Term 3 Week 6 : 10-step Poem Analysis

Using a quick 10-step method, analysing poems just got easier. The following is the 10-step process done on the poem titled "Three or So".

1. Forget what the poem may or may not mean, or what it may be about.
   
   
2. Look at just the title and write down about half a dozen things that the title suggests to you. Give literal meanings as well as other associations.
   
   a) Poem about a child who is about three years old
   b) Counting things
   c) Guessing a child's age
   d) Recalling childhood memories
   e) Recalling an event related to a child
   
   
3. Read the poem once quickly, and then several more times slowly. Try to hear the poem aloud in the head. DO NOT recite the poem aloud in class; if you must hear it aloud, read it quietly to yourself.
   
   
4. Write down a list of all those things in the poem that force their attention on you or which catch your interest for a particular reason. This includes unusual/odd/striking words, rhymes, or repetitions/patterns/contrasts, etc.
   
   a) "mother's eyes & brother's smile" ---> the two phrases rhyme
   b) "drone, howl, scream, shush, whooshing" ---> emphasises on the scariness of the scene
   c) "I've forgotten... I've forgotten... I've forgotten" ---> poet has forgotten about her
   childhood, probably adult now
   d) "She's someone else now, to be wondered at" ---> poet has probably changed from that
   experience
   
   
5. Write down any features of figurative language in the poem: metaphors, similes, personification, alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, symbolism, etc.
   
   a) Onomatopoeia
   b) Assonance
   c) Rhyme
   d) Alliteration
   e) Symbolism
   
   
6. Write down groups of words that may be thematically similar (for example, that all similes make reference to animals/death/plants, etc., or all the first words of lines are conjunction words, etc.). Don't worry about whether your groups of words seem silly or improbable; look at what you have observed and ask yourself: what is its significance?
   
   Symbolism in stanzas 4 and 5 describe a gangster's dangerous environment.
   Significance ---> could show how entering alley-way changed the author
   
   
7. Look at your lists, notes, and groups. Do you see any pattern taking shape? If so, WRITE DOWN this pattern.
   
   I do not see any pattern.
   
   
8. Read the poem again and WRITE DOWN your intelligent guesses of what the poem may mean.
   
   a) Author is reflecting about her past and regrets one of her past actions as a child.
   b) Thinking about her child, about what happened to her and the similarities they share.
   
   
9. Answer the following questions:
   
   a) Who is "speaking" in the poem? Is it the poet or a persona?
   The poet is speaking here, aka. this is a first-person poem.
   b) Who is the poem "spoken" to? In other words, who is the audience for this poem? Is it to a particular person, to the poet himself (reflective) or to the public in general?
   It is to the poet herself, aka. this poem is reflective. It can also be to her child.
   c) What is the speaker's attitude to this audience? Is it angry, sincere, joking, teasing, etc.?
   She is angry towards herself/her child, and is also frustrated.
   d) What is the poet's attitude to this audience? (This may be different from the speaker.)
   The same as the speaker.
   e) Why is the poem organized in the way that it is?
   The poet was trying to organize it in such a way that she first tells us how we reminisce on a photo of a young child, how it leads to a reflection of the past event, and how she feels about it. It is organized such that we can understand how she feels.
   f) What is the effect of all the things you have written down in Steps 2-8?
   It gives us an image, about the event that happened to the child, or the poet in her childhood times, and allows us to synchronize with the poet's feelings.
   
   
10. Write down your guess at the poet's intent: what do you think the poet hoped to accomplish in writing this poem?
    
    The poet hoped that this message could reach her daughter someday, who has probably gone lost from the event that was described in stanzas 4 and 5. / She wanted to remember this incident and teach her children, nephew, etc. not to follow her footsteps.

This marks the end for my blog post. See you next time for another blog post.