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How to Read a Poem: Advice from Poets
Academy of American Poets: "How to Read a Poem" .
Library of Congress: Poetry 180: "How to Read a Poem Out Loud"
Triple Entry Technique
This strategy helps you record your observations and identify questions you have. With each subsequent reading, try to answer questions from the prior reading. To create evidence engaged reading, be as detailed and specific as possible.
This is what a triple-entry response to "The Snowstorm" by Emerson looks like:
First Reading
Observations
Poem is about a snow storm.
There are 3 stanzas.
There’s no rhyming scheme.
Language/word choice shows that the poem is from a different timeperiod. (Ex. “Maugre” in line 21)
Questions
Line # 1- I don’t get the imagery of the “trumpets of the sky”. What’s he seeing? What looks like trumpets?
Lines 10 – 25 – There are lots of words related to building and masonry. What’s that about?
Second Reading
Observations
Poem is about being inside by a warm fire during a snow storm and about watching what happens to the air, sky and trees when it snows.
Poem is also about what the outside looks like after the storm (trees, barns, roads).
Perhaps the words in lines 10 and 25 that relate to masonry and architecture are the snow and the strange shapes or architecture that snow can make.
Questions
Line # 1 – I still don’t get it.
Does Emerson like snow? Does this poem show he is a transcendentalist? (Ex. “Maugre” in line 21)
Third Reading
Observations
Line 21- “Farmer sighs” is significant. Farmer isn’t frozen to death in a horrible storm. He just sighs that the storm has left him snowbound and now forces him to rest. He sighs and that’s a good thing.
‘Frolic architecture” is also a positive, playful idea. (line 28)
Emerson sees the snow as a good thing. Nature is kind and beautiful. The storm is not something you need to curse.
Lines # 8 and # 9 make me wish I could be home today – huddled by a wam fire, resting and watching the snow fall.
Questions
Line # 1 – Perhaps the trumpets of the sky aren’t something he sees but something he hears?