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Key Terms
Key Terms
There are some specific terms that would be helpful to know for poetry.
Rhyme scheme - the ordered pattern of rhymes at the ends of the lines of a poem or verse.
End rhyme - This is what we typically think of when we look at rhyme scheme - the lines end in words that rhyme.
Eye rhyme - a similarity between words in spelling but not in pronunciation, e.g., love and move.
Slant rhyme - rhyme in which either the vowels or the consonants of stressed syllables are identical, as in eyes, light; years, yours.
Theme - The underlying meaning of the poem - the "message". **Think about the subject being discussed and the author's attitude towards it. This will help you identify the theme.**
Line - The "sentence" of a poem.
Stanza - The "paragraph" of a poem. (Group of lines)
Structure - How the poem is organized
Open poem - an open poem does not follow rules. We also know this as "free verse". Open poems can still sometimes look like they have a form. See this poem"Checking Out Me History" by John Agard .
Closed poem - closed poems follow specific rules. There are many types of closed poems, but here are the common ones that we have seen:
Haiku - a poem that only has one stanza with three lines. These lines have 5 syllables, 7 syllables, and 5 syllables.
English Sonnet - a poem with 14 lines. These poems are (traditionally) written in three stanzas with four lines and a couplet (stanza with only two lines). Sonnets will have a metrical pattern (meter). ***Meter? Look at the next section to learn about this term***
Italian Sonnet - a poem with 14 lines. These poems are (traditionally) written in two stanzas. The first stanza has 8 lines, and then the second stanza has 6 lines. Typically there is a shift that occurs on the 9th line. These sonnets also have meter.
Confused by sonnets? Check out this website for more detailed notes.
Mood - The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes in the reader. Every aspect of a piece of writing can influence its mood, from the setting and the imagery to the author's word choice and tone.
Tone - The author's attitude towards a topic. In order to identify tone, take a look at what words the author chooses to use (diction). Here is a Youtube Video that talks about identifying theme and tone in poetry.
Irony / ironic effect - Irony implies a difference in what is said and what is meant.
Symbolism - When we use a concrete item (like a fox) and use it to represent something more abstract (like freedom), this is symbolism.
Metaphor - A metaphor compares two unlike things (without using like or as). Sometimes it can be tricky to identify WHY an author uses symbolism. Check out my analysis below to see how I like to break apart metaphors.
Simile - A simile compares two unlike things, but it does use like or as.
Personification - Personification occurs when we give human-like characteristics to non-human things.
Allusion - An allusion is a reference to something well-known. If you see a mention of something from the Bible, Greek mythology, or other pieces of literature in a poem... it is an allusion. If I refer to a man as "a regular Adonis", I am referring to a Greek god. Adonis was the god of beauty. When I call that man "a regular Adonis", it is meant to make the reader think of this amazingly handsome man who is literally the god of beauty!
Hyperbole - A hyperbole is an exaggeration within literature.
Meter? What's That?
Meter? What's That?
Meter is the rhythm of the poem. It is rarely asked about on the STAAR test, but it could always appear! There is a shortcut to determining if there is meter in a poem, but check out the real way to count meter.
Meter can be pretty confusing. I honestly didn't learn about meter until I got to college. Students normally learn this in high school, but I somehow missed that lesson!
My shortcut for checking for meter is to count the syllables in a line. Meter counts stressed and unstressed syllables. If you have a difficult time figuring out what is stressed and what is unstressed, you can simply count ALL syllables and cut them in half.
Look at my example below to see what that looks like.
Here is a poem that is written in one big stanza. I see that there is a rhyme scheme, so I know it is a closed poem. I need to figure out if it has meter.
I marked the syllables in red and typed how many syllables I had in each line in purple. I clearly have a pattern, so I know there is meter. However, the STAAR test might ask what KIND of meter this is...
We counted the syllables and found a pattern. Since this is a shortcut, you may end up with a pattern like 10-10-10-9-10-10-11. That is because we aren't really counting the stressed and unstressed syllables. Always go with what is more frequent (in the previously mentioned case you would pick 10). Once you have your pattern, you divide by two.
There are five "beats" per line in "America". What is that meter actually called? Well, we describe the length of a poetic meter using Greek suffixes:
Monometer - 1, Dimeter - 2. Trimeter - 3, Tetrameter - 4, Pentameter - 5, Hexameter - 6, Heptameter - 7, Optometer - 8
I know that "America" has five "beats", so it is written in "pentameter".
***This shortcut only really works for poems that use either trochee, iamb, or spondee feet. For more information on that, please visit this website .***
Videos for Poetry
Videos for Poetry
How To Analyze Poetry
How To Analyze Poetry
You should always start your analysis with the title. It comes before the poem for a reason! Read the title and consider what it could possibly mean.
