how should you go about analyzing an unseen poem The stiff approach helps you tackle the problem in six steps step one consider the subject to the poem what is the poem about and why aim to sum up the poem's context and content who wrote it and why when and where was it written who and what influenced the poet who is the persona sometimes referred to as the speaker or narrator is it written in the first second or third person narrative where is it set who or what features in the poem step two theme what are the recurring ideas and topics try to identify the main issues at the heart of the poem here are some possible themes you might be able to identify love nature culture identity race religion sexuality memory family history politics self-discovery innocence experience morality wealth Life Death age War or conflict step three tone how would you describe the mood of the language pick phrases showing attitude consider the following examples of tone formal informal solemn melancholic bitter frustrated morbid regretful reflective sentimental nostalgic critical judgmental disparaging negative pessimistic scornful positive optimistic jovial or ironic step four imagery one of the most important aspects of the poem what literary devices are used find different techniques and suggest what they could signify here a selection you might be able to find similes metaphors personification alliteration onat repetition anthropomorphism juxtoposition oxymora assonance dissonance allegory symbolism anaphora satire irony exaggeration hyperbole color enjambment or Cura step five form poems are set out in a number of different ways identify why the poet has chosen this structure study the stanzas rhyme rhythm and punctuation how many stes are there and how long are they are there any line breaks or cural pauses what do the pauses signify is there a lot or little Punctuation is there any rhyme if so why has the poet chosen it does it run consistently throughout the poem rhyme can quite often affect the Rhythm how does the Rhythm affect the poem's meaning does this style of poem have a specific name such as a sonnet step six feeling analyze the different emotions being conveyed what does a tone tell us about the narrator's feelings does this change throughout the poem what might be the poet's intention who was it targeted at how was the poem received when it was first published was it meant for a public audience or just purely private is it written from the poet's perspective or someone else is lastly how does it make you feel if you found this helpful You may wish to check out poetry essay app it provides you with a range of writing frames to help you to stitch a poetry essay together alternatively please visit poetry .co.uk for some other free resources such as posters poetry annotations and planning templates to assist your analysis of poetry