Some questions for Understanding and Evaluating Poetry 
from Arp and Johnson, Sound and Sense, 12th Ed.  Adapted and added to by RC

The following is a list of questions that you may apply to any poem.  Since you may be unable to answer many of them until you have read further into the book, for your first paper, work especially with questions 1-12, and 17.

1.  What seems to be the main point, the central purpose of the poem?
2.  Who is the speaker? What kind of person is the speaker? 
3.  Who are the other characters in the poem?  What kind of people are they?
4.  What emotions seem to be present in the poem?  What are the emotional connotations of the words and images?
5.  What is the setting of the poem in time (hour, season, century, and so on)? What is the setting in place (indoors or out, city or country, region, country, hemisphere)?  What are the possible significances of these settings?
6.  What larger issues about human life does the poem concern itself with – in other words, what is the theme of the poem?  Keep in mind that, beneath the words and situations of a particular poem is the unstated idea: “What you’re seeing in this poem is typical.  This is a good example of what life is like.”
7.  Summarize the events of the poem.  Is there conflict between people in the poem, or does one of the characters feel conflict within herself?
8.  Describe the diction of the poem. Point out words that seem unusual or particularly interesting and explain why. 
9.  Describe the imagery of the poem. What kinds of imagery are used? Is there a structure of imagery? 
10.  Point out examples of metaphor, simile, allusion, and personification, and explain how they fit in with the central purpose of the poem. 
11.  Point out any symbols, discuss what the tenor of the symbolic vehicle may be, and explain how the symbols might fit in with the central purpose of the poem. 
12.  Point out and explain examples of paradox, overstatement, understatement, and irony. What is their function in the poem? 
13.  Point out significant examples of sound repetition and explain their function. 
14.  What is the meter of the poem? 
15.  Copy the poem and mark its scansion. Discuss how the sound of the poem may be related to its meaning.  
16.  Describe the form or pattern of the poem (i.e., sonnet, ballad, etc.)
17.  Looking through the poem in general, ask yourself, why does the writer make this particular choice (of word, image, sound, etc.)?  How does this choice fit in with the poet’s overall concern in the poem?  How does this choice help accomplish what the poet is trying to do with this poem?

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