Poetry — What to Look For
Identify and explain how literary devices create layers of meaning in texts including poetry.
A poem you have never seen before is not a test of whether you like poetry. It is a test of whether you have a method. Here is one that works on any poem.
Method
Read it twice before you write anything
Once for what happens. Once for how it is written. Trying to do both at once is why poems feel impossible.
Say what it is about in one sentence
If you cannot, you are not ready to analyse it. Plain words are fine — someone is remembering a person who has gone.
Never say ‘the poet uses imagery’
Name the actual device — metaphor, simile, personification — and quote the words.
Every observation needs an effect
Spotting a device earns almost nothing. Saying what it makes the reader see or feel earns the mark.
Worked example
e.g. How does the poet show that the speaker misses their grandmother? (3)
- First read — what is happening, and who is speaking?A speaker is describing an empty kitchen.
- Say the subject in one plain sentence.Someone is remembering a person who has died.
- Second read — underline anything unusual. Odd words, repeats, short lines.The word “still” appears three times.
- Name one device you can see clearly.Repetition.
- Quote it, briefly.“still warm, still there, still hers”
- Say the effect — what it makes the reader feel or understand.Repeating “still” makes the loss sound recent and unfinished, as if the speaker keeps checking.
- Do this for as many points as there are marks.Three marks means three device-quote-effect chains.
Practice
The four things that go wrong with unseen poems.
1
A learner writes: The poet uses lots of imagery and good describing words to make it interesting. Rewrite it.
AnswerThe poet describes the kettle as “still warm”, a small domestic detail which suggests the grandmother has only just left the room — making the loss feel recent rather than distant.
2
A poem has no rhyme and no obvious pattern. Does that mean there is nothing to say?
AnswerNo. The absence is a choice. Free verse without a pattern often mirrors speech or disorder — say so, and say what it makes the poem feel like.
3
Why read the poem twice before writing?
AnswerThe first read is for meaning, the second for technique. Trying to do both at once means you spot devices without knowing what they are doing.
4
You do not understand a line at all. What do you do?
AnswerLeave it and work with the lines you do understand. A confident answer about three clear images beats a confused answer about the hardest line in the poem.