Tools for Analyzing Poetry

For the purposes of analysis, poetry can be approached on a number of different levels; the following outline is adapted from René Wellek and Austin Warren, Theory of Literature (3rd ed. New York: Harcourt, 1956), which is strongly influenced by the principles of New Criticism and by the Russian Formalist Roman Jakobson.. We will utilize this outline as we discuss the various conceptual tools for the analysis of poetry.

A. Sound Stratum

• Quality
  • Sound-imitation: expressive sounds, including onomatopoeia (the literal imitation of physical sounds) and sound-painting (words not in themselves onomatopoeic but drawn into the effect). Example: "the murmuring of innumerable bees"
  • Sound patterns: repetition of identical or similar sounds, including alliteration, assonance and consonance, and rhyme
• Quantity: Metric Analysis and Scansion
  • Pitch
  • Duration
  • Stress and Juncture
  • Repeated qualitative elements (e.g. rhyme, alliteration)

B. Style: Notes

• Diction: choice of words
• Syntax: arrangement of words

C. Imagery and Figuration: Notes

• Sensuous particularity: appeal to five senses
• Figuration: language used indirectly, suggesting something beyond its strict signified
  • Metaphor and simile
  • Symbol and symbolic system

D. Virtual World

• Plot
• Characterization
• Setting

E. Point of View

• Tone and attitude
• World view (ideas, theme, etc.)

Additional Links:

• A Handbook of Terms for Discussing Poetry (Harry Rusche, Emory University)
• Prose and Verse Criticism of Poetry (University of Toronto)
• Twentieth-century Poetry in English (Eiichi Hishikawa, Kobe University); collection of online poetry and links to other poetry sites