How to Read a (short) Poem A guide for bio majors, math majors, and others unfamiliar with poetry.

Long narrative poems should be read like a short story--carefully, but one reading should make most of its interest evident. Short poems are like pieces of music for a musician: you can play it through once, but you must go back over it a number of times to be able to perform it well. So here s a start. !" #ead poem through once. $f it is all perfectly clear to you, just look back over it to see why it worked, and move on. %" $f not, go back to look for the line which first seemed ambiguous or unclear. &hink about the problem this line or lines present. &hink what the lines could possibly mean. 'ive it a few minutes. (ith or without a better idea of the problem, go to the ne)t step. *" &he ne)t step is to look up all words in a real dictionary +not online" that you don t know. ,ven a word you think you understand may have two or three meanings, and the writer may want you to think of both of them, or a meaning that is less familiar to you. A simple word like -deep. may be given more than one meaning for the poem. Also look up mythological or other place references you do not understand/'oogle is ade0uate for this. 1" 'o back again to see how the poem is organi2ed. (here is the break or turning point in the narrative3 +Sonnets usually have a break after the eighth line." 4nce you understand the poem s organi2ation, you can attack each stan2a or section, one at a time. &his will clarify some things you did not recogni2e at first, or at least isolate the problem. 5" 6otice any shifts in tone +cheerful to doleful", narrator +you, to us, to I", or logic +from e)position to resolution". 7ou might see if the last line is in some way related to the first line in a way you had not originally noticed. &his may help you grasp the direction of the poem, and help you with other meanings. 8" 6ote the lines that you like. 9oems are more than pu22les: they should be pleasurable too. ;ake a tentative judgment on whether you liked the poem or not and why. <" $f you are just plain stuck on some lines, note them and move on to the ne)t poem. 7ou don t have to spend the whole night on one poem.