One Approach to Confronting the Poem

Homework: Please read several times the assigned poem and follow the directions below.

Step One:
List the visual images in the poem

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Step Two:
Choose one of the images above and answer the following questions in
writing:
1. What are the details of this image--action? Senses present?
2. What does the image make you think of?
3. What do we learn from this image? Is there something unusual about the image?
4. Is this image similar to another image in the poem? How? Explain.
5. Is the image repeated elsewhere in the poem?
6. Does the image contrast to another image?
7. What effect is created when this image is juxtaposed, contrasted, or similar with another image?
8. What is the tone of this image?
 Step Three:
Now that you have reflected on the above single image, do any
of the ideas or phrases that you associated with this image and
perhaps others in the poem help you to answer the larger
question: what is the poem trying to show. This question is not
a summary of what happens in the poem. Work to shape your
answer into a topic sentence and proceed to develop a
paragraph with textual support.

 2001 Michael Degen