Understanding Poems

• English

Understanding Poems 

There are 9 Steps I find helpful when it comes to understand poems 

Step One 

Don't Be Afraid 

Poems can be scary when you first look at them 

• Scary looking Words 
• Scary looking Format 

Read the title 

• Based on the title what do you think the poem is about 
• Decide before you move on 

Read the poem all the way through 

• General idea of the poem 

Annotate 

• Read the poem again                 
• Highlight, Write comments ,underline
• what you think is interesting , Find Confusing , might be important  

Look up words you don't know 

• word matter 
• Writes have a limited of space to get there point across 

Identify the Narrator

• It isn't always in the writer's point of view
• what is the tone 
• how does the narrator impact the theme 
• what is the point   

Notice change 

• change words, but, however
• those words can indicate the point of the poem 

Structure 

• rhyme scheme  (how it rhyme)
•  meter of the lines 
• Physical layout

Read out LOUD

• hearing it can help you find things you may haven't noticed before 

Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening 

By the title what do you think the Poem is about

1. Jumping in the snow in the woods
2. Someone walking in the snow in the wood
3. A sad lonely man walking in the snow
4. A snowy day

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening 

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound’s the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

By Robert Frost

What are some things you noticed or found important?

What are words you didn't understand and there definition?

What do you know about the narrator ?

Where there any transition word/s that made an important change

Did you notice anything different after reading it aloud