Poetry Analysis How To Activities and Acronym

Teaching poetry analysis is not an easy task. If you are like me, you’ve sneakily Googled things like “poetry analysis of The Road Not Taken” minutes before class just to make sure you have the “right” answer. Then, moments later, you ~may or may not~ have assured your middle or high school students that there are no right or wrong answers in poetry, only interpretations. Ha! So, how can we teach students poetry analysis, and maybe more importantly, confidence in their own interpretations? It is my hope that these poetry analysis how-to activities give you the tools you’ll need to help students understand, analyze, and ENJOY poetry!

Teach a Poetry Analysis Acronym

Having an acronym to teach poetry analysis helps students frame and order their thinking. My favorite poetry analysis acronym that I’ve tweaked over the years is R.E.A.D. and it goes like this: How do you understand a poem? You read it!

• R– Read It: Read it. Read it again. Read it silently. Read it aloud. Read it with curiosity. Read it. 
• E– Enliven It: What makes this poem come alive? Which of your senses are activated as you read it? What do you see, hear, taste, smell, or feel?
• A– Annotate It: How can you annotate the poem to show off its features? Underlining, circles, stars, and highlights make the perfect poetry accessories.
• D– Decipher It: How does the title contribute to the whole? Who is the speaker? What is the topic? What is the speaker’s attitude toward the topic? How does it connect to the world?

This poetry analysis acronym is not only easy to remember, but also provides students with close reading steps (without calling it close reading) and gives them a repeatable framework to analyze any poem. If you’d like a READ template with a poetry analysis example, you can grab that here. But if you want to switch things up or break down the steps even more, another fun poetry analysis is RAPPER and it stands for:

• R- Rhyme: Discuss patterned rhyme schemes or the absence thereof. Why has the poet chosen to rhyme or not?
• A- Attitude: Identify the poet’s attitude or tone toward the subject matter. How is this conveyed through language and tone?
• P- Pictures: Visualize the imagery. What do you see, smell, hear, taste or feel?
• P- Patterns: Delve into the beat, flow, and stress patterns. How do these contribute to the poem’s meaning and effect?
• E- Experiences: Relate the poem to the poet’s life or historical context. What might the poet’s experiences bring to the text?
• R- Reflection: Relate the poem to your own life or current context. How does the poem connect to yourself, another text, or the world? 

This poetry analysis acronym is clever because it gives a nod to rappers as poets and pairs nicely with this Ted-Ed lesson “What makes a poem … a poem?”. So, whether you like the READ or RAPPER, by using a poetry analysis acronym, you help students remember to look at the different layers of poetry every time they analyze a poem. 

Use Color-coding for Poetry Analysis

My love of color coding knows no bounds. From essays to poetry to pretty much anything, color coding is my English teacher BFF because it prompts students to show understanding and correct their mistakes which cuts down on grading time. Color coding for poetry analysis is a visual and tactile way for students to categorize and examine different elements of poetry. By assigning each element a color, students can quickly and literally see how different aspects of a poem work together. For example, if you are doing a poetry analysis of “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost, have students color code the imagery like in the image above (found in this resource). Here are some ideas to color code a poem: 

• Color code imagery (sight, smell, sound, taste, touch)
• Color code rhyme scheme 
• Color code figurative language
• Color code alliteration

Pair Poetry to Analyze Themes

Sometimes, the best way to understand a theme is through comparison and contrast. Pairing two seemingly dissimilar texts like poetry and podcasts allows students to better understand them both. For instance, if you are doing a poetry analysis of “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe, pair it with a nature podcast about ravens to compare and contrast the style and tone. Though it might seem counterintuitive, if your students are struggling with stand-alone poetry analysis, try adding a poetry pairing and you’ll be amazed by how adding depth and complexity makes analyzing poetry easier! For example, if you are doing a poetry analysis of “Harlem” by Langston Hughes, try pairing it with Harlem Renaissance art or even the green light in The Great Gatsby.  

Here are some poetry pairing ideas: 

• Poetry and podcasts 
• Poetry and art 
• Poetry and novels
• Poetry and nonfiction
• Poetry and more ideas in this post 

Discuss Poetry to Analyze Meaning

I’ve said it before, but class discussions or Socratic seminars are some of the best no-prep lesson plans you can do! Though we often reserve class discussions for novels, they can also work with poetry! Here are some poetry discussion questions that work with any poem: 

• How would the meaning of the poem be different if….?
• If you could ask the poet one question about this poem, what would it be?
• Can you relate to the poet’s attitude or tone toward the topic? Why or why not?
• What are some parts of the poem that are open to interpretation? How do you interpret it? How might someone else interpret it?
• What vivid images or figurative language does the poet use? How do they contribute to the overall meaning or mood of the poem?

Mimic Poetry to Analyze Style

Imitation is a powerful tool for understanding form, style, and technique. If you want to truly analyze a poem, try rewriting it! For example, if you are doing a poetry analysis of “Hope is a thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson, have students think about what other animal or metaphor could be used and how it could change the meaning. For instance, “Hope is a thing with claws that prowls within the soul…” See how that changes things!?  By mimicking the poem, it’s easier to analyze and make meaning of the original. Here are some ways to mimic poetry for poetry analysis:

• Keep the structure but change the symbolism 
• Keep the symbolism but change the structure
• Keep the rhyme but change the topic
• Keep the topic but change the rhyme 
• Keep the style but change the theme
• Keep the theme but change the style 

If you’d like more poetry writing (and mimicking) tasks with examples, check out this poetry pack! 

Implementing these poetry analysis activities can transform poetry lessons from a drag to a delightful challenge. By providing poetry analysis how-to strategies, you equip your students with the skills to approach poetry confidently and creatively. Get ready to see your students, not just analyze but appreciate poetry in a whole new way!