Fillable Printable Poetry Analysis Sample
Fillable Printable Poetry Analysis Sample
Poetry Analysis Sample
Poetry Analysis Template
You need to be able to answer all of these questions about your poem. After you have
Gathered all of this information, you will be ready to write a script that you will be able
To use to explain your poem to the audience.
Introduction:
1. What is the name of your poem?
2.
What is the name of your poet?
3. What is the date (or approximate date) of your poem’s publication?
4.
What other relevant background information can you tell us? This could
Include details about the author, details about the time period the poem was
Written in, or any other interesting tidbits of information. You shouldhave at
Least one or two things to say.
Form:
1.
What is the overall form of the poem. That is, what genre or type of poetry is
Your poem? If you have no idea what form of poem you are studying, a good
List of different forms is found at
http://www.poemofquotes.com/articles/poetry_forms.php
2. What is the structure of your poem? That is, how many stanzas does it have?
How many lines does it have? Is there a pattern to the line and stanza
structures?
3.
What is the rhyme scheme of your poem?
Meaning
1. Discuss what the overall meaning of your poem is. Avoid one sentence
Answers. You need to expand on your answer. Most poems make several
Interesting points and you need to explain as many of them as you can.
2. Discuss how this poem relates to your life, and/or to life in general.
Figurative Language and Poetic Techniques:
1.
Identify several (four would be the bare minimum – you can likely find more)
Examples of figurative language and poetic techniques in your poem. Explain
Why these are significant to the poem’s meaning. Examples could include:
Alliteration, irony, metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole, repetition,
Imagery. They could also include symbolism, contrast, paradox, oxymoron,
Assonance, consonance and many more that we have not studied in class).
Poetry Analysis Template
***Sample***
Name: Mr. Williams
Group Theme: Aging
Introduction:
Name of poem: Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
Name of poet: Dylan Thomas
Date of
publication:
1951
Other relevant
background info:
Dylan Thomas watched his father grow old and weak. Thomas wrote this
Poem to urge his father on in the fight against sickness and death.
Ironically, Thomas himself lived a hard, reckless life full of excess drinking.
Thomas died just two years after this poem was written, in 1953 at the age
Of 39.
Form:
Form of poem:
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night is a type of poem called a villanelle.
Structure of
poem:
As in all villanelles, this poem has six stanzas. Each of he first five stanzas
has three lines, while the final stanza has four lines.
In addition, the first and third line of the first stanza must be repeated in
Other stanzas. Line one of the first stanza is repeated as line three of the
second, fourth and sixth stanzas. Line three of the first stanza is repeated
As line three of the third and fifth stanzas, and line four of the sixth stanza.
This common pattern is what makes a poem a villanelle.
Rhyme scheme:
The rhyme scheme in each stanza is ABA except for the final stanza, which
Is ABAA.
Meaning:
Overall Meaning:
The poem basically urges people not to give up easily. Though death is
inevitable, and part of the natural cycle of life, people need to fight, claw,
scrape and do whatever must be done to stay alive – especially in the face
Of impending death.
How the poem
relates to life in
general, and/or
my life
The poem suggests that life is a precious gift and one must wring every
drop out of it before dying. Not living life fully makes death a sad event.
On the other hand, living a full, meaningful life allows one to find that
eventual “good night” – a peaceful afterlife. This makes the poem a
reminder to everyone to live every day to its fullest potential.
The poem relates to my life because it is a reminder never to give up. I am
not facing death right now, nor is anyone close to me, but still have other
challenges to face. This poem is a reminder to “rage” against defeat, and to
never stop doing my best.
Figurative Language and Poetic Techniques:
Device/Technique
Quote(s)
Meaning/Significance
Repetition
Lines 1, 6, 12 and 18 are all
the same.
Lines 3, 9, 15 and 19 are all
the same
By repeating the lines “Do not go gentle
into that good night” and “Rage, rage
against the dying of the light”, the poet
Calls our attention to the most important
message of the poem. The poet insists by
repeating these lines over and over that
the fight for life be continued no matter
what.
Metaphor
“Do no go gentle into that
good night”
“Good night” is a metaphor for death.
Therefore, going gentle into that good
night is a metaphor for passively
accepting
death.
Metaphor
“Rage, rage against the dying
of the light”
“dying of the light” is another metaphor
for death. Therefore, the poet is
encouraging his audience to “rage”
against death – that is, to fight and resist
it
passionately.
Metaphor
“Words had forked no
lighting”
This is a metaphor that compares “words
forking lightning” to words having power
and drawing attention, the way that
lightning does. This means that men
Whose words who have not drawn
enough attention – men who have more
to say – should resist death for there is
more to accomplish in life.
Simile
“Blind eyes could blaze like
meteors and be gay”
This simile compares blind, unseeing
eyes to fiery meteors travelling through
Space. The speaker means that blind
people who cannot see can still enjoy life
By imagining what is around them.
Personification
“Their frail deeds might have
danced in a green bay”
Of course, “frail deeds” cannot dance like
humans. But the poet issaying that old
Men can still perform deeds that “dance”
– that is, that excite people and make
other people happy.
Poetry Analysis Template
Name:
Group Theme:
Introduction:
Name of
poem:
Name of poet:
Date of
publication:
Other relevant
background info:
Form:
Form of
poem:
Structure
of
poem:
Rhyme
scheme:
Meaning:
Overall
Meaning:
How the poem
relates to life in
general, and/or
My life
Figurative Language and Poetic Techniques:
Device/Technique
Quote(s)
Meaning/Significance