This title makes me think that this poem is going to be a message to the speaker's daughter. The daughter must be a talented artist. That's a pretty easy title to do this with!
Next, I am going to read the entire poem one time through.
The first time we read through a poem may make us feel a little bit confused. Not to worry. Let's look at the poem sentence by sentence. I actually mean to stop when you see a period rather than stopping after each line.
I highlighted each sentence to make it easier for you to see what I mean. So the father (I assume) starts by saying he knows why his daughter gets up and paints. He mentions that she is drawing green birds, and then he says green birds are what a child sees. This makes me stop and think. Birds aren't green, so the daughter must be pretty young here. She is using her imagination and coloring the birds whatever color she wants.
Okay, let's look at the next stanza.
These two sentences look kind of long! So, the first sentence here mentions "chains of nerves and genes". That sounds confusing, but I am going to zero in on the "genes". When I think of genes, I think of genetics. When I think of genetics, I think of hereditary traits and things that you "inherit" from your parents. Perhaps his daughter inherited her talents from her parents. She was born with this talent, which explains the "some gifts are not given: you are delivered to them".
The speaker then says the daughter has been painting for a long time, and she will continue to paint once she grows up. The poet here uses some interesting words. He says "distant", "black fingers", "scratching", and "grey sky". Those don't sound very cheerful to me. I would make a note here saying "this sounds depressing!"
Let's move on.
The father says no one knows why, and he mentions he was lying when he said he knew. I stop here and think, "Why is he admitting he is lying about something? Where did he lie?" and I go back to the beginning of the poem. I see in the very first line he said "I know why, getting up in the cold dawn / you paint cold yellow houses / and silver trees." So he is saying that he doesn't actually know why she paints those things.
He then says that no one knows the force that drives people to paint a sky or bird. I think when artists decide what to paint or draw, it must be their imagination that motivates them?
I also see a weird metaphor here. The speaker says "when the sky is a surreal sea / in which you drown". I know a metaphor is a comparison between two unlike things, but there must be a reason the author chose to compare the sky to the sea. When I think of the sea, I think of an endless blue. It just goes on and on forever. I could see the connection between the sky and sea -- they are both (seemingly) endless.
Let's look at the last stanza.
I only really have one sentence here! He says he has love, pride, and sorrow for his child. Why would he be sad though? I think he is sad because his daughter is growing up. He mentioned before a few times "when the child / is old" and "maybe tomorrow", so there seems to be a little sadness related to aging. I think more specifically it could be called "bittersweet".
The parentheses seem like a strange way to end a poem. He mentions the birds changing colors again. Remember how we mentioned children see birds as green because of their imagination? Well, if we think about the daughter aging, it would make sense that she no longer paints the birds green. Now she is painting more realistically.
Answering Questions Using Analysis
Answering Questions Using Analysis
Okay, I know that seemed like a lot of steps to analyze poetry. Let's see how this analysis can help us answer the questions for this poem.
The first step of answering a question is identifying what the question is asking. We need to find an example of personification and it has to make a somber mood. What does somber mean?
The dictionary says: "dark or dull in color or tone; gloomy."
Let's look at all of these lines. I like to only look at two answer choices at a time.
Lines 3 through 5
versus
Lines 9 and 10
Well, lines 3 through 5 don't really look like there is any personification, but I'm not too sure... it does definitely seem more somber than lines 9 and 10. I am going to choose A over B. Let's look at C and D now.
Lines 17 through 19
versus
Lines 28 and 29
I remember that I made a note when I read lines 17 through 19! I had written that this sounded depressing, which arguably could be considered "somber". I also made a note about lines 28 and 29, but I called that "bittersweet" rather than "somber". I can also clearly see that there is no personification in those lines. I am going to choose C over D. Now I can compare A and C.
Lines 3 through 5
versus
Lines 17 through 19
I think the word "lonely" in lines 3 through 5 could make someone feel "somber", and I think the words "distant", "old", "black fingers", "scratching", and "grey sky" all sound like they could be somber as well. Let's see if I can find personification in either of these answers. Lines 3 through 5 tell us to look at the green birds -- we are human, so we can look. The lonely child "looking" at those houses and trees though... that is a painting! Maybe that could be personification? Lines 17 through 19 says the child will become old (yes, she's a human, that's fine), and that the trees will become black fingers scratching a grey sky... but wait! Trees can't "scratch" anything. That is definitely personification. I feel much more confident with lines 17-19 as my answer.
My final answer is c.
Let's look at the next question!
So this question wants us to look back at lines 20 and 21 and find out what they suggest about the speaker. This question is actually asking us to make an inference.
