Close Reading Poetry

What does it mean to “close read”?

Read CLOSELY (read and re-read) Your goal isn’t just to READ, it’s to

UNDERSTAND what you’re reading Annotate

Write your thoughts on the page (questions, connections, etc.)

A Red, Red RoseBy Robert Burns

O my Luve's like a Red, Red RoseThat's newly sprung in June:O my Luve's like the melodieThat's sweetly play'd in tune!

I see the word ‘like’ so there may be a simile.

Is it comparing something? Yes—love to a rose.

And love to a melodie….

Why did the author choose these comparisons?

What do the comparisons say about love? What could this mean?

MetaphorsBy Sylvia Plath

I'm a riddle in nine syllables,An elephant, a ponderous house,A melon strolling on two tendrils.O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!This loaf's big with its yeasty rising.Money's new-minted in this fat purse.I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf.I've eaten a bag of green apples,Boarded the train there's no getting off.

The poem is entitled “Metaphors” so I’m guessing I will find some!

She says she is a riddle, elephant and melon.Why does she compare herself to these? What is She saying about herself?

Why does she say she is a “means” a “stage” and “a cow in calf”?

Why “green” apples?

The Trainby Emily Dickinson  

I like to see it lap the miles,And lick the valleys up,And stop to feed itself at tanks;And then, prodigious, step

She says the train is doing things that humans do. This must be personification.

“Lap the miles” “lick the valleys up”“Stop to feed”

Why is she having the train do these things? What pictureis she trying to create?

The Lost PilotBy James Tate

Your face did not rot like the others—the co-pilot,   for example, I saw him

yesterday. His face is corn- mush: his wife and daughter,   the poor ignorant people, stare

as if he will compose soon. He was more wronged than Job.   But your face did not rot

like the others—it grew dark, and hard like ebony;

People’s face don’t rot! Maybe this is an exaggeration or hyperbole.

A “corn-mush” face must be another example of hyperbole.

Why was the author exaggerating what was happening to these faces?

Cynthia in the SnowBy Gwendolyn Brooks

It SUSHES.It hushesThe loudness in the road.It flitter-twitters,And laughs away from me. It laughs a lovely whiteness,And whitely whirs away,To be,Some otherwhere,Still white as milk or shirts.So beautiful it hurts.

I wonder why the poet capitalizedall the letters in “SUSHES”?

It is interesting how “SUSHES” and “hushes” are right after each other. They rhyme and make an interesting sound when spoken.

This seems to be onomatopoeia! Is it somewhere else in the poem?

“Flitter-twitters” sounds like a sound word, but I don’t think snow makes that sound. What could make thatsound?

A light exists in spring by Emily Dickinson

A light exists in SpringNot present on the yearAt any other period—When March is scarcely here

A color stands abroadOn solitary fieldsThat science cannot overtakeBut human nature feels.

It waits upon the lawn,It shows the furthest treeUpon the furthest slope we know;It almost speaks to me.

Of course light exists in spring?That seems obvious. Maybe it meansSomething else. I’ll keep reading.

Here it says the light isn’t about science (like daylight) but something humans feel.

The light must stand for something else—like a symbol!

It talks about the light being “abroad”,“solitary”, on “the furthest tree” and speakingto her. It’s like something she is hoping for!