What can you include in a poetry essay?
Context
Historical period influence?
Author's personal stories?
Messages about society?
Themes
Presentation?
Do other poems have similar themes?
Are themes clear in the beginning?
Language
Techniques?
Connotations of certain words?
Emphasis or repetition?
Structure
Do these sections have double meanings or interpretations?
HOW and WHY writer uses any technique
Big picture by linking techniques to meaning in poem
Always look for more than one theme.
Common features: structure, language, context etc.
Do words for tone trigger you?
Which century, how was different then?
Acceptable behaviours, changes in time?
Memories, pictures, anecdotes, emotions
Organisation into stanzas?
Contribution to author's intentions for the poem or situation described?
Particular structures (sonnet, ballad)?
Rhyme scheme, repetition, alliteration?
Further divisions: connection between the layout and the ideas of the poem?
Is there also enjambment or caesura? What do these signify about the poem?