Let's look at lines 20 and 21 with the notes we made.
(Lines 20 and 21 are the ones highlighted in purple below)
My notes mention that the speaker admitted he was lying. I went back and figured out he was lying when he said he knew why she painted what she did. Let's look at my answer choices.
F says the father wants to be honest about how little he understand the creative impulse, and G says he does not want to mislead his daughter into believing that she has special talent.
Mislead his daughter into believing that she has special talent?! That sounds so mean! The title of the poem calls the daughter talented! G is out because it is wrong and it is mean!
H says he is not willing to risk hurting his daughter's self-esteem by telling her the truth about her work and J says he wants to admit his confusion about the sometimes-stifling life choices that creative people make.
Again we have a mean answer! H is basically saying that the daughter's work is so bad that the dad would hurt her feelings if he were honest. That can't be right! I will pick J over H.
Let's look at F and J.
F - doesn't understand creative impulse, J - confused about stifling life choices that creative people make.
What does stifling mean though? The dictionary says: making one feel constrained or oppressed. Well, looking back at my note... the father was lying and didn't actually know why she painted what she did. I don't think that has anything to do with being constrained or oppressed, so I would definitely pick F here.
The first thing we do, as usual, is make sure we know what the question is asking.
This question wants us to infer what these lines mean. I remember making a note about this because I thought it was a weird metaphor. My note said that the sky and sea both seem endless. I'm going to keep that in mind as I look at my options.
A vs B
A mentions magic and mysterious creatures... while the ocean may be full of weird creatures, the sky certainly isn't. I am going to pick B over A without even reading B!
C vs D
C mentions wild and unpredictable emotions and D mentions artists could get lost in their own creations. These both seem like possible answers... but, I don't like "unpredictable emotions". The sea could definitely represent unpredictable emotions, but the sky doesn't seem like an appropriate representation for that. I will pick D over C.
B vs D
I didn't read B before, so I am going to check it out now. B tells us the father is trying to save his daughter from a terrible future. The word "drown" does make me think that there could be a "terrible future", but the poem is about her becoming a more mature artist... he isn't telling her to stop being an artist, so I am going to say D is the best answer. I also like D because if the sky and sea are endless, it would probably be pretty easy to get lost!
Sometimes we see a word like "danger", and we go through the same thought process above. "Danger" doesn't always mean something terrible. In this sentence we could honestly replace "danger" with "chance" and it doesn't change the meaning of the sentence.
This question wants us to look at the FINAL line. That final line was the parentheses. It said:
"(while the birds change from green to blue to brown)."
I remember writing a note about this one too.
My note mentioned that the daughter used to paint green birds when she was a child, so she must be maturing and painting more realistic birds. Let's look at my answer choices.
F makes it seem like the daughter will stop being interested in painting and G talks about the art changing as the daughter grows. I think G makes much more sense than F.
H says the paintings will become more whimsical... but what does that mean? The dictionary says: playfully quaint or fanciful, especially in an appealing and amusing way. So her paintings will become more "amusing"? J says that the father thinks that his daughter will become a successful professional. I think that green birds are much more "whimsical" than brown birds, so I will not pick H. I think J makes more sense.
So, we are down to the final two. Will the daughter's art transform as she grows older, or will she become a successful professional artist? These are both good things for the daughter. I don't see any evidence, however, that the father thinks she will be a "successful professional", so I am going to go with G.
This is the last question for this poem! It wants us to identify a shift in the poem's focus. Let's look at the answer choices. Notice we are only looking at the first two stanzas.
A vs B
A - It changes from focusing on creative struggles to focusing on the daughter's eventual success as an artist.
B - Changes from daughter's paintings to father's paintings.
Well, the poem never seemed to mention the father's paintings. I remember that the speaker mentioned genes, so the daughter inherited her artistic talent... but the speaker never mentioned their own art. I will pick A over B.
C vs D
C - Changes from childhood to maturity
D - Changes from early success to questioning whether or not she should continue painting
We talked about how mean those answer choices were for number 20, and D reminds me of those answer choices. I don't think the speaker ever questions their daughter's ability, so I will pick C over D.
A vs C
I need to determine if the poem shifts from creative struggles to eventual success or if it shifts from childhood to maturity. We know that this poem does mention the daughter growing up quite often. The speaker mentions that the art from the daughter's childhood isn't realistic, but I wouldn't call that "creative struggles". What child doesn't draw unrealistic things? I am going to go with C.
Knowledge Check
Knowledge Check
Ready to test your knowledge? Use the link below to complete a practice test.
**You have seen these poems before... the STAAR test only has so many poems to choose from!**
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