How to Analyze a Poem in 6 Steps

Step One: Read

Have your students read the poem once to themselves and then aloud, all the way through, at LEAST twice. Feel
free to play a recording of the poem or show a video of someone reading the poem, too. Afterward, talk to your
class about their first impression and immediate responses, both positive and negative. Also, discuss the poem's
structure and rhythm. For example, are the lines short and meant to be read slow? Or, does the poem move fast,
and if so, why?

Step Two: Title

Think about the title and how it relates to the poem. Titles often provide important clues about what is at the
heart of a piece. Likewise, a title may work ironically or in opposition to a poem. Questions to talk about and
consider are:

 Does the title immediately change how you think about it?
 Does the poem’s title paint a picture that gives a specific time frame, setting or action?

 Does it imply multiple possibilities?

Step Three: Speaker

Understanding the speaker is at the center of a poem may help the piece appear more tangible to students
because they’re able to imagine a person behind the language. Questions to consider are:

 Who “tells” the poem?

 Does the poem give any clues about the speaker’s personality, the point of view, age, or gender?

 Who is the speaker addressing?

 Does the speaker seem attached or detached from what is said?

Step Four: Mood and Tone

After talking about the speaker, it’s important to address the attitude or mood the poem is attempting to convey.
Some can be brooding or grieving; others may have a song-like cadence and rhyme. Discuss the attitude each
speaker or characters give off. Moreover, talk about if there places where the poem's tone may switch and why.
This is also a good time to talk syntax and the effect certain words have on us.

Step Five: Paraphrase

Since you discussed figurative language, mood, setting, and speaker—there’s no better time than to apply what
you’ve learned line-by-line. Paraphrasing may seem pretty self-explanatory. However, keep in mind this is not
about skipping lines or condensing. Instead you should lead students line-by-line and translate figurative
language or unclear phrases into simpler terms that will not get in the way of analyzing the poem later on.

Step Six: Theme

Last but not least, it's time to get to the core of what the poem is about by identifying its theme. The theme of a
poem relates to a universal truth, issue, or conflict. To determine the theme, look over all of your analysis and
connect the dots:

 What is the subject?

 Who is the speaker?

 What situation are they in?

  How do they feel about the subject?

 What is the mood?

10 Classic Children’s Poems Everyone Should Read

What are the best children’s poems in all of English literature? Every reader will have their
own firm favourites that bring back fond memories of those carefree and innocent days, but
we’ve tried to select ten of the very finest classic poems for children for this post. For classic
nursery rhymes, check out our pick of the best children’s nursery rhymes in a separate post.

1. Lewis Carroll, ‘Jabberwocky’. Often mistakenly called ‘The Jabberwocky’ (the

Jabberwock is the monster, so the poem is ‘Jabberwocky’), this poem first appeared in
Lewis Carroll’s 1871 follow-up book to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Through
the Looking-Glass. Focusing on the slaying of a fearsome monster, the titular
Jabberwock, the poem is renowned for the inventiveness of its language: it gave
us almost literally dozens of new words, including some now in common use: the
words ‘chortle’ and ‘galumph’.

2. Edward Lear, ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’. This charming poem about the love story
of the owl and the pussycat – unlikely partners, perhaps – has been interpreted in
various ways (is the cat the female in the relationship?), but perhaps this is all beside
the point. What matters is the wonderful picture of a fantasy world Lear creates in the
poem. Like ‘Jabberwocky’, ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’ is a classic of nonsense
literature.

3. Robert Louis Stevenson, ‘From a Railway Carriage’. Taken from Stevenson’s 1884
volume A Child’s Garden of Verses, this Victorian classic describes a train journey and
the fast-moving panoramic view witnessed from the train window.

4. Hilaire Belloc, ‘Matilda’. One of Belloc’s cautionary rhymes, which in many ways
prefigure Roald Dahl’s writing for children, ‘Matilda’ is a classic children’s poem
with a very dark subject: the titular heroine, because of the lies she tells, ends up
being burned to death. But the poem has a light, humorous tone, despite its cautionary
nature, since Belloc thought that making children laugh could also make them think.

5. A. Milne, ‘Buckingham Palace’. This poem by the author of Winnie-the-Pooh is a

great place to begin introducing children to poetry: each stanza begins with the same
two lines, and ends with the same two words. It’s about Christopher Robin, owner of
Winnie the Pooh, going to the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace because
Alice is marrying one of the guards.

6. T. S. Eliot, ‘Macavity, the Mystery Cat’. As well as writing such modernist poems as
The Waste Land and ‘The Hollow Men’, T. S. Eliot also wrote a book of nonsense
verses about cats for his godchildren. (Eliot himself owned numerous cats.) Old
Possum’s Book of Practical Cats was later turned into the Andrew Lloyd-Webber
musical Cats. This poem follows Macavity, who is loosely based on Professor
Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes stories (of which Eliot was a devoted fan). He’s a
 master of disguise, a ‘cat-burglar’ in the most literal sense of the term, and a criminal
who covers his (paw-)tracks with skill. According to Stephen Tunnicliffe, ‘Macavity’
is particularly good reading for 11- and 12-year-olds.

7. Allan Ahlberg, ‘Please Mrs Butler’. This poem appeals to both children and teachers
alike, thanks to its structure: the odd stanzas are spoken by a particularly talkative
child complaining about what other children are doing, and the even stanzas comprise
the teacher Mrs Butler’s responses to the child’s requests, with mounting frustration.
Anyone who’s endured a particularly fraught and annoying class at school (and let’s
face it, which of us hasn’t?) will find something that strikes a chord here.

8. Michael Rosen, ‘Chocolate Cake’. Michael Rosen is one of the leading poets for
children writing today, and ‘Chocolate Cake’ is enormous fun. He starts off by
discussing his love of chocolate cake as a young boy, and how one night he crept
downstairs to eat a bit of the chocolate cake in the kitchen – and ended up wolfing
down the whole lot.

9. Roald Dahl, ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. One of Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes – his verse
retellings of classic fairy tales – this one is particularly good fun. Dahl offers us not
the meek Little Red Riding Hood of nineteenth-century fairy stories but a plucky,
resourceful, and brave girl who pulls a pistol out of her underwear to protect herself
from the Big Bad Wolf.

10. Maya Angelou, ‘Life Doesn’t Frighten Me’. A poem about overcoming fear and not
allowing it to master you, ‘Life Doesn’t Frighten Me’ is the perfect poem for children
if you want to teach them about self-belief and the importance of facing their fears.
Angelou lists a number of things, from barking dogs to grotesque fairy tales in the
Mother Goose tradition, but comes back to her mantra: ‘Life doesn’t frighten me at
all’. We’re especially fond of Angelou’s image of walking the ocean floor and never
having to breathe (a fine metaphor – though in reality, don’t try doing this without
breathing apparatus).