27- Brielle

How to Read a Poem

Introduction
When you read a poem, you carefully read it either out loud or to yourself. If you don’t understand the poem, read it again. This is called re-reading. When your reading a poem, you’ll see that there are little paragraph like stanza. Stanzas do the same job as paragraphs do.
Repetition
A repetition is when a line from a poem repeats throughout the poem. A repetition helps you understand the poem by basically showing you what the theme of the poem is. An example of a repetition from a poem is from The Road Not Taken by: Robert Frost. In the poem he says, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” He wrote this line twice in the poem.
Imagery
Imagery is when the poet describes something with a lot of great details to the point where you can see the picture in your head. Imagery really helps in poems because you understand what the poet’s trying to show you. An example of this is from the poem, Fog, by: Carl Sandburg. “The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on.”
Metaphor
A metaphor is when the poet writes a line, but it means something else. When reading a poem you should know what the metaphors mean or else you’ll think the poem means one thing, but it means something far off from that. Here’s an example, “Crystal stairs” This is compared to life, though through the poem, the poet says there are rough things on them. So their saying life is uneasy and rough. It’s also saying to be prepared.
Rhythm, rhyme
A regular rhythm is when there’s a beat to the poem. When the rhythm is irregular rhythm is when it doesn’t have a continuous beat. Rhyming helps the beat a little bit by keeping it almost like a song, making the sound flow. When there no rhyme it’s more like a story. A poem example is from the poem, Annabel Lee by: Edgar Allen Poe.
Theme/message
A theme is the message in a poem. This is important because you will understand what the poet is telling you about a milestone or point in life this happened to them. It’s also important because it’s a moral you should follow.