How to Apply Close Reading in Studying Poetry

how to study poetry
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close-reading-in-poetry
What is close reading in poetry?

Close reading a poem means reading the poem carefully while sustainably interpreting it to the line by line, stanza by stanza.

Steps in close-reading a poem:

Read the poem aloud while following all the punctuations

  • Watch out for punctuation marks that tell you where to pause or stop while reading the poem. These are commas, full stops, colons, semi-colons, exclamations, etc.
  • Sometimes a sentence in a poem may extend over several lines. Some require pausing while others require stopping at the end. The reader should read continuously until they encounter punctuation that requires a pause or a stop.
  • Sometimes an entire poem may be made up of a single sentence that is broken down into several lines or stanzas before ending in a question mark, exclamation mark, or a full stop.
  • Observing the punctuation in a poem is important because it helps the reader to determine the tone of the poem. Poems with short sentences tend to have a serious tone, mood and attitude.

Reflect on keywords and references

  • English words have both denotative and connotative meanings. Denotative poems are straightforward and the reader is not required to look for any hidden meanings as they use dictionary language (denotative language).
  • Connotative poems use a language that requires the reader to apply their knowledge of the world. Such kinds of poems carry social and emotional associations.
  • Due to the denotative and connotative use of language, a poem can have two levels of meaning: the surface meaning (denotative meaning) and the deeper meaning (connotative meaning).

Paraphrase lines to simplify them for easier understanding.

  • Paraphrasing a poem means re-writing the poem using your own words. Paraphrasing helps the reader to easily understand imagery and figurative language used in the poem. This helps the reader to figure out the meaning of the poem.
  • By paraphrasing a poem, the reader can normalise inverted word order and rephrase the words created by the poet using poetic license. This helps in understanding the poem and the context.

Summarise the poem

  • Summarizing a poem involves restating the main idea of the poem in one or two sentences. The main idea behind a poem is also known as the subject matter. Understanding the subject matter of a poem helps in understanding the poet’s message

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