Poetry is not just an intellectual activity; poetry is about feeling. Poetry is not just meant to be read; poetry is also meant to be responded to. Responding to a poem means getting emotionally involved with the poem. This is how you uncover what the poem means to you. Poetry reading, then, is a subjective emotional experience. There is no right or wrong way to read and interpret a poem. There are, however, tools that literary scholars use to analyze poems in order to find their deeper meaning. These are the same tools that poets use to convey the poem's deeper meaning. These tools are called the elements of poetry and you will learn more about them below.
Mood: The feeling a poem creates for the reader
Metaphor: An implied comparison between two objects or ideas
Tone: The attitude a poet takes towards his or her subject
Alliteration: The repetition of the beginning consonant in two or more words near one another in the line of a poem
Refrain: The repetition of one or more phrases or lines, usually at the end of each stanza (similar to the chorus in a song)
Rhyme Scheme: The pattern in which the end rhyme occurs
Simile: A direct comparison between two objects or ideas that uses the words "like" or "as"
Stanza: Lines in a poem grouped together as a set
Personification: Giving human traits or characteristics to animals or inanimate objects
Imagery: Representation of the five senses: sight, taste, touch, sound and smell. Creates mental images about a poem's subject.
Assonance: The repetition of a vowel sound in two or more words in a line of poetry.
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