  What actions or events are being described in the poem?
 
 

2.  How does the poet want to die?  What sort of death does he want to avoid?  How does he attempt to persuade others to join him in his stance?
 
 

3.  Are the “dogs” referred to in the third line real dogs, do you think?  Explain your answer
 
 

4.  What general problem does this poem seem to be addressing?
 
 

5.  Does the poem’s final couplet resolve the problem of the poem?
 
 
 

Group discussion poems:  “My Papa’s Waltz,” “Putting in the Seed,” and “Ozymandias.”   In small groups, you will read and discuss one of these three poems (I will assign one poem to each group).  You should answer the questions in as much detail as possible.  In addition to answering the individual questions for each poem, however, you should consider the following:
·does the poem have a central theme or idea that it is trying to express, or is it just a “lyric,” that is, a poem that is expressing a feeling only?
·does the sonnet form seem to be strongly related to theme/lyric of the poem or not?
(make sure to consider all the various aspects of the sonnet form in your answer: some aspects of the form might be more important than others)
·is there any unfamiliar language that should be defined?

Each group will receive a quiz grade for this assignment.  You will be graded on the thoroughness of your answers and how well you present your answers to the class.

“My Papa’s Waltz” – Theodore Roethke

1.  What actions or events are being described in this poem?
 
 

2.  What simile does the boy use to describe himself?  What is the effect of this comparison?
 

3.  Describe the characters in the poem: what sort of people are they?
 
 

4.  What is the nature of the relationship between the little boy and his father?
 
 

5.   What is the emotional tone or mood of this poem?  What images/words contribute to that meaning?
 

6.  Does this seem like a positive childhood memory?
 

“Putting in the Seed” – Robert Frost

1.  What actions or events are described in this poem?  What is the poet doing?
 
 

2.  How does the speaker of the poem describe himself?
 

3.  What is the “early birth” to which the poet refers?
 

4.  What would you say is the poem’s central or most important image?  Why?
 

5  What is being described—literally—in the last four lines of the poem?  What is the implicit comparison being made in these lines?
 
 

6.  What is the significance of the title?
 
 
 

“Ozymandias” – Percy Bysshe Shelley

1.  What are the actions or events being described in the poem?
 

2.  What object does the “traveler” describe to the speaker of the poem?
 
 

3.  What sort of king does Ozymandias seem to have been?
 
 

4.  What is ironic about the inscription on the pedestal of the statue?  What is left of Ozymandias’s kingdom?
 
 

5.  What seems to be the poem’s attitude towards Ozymandias?
 

6.  What lessons do you think we are meant to draw from the fate of Ozymandias’s kingdom and statue?