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Topic 2 of 6 · Form 5

Poetry: close critical analysis

Identify speaker, situation, addressee, tone and shifts; analyse imagery, sound and rhythm (metre, stress, caesura, enjambment), form (sonnet, ode, elegy, villanelle, free verse) and structure (stanza patterns, volta, openings and endings).

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Approach

Identify speaker, situation, addressee, tone and shifts; analyse imagery, sound and rhythm (metre, stress, caesura, enjambment), form (sonnet, ode, elegy, villanelle, free verse) and structure (stanza patterns, volta, openings and endings).

Writing about poems

Make an argument about meaning, show how techniques create it, and connect to the poet's wider concerns and contexts.

Comparing poems

Integrate comparison throughout – discuss how two poems treat a theme, using comparative connectives.

Worked example: Comment on "the hour stood still and dropped its keys".

Personification presents time as a careless figure; "dropped its keys" suggests loss of control and an inability to return, creating a mood of stillness and regret.

Exam tip: Read the poem aloud in your head – rhythm and sound often reveal tone.

Check yourself

  1. What is a villanelle?
  2. What is a volta?
  3. How does enjambment affect pace?
Show answers
  1. A 19-line poem with two repeating refrains and an ABA rhyme scheme.
  2. A turn in thought or tone, often in a sonnet.
  3. It carries the reader on without pause, often creating urgency or fluidity.
Next topicProse: the novel and short stories

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