Pull Together
Once you've thoroughly annotated your noticings, questions, and ponderings, Look back over the poem and your annotations on it and pull together some of your observations into patterns. What kinds of patterns or connections do you see. Are there repeated or similar images, motifs, symbols? Are there specific “aha” moments that illuminate meaning for you? How is your understanding of the poem enhanced by the connections among the things you’ve noticed? In all of this, are there any themes that seem to emerge? Write one or more down!
Start pulling it all together:
What patterns have emerged in your reading, and what meaning do you make of these patterns?
How can you interpret the connections among the things you've noticed to help guide you towards a theme?
What do you consider to be the overarching theme(s) in the poem, based on your reading of it?