Approaches to Poetry & Prose Passages

Use as a checklist

Poetry \ Eng 9

A.     Examine Filters and Date of Creation

B.      Examine Title

               Direct or Ironic

               Form or Major Device

C.     Analysis of:

               Speaker

               Occasion (perspective)

               Tone

               Theme

D.     Devices Used

               1.      Imagery

               2.      Metaphor/Simile

                              are comparisons overt or subtle 

               3.      Personification

               4.      Metonymy - Part of a whole

               5.      Symbol

                              interpret within fairly strict parameters

               6.      Allegory

               7.      Paradox - seeming contradiction

               8.      Hyperbole

               9.      Understatement

               10.    Irony

                           verbal

                           dramatic

                           situational

               11.    Allusion

               12.    Apostrophe

                           direct address to person living or dead

               13.    Musical Devices

               14.    Rhythm & Meter

                           speed & emphasis

               15.    Pattern - Stanzas

               16.    Denotation/Connotation