How to analyze poetry

To analyze poems, whether unseen or comparing with another poem, you can follow this order:

Surface Meaning
- Basically, what is the poem about? For example, Mother and Distance is about the person in the poem moving house, and his mother helps him move. Don't get into to much detail YET, give a general meaning so that the examiner knows you understand the key theme of the poem.

Language 
- Here, talk about how certain words and phrases are used to specifically make the reader feel a certain way, or get across a certain point, and use quotes to illustrate the point you are making. For example, you might say that in Havisham the poet uses the word 'Spinster' because it isn't an appealing word, reflecting how she feels old, ugly and rejected. Remember - …