6 Methods on How to Critique a Poem

Poetry is a combination of words with a rhythm that makes flow and impression in listening. To truly understand the meaning of poetry it is best to choose the one and read it with proper examination. With the right methods to read poems, you can better understand the poet’s aspect of writing and offer some critique as well. Poetry understating and examination is a complete subject that will go in-depth to the entire aspect. It starts with the reading, understating of language, rhythmic pattern analysis, and over the theme.

Everything comes with a purpose, similarly the poem analysis and critique will help to understand the life of a dying poet. Moreover, it offers a way to understand the concept the poet wants to deliver to the reader. You can read a poem and reward appreciation or critique only after reviewing it in detail.

Here is a complete method that helps to understand the poem and make a way to do fruitful critique:

Read the poem

Before the analysis and critique, it is good to understand the poem. If you are planning to read such content for the first time, then you have to read it first. Once you read it quickly it will not be possible to get or understand the hidden meaning. After the reading, give time, and read the poem again by keeping the pattern in mind. It is suggested to read the second time a bit louder than the first time with the proper rhythm. You can get help as well to better understand the reading of poems by keeping influence over the verses.

Scan the language or title

Once you understand the pattern of writing after reading it is helpful to know whether the poem is the free rhythm or has a proper pattern. Moreover, the use of language helps to understand the meaning and writer’s conception to write it. By reading the titles you also get the idea about the soft, or harsh tone used by the poet in the writing. Sometimes poets use the opposite titles from the content that after reading the poem the reader fails to correlate the title with the words and meaning.

Determine the audience

In the poem, there is a particular speaker or audience going to address the poet. While reading and evaluating you get a chance to understand or find out about the audience. Each of the language phrases must reflect the situation, feeling, person, or point of view. In the critique, you must have to find out that the poet talks about the audience or give the clue regarding the addresser in the content. Sometimes it is shown clearly or sometimes hidden in the poem by the poet.

Study poem context & content

While evaluating the poem it is necessary to study and understand the context of the poet that expresses the mood, tone, and impression. With the words, you can get the idea of what kind of feelings, thought, or attitude the poet wants to deliver with the power of words. Find out more about the places, the attitude of characters, and simplify things to understand the change in the perception and tone at different points.

Paraphrase poem  

In the process of critique, once you identify the aspects including tone, character, mood, audience, and language then move towards the paraphrasing. It is a form of writing to describe the context of the poet’s use in the poem in simple words. Most people adopt this self-explanatory process to draw critique analysis over the poem.

All it requires is to read the lines and paraphrase them in simple words by writing the actual meaning of the poem that is described in the poem. Once you are done with this it is time to get the meaning of the poem that you understand in the whole procedure.

Understating theme

The theme of the poem shows the actual meaning, behind the impression and feel of the word of the poet that reflects in the writing. After you have done with the whole process starting from the reading, understanding, and paraphrasing it is time to get the theme. Take a look over the material you create from the analysis and explore the purpose of poetry to writing.

The theme can be a conflict, reality, issue, or feelings on which the poet builds the subject and discusses it in a rhythmic way. While understating the theme write about the subject, audience, mood, or purpose. By connecting all the aspects, you can understand the theme the poet developed while writing the poem.

Final consideration!

The critique process and analysis of poems is a worthy and interesting activity. But only for those who enjoy reading and paraphrasing poems. Poets use simple or complex words with the musical combination to deliver difficult and conflicting realities. Moreover, the best material is only that helps to give a better understanding of the poet’s context and concept of writing the poem.