Simple & Easy way to help students

[2aedmondchen04]

Hi all. This post shall just be a (quality) chunk of notes to help students to analyse poetry better. It is useful for literature teachers especially. Hope this helps.


Here goes:

Strategies to improve students' analysis skills for poetry

» Aural processing (Soneson)
Recite the poem several times and ask students general questions about how predominant sounds and words affect them personally and emotionally. This can reinforce students' development of listening comprehension, especially if you use taped recordings of other voices reciting the poems (giving them practice listening to other accents).

» Music
Music with lyrics offers students a less threatening introduction to poetry and helps them learn how to count syllables and identify rhyme and meter.

» Semantic mapping
Students compose semantic maps of: characteristics of a particular aesthetic school or historical context, key elements to an interpretation of a poem, etc.

» Student poetry (Smith)
Students write poems at home and give them to the instructor, who corrects them and gradually uses one at a time for brief analytical class and homework activities related to concepts being studied in the course texts.

» Visual anchors (Nance)
Bring in examples of objects that appear in a poem in order for students to discuss their own associations with the objects versus the function of the objects within the poem (i.e., a live rose and a dead one for Sor Juana's "A una rosa").

» Visual art: comparison (Nance)
Students analyze pieces of visual art, comparing style and content to those of a poem (i.e., Lorca's drawings and poems).

» Visual processing (Soneson)
Students react to the visual elements of a poem - its external structure, the use of repetition and contrast of words or letters - and relate this to other elements that create meaning in the poem.

» Word play (de Méo)
Students engage in language games (creative play with sound, meaning, rhetorical devices) in order for them to recognize how language functions within a specific text.


Hope this is helpful.

Bibliography:
www.unc.edu/~echevarr/strategies/poetry.html

Similarly you may wish to go to the above site for more information.

[2adanieltan08]

Wah ....
Edmond scam us all with copy-paste huh...
Not Bad....

Anyway for the simple-minded me =) , methinks analysing a poem , unseen or seen , both relies on your sense to read between the lines and uncover the underlying meaning , and also to be able to identity main themes and subjects of the poem.
Reading between the lines is actually easier than it seems. Poems are called poems as they are an expression and a work of art and literature , and that they can convey the poet's idea or ideas indirectly , through hidden meanings. As on how to find the hidden meanings , basically one has to skim and read through the poem for maybe 3 times and then make stands or certain accussations of the poem , followed by finding of evidence and supporting your stand with elaboration. Treat this as a wrong then cross out , correct then tick process (like guess and check) , then you will uncover maybe bits , maybe the whole underlying meaning. (meanwhile yelling I've Struck Gold ! in the midst of the paper....sheesh..)
And , how to identify main themes and subjects on the poem can be derived from the vocabulary use and also the specific use of similes and metaphors in the poem. Similes can be used and they might have different meanings when used in different circumstances ; (like as bright as a dimwit can mean dumb in one poem and might mean pure and innocent in another. No Offence. Seriously.)Mainly the way how the poet uses the diction and paragraphing and also the expressions , and all the sounds and basically every aspect of the poem can contribute to the poem's theme and purpose, depending on how deep one wants to delve into the poem.
Ending on a light note, methinks poem analysis, ehhh.... , as long as you have help from lit teachers and actually follow what edmond copy1and1pasted and also skimmed through my mumbling, you would get acceptable grades, at least.(i hope so...)
Private note to Edmond : PLAGUERISM IS AN OFFENCE !/
I didn't overdo it , did I? = )

-)B@CK~ST@B(-
f33l th3 p@1n .
t@st3 th3 1njust1c3.
Wr1th3 1n @g0ny.

[2akennethleong14]

Thx for this useful guide.
I feel that this forum is a place for sharing so i dont feel that copy and pasting is wrong but the source must be mentioned

[Sean Lee 2A16]

Wow...complex guide here

Doesn't look simple to me