How to Review a Poem

  1. What is the author trying to do with this poem? What is different about it? (Is it different from most other poems you’ve read? If not, then it should be easy to figure out.)

  2. What is the literal plot (incl. the order of events)? Is it presented logically? If not, does its illogic serve a function; or is the writer simply being careless?

  3. What is the language that’s used to tell the plot?

    • What’s the overall effect (IE. the Tone) the language it
      creates?

    • What metaphors are used; what do the metaphors
      represent?

  4. Are there any incongruencies in your interpretation? If so — Work it out — You might be missing something big, a something that makes the poem a great poem.

    • Before you relegate the writer to ‘novice’
      or ‘crazy,’give the writer the benefit of the doubt.
      Then, if afterward, you still don’t see how the
      poem can make sense or what it’s trying to do, it’s
      just time to move onto another poem.

  5. If there are no incongruencies, then you are free to “look into it” further — to use the foundation of your initial interpretation to “read between the lines.”

  6. Go over your own writing:

    • So you know what you’re talking about…

      • Does anybody else?

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Published:
July 24, 2006 / 8:22 pm
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