I have been a Middle-to-High School Math Tutor for about a decade now. My experience lies mostly in Algebra, Trigonometry, and Calculus. Why on Earth should I be trusted to provide advice about poetry? The tips I’m here to provide are for people like me who still have to pass their English classes, Literature classes, and the Reading portions of the ACT and SAT that include poetry as required reading. I didn’t just survive those classes despite my talents lying elsewhere, but I figured out how to succeed in them. Poetry has paradoxically the least and most rules for how to write and interpret it, depending on who your teacher is. I can’t help you write poetry, but I have 3 helpful tips for interpreting poetry that helped me overcome the stylistic differences between poetry and math that were getting in the way of passing English class.
- How to Identify Themes and Motifs
This was the hardest part for me at first, until I realized these are basically the “formulas” for poetry. In math, you have to be able to look at the problem at a glance and determine which of the many rules you have learned actually apply. The same goes for poetry.
A theme doesn’t just have to be surface level, like a poem about summer talking about the beach. It is extremely useful to imagine the most metaphorical version of a theme, since the metaphorical is more open to interpretation than the literal. Maybe that beach poem is written entirely in the past tense and uses happy language. That could hint at themes of nostalgia: a longing for better days long past. Now you can move away from literally describing the poem and talk more about human experience and emotion. Be sure to provide evidence from the text to support your claims, and quote it properly.
Motifs are the more literal component of poetry. They are the words and ideas that pop up throughout the poem but aren’t necessarily the theme. Going back to the hypothetical beach poem, maybe the poet mentions the color yellow often. Maybe no other color is brought up, which would be odd since the beach has so much blue to talk about. It could be said that there is a “yellow” motif in the poem. Now you can talk about what that means. Let your imagination run wild with what the color yellow might mean to the poet. Is it meant to remind the reader how bright their world used to be? Does it evoke feelings of a warm, but not overbearing sun? Is there something sinister about the color yellow that is undercutting the happy themes? You can fill multiple paragraphs answering these questions if you need to.
- Reading the Poem One Stanza at a Time
As you read a poem, it is easy to get overwhelmed. There is so much to keep track of because poems often try to say the most while writing the least (for an example of this, just look at any famous haiku). Some people try to go word-by-word when they analyze poetry, but for my sanity I tend to stick to the level of the stanza (each line of a poem). Each stanza likely connects to the ones around it, and offers a specific meaning beyond the rhyme scheme. There is likely to be something useful to compare or contrast from one stanza to another. Also, if you’re quoting anything about a poem, a stanza is a good measure of how long that quote should be. You don’t want a long quote to overcrowd all of the insightful things you have to say about the poem, but you do want enough evidence to support those wonderful insights. The stanza is the perfect sized chunk to break a poem into for both goals.
- Translating Ye Olde English
William Shakespeare. Widely regarded as one of the greatest poets of human history, and the struggle point of every English class his works appear in. We owe much to Shakespeare’s creativity, like the invention of the word, “lonely”. But he also used the word “fardles”, so I don’t know how much I trust him.
Shakespeare and poets like him weren’t bound to the English language of their day, so they certainly aren’t bound by our modern English either. If you are interested in linguistics, or are passionate about the historical progression of English, reading old poetry is a joy. For me, it was a puzzle to solve.
The first problem: what do these words mean? Go through the poem, circling or writing down words you don’t know. Get the definition in modern English, and you’re ready to move on.
Next, unscramble any strange sentences. Since poetry is closer to the art of English than the science, it might not follow the rules of English grammar. Try your best to rephrase those parts of a poem in a way that makes more sense. While you’re there, replace all of the old, forgotten words with your translations. You now have your own, modern translation of a historical text that makes sense to you. In fact, discussing how you translated that part could be useful context for your essay.
For the people who – like me – struggled through poetry units in class at first, these tips will improve your grade. For those lucky enough to have a knack for poetry, I hope you found something here helpful. If after reading this you still have questions about English or any other class, do not hesitate to schedule a session with College Tutors. We all want to see you succeed.