How to understand a poem.
So many of us get bored and sometimes frightened at the site of poem due to our inability to understand.
Well , understanding a poem is not something that can be done almost immediately especially if you're not one of those that has been studying poems and its analysis over time.
Analysing a poem can be liken to a car whose parts are separated from each other so as to study the different component that makes up the car.
This maybe quiet tasking at first to a first timer but with time and constant practice ,it turns to be one of the easiest works to do.
Analysing a poem which you have never read before need not to be so tasking as most people assumes it if only you could follow the below steps.
When you read a poem over and over again,some questions will begin to pop up in your head.;
Who is the speaker in this poem?
What is the setting?
What is the form of the poem?
Who is the speaker in this poem? There is a very important thing that we should note; not all poem has the voice of the poet.
What do I mean by this?
A poet may write a poem but the voice is not necessarily that of the poet.
How do you know this?
It's quiet easy.
Sometimes poet uses imaginary persons. A poet may likely employ the use of first person,second person or third person pronoun.
Then try to think if there is any relationship or if there is anything that reveals or implies anything about the speaker.
Sounding abstract?馃馃馃
Common guys this is very easy to understand.
The next thing is the setting of the poem.
By setting I mean the place or the atmosphere in which the poem was written.
A poem can be set in the past,it can be in the present and in the future.
Knowing the settings of the poem brings you closer to understanding the poem.
The next to consider is the form of the poem.
A poem can take the form of a ballad
A free verse: a poem without any regular pattern,rhyme or metres.
A blank verse: a poem without a regular rhyme but with a regular metre.
A sonnet: poem of fourteen lines.
A villanelle form: poem of nineteen lines.
Still abstract? Don't worry ,I will come up with an example in my next post with one of my poems.
Stay tuned .....
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