Close reading
Close reading
Analyzing a poem can feel intimidating ever since school: it seems you have to find the right answer that only the teacher knows. In reality, close reading is just a handful of questions a reader asks the text and themselves. In this section we offer a sequence of those questions and a table of the main metrical feet. They work for any classic poem, and all you need is the text and a pencil. They work just as well for poems written in English.
Close reading doesn't take a poem apart. Afterward it sounds clearer, like a melody you have finally made out.
Reading a poem closely: six questions to ask the text
Who is speaking?
Work out whose voice the poem uses: the first person, a character, or something like an outside observer. Don't be quick to equate that voice with the author.
If the voice is addressing someone, note who: a friend, nature, the speaker themselves. The addressee changes the tone of the whole poem.
What is the meter?
Mark the stresses in two or three lines and see how they alternate. The table below will help you name the meter and, more importantly, feel its pace.
How are the rhymes and stanzas built?
Note which lines rhyme and how many parts the blank lines divide the poem into. The pattern of rhymes and stanzas is the poem's architecture.
Which words are unclear?
Write down archaic words and unfamiliar details and look them up in the notes or a dictionary. A single misunderstood word can shift the meaning of an entire stanza.
Where is the turn?
Find the place where the tone, the subject or the direction of thought changes. In many poems this turn comes in the last stanza or right at its start.
What changed by the end?
Compare the opening and the ending: the mood, the picture, the thought. Put that change into your own words. That is your reading, short and honest.
Metrical feet
| Meter | Stress pattern | How it sounds |
|---|---|---|
| Iamb | unstressed, stressed | A steady step rising toward the stress; close to natural speech and suited to both reflection and storytelling. |
| Trochee | stressed, unstressed | Energetic, with the beat at the start of each foot; often reminiscent of a song, a counting rhyme or a dance tune. |
| Dactyl | stressed, unstressed, unstressed | A broad, unhurried stride that fades after the stress; sounds solemn or drawn out. |
| Amphibrach | unstressed, stressed, unstressed | A measured rocking with the stress in the middle of the foot; well suited to ballads and stories in verse. |
| Anapest | unstressed, unstressed, stressed | A run-up to the stress at the end of the foot; sounds insistent, excited, sometimes headlong. |
- History
The life dates of four classic poets, the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, and how the sound of Russian verse changed over time.
- People
The classic poet as an example, the annotator, the translator, the reciter, the librarian and the fellow reader: who helps a text reach you.
- Collections
Three paths through the magazine: for a first encounter with poetry, for reading aloud, and for learning poems by heart.
- Events
Poetry evenings, lectures on verse, slow-reading clubs and anniversaries, plus how to check an event listing.
- Articles
The magazine's six topics, from meter and rhythm to legal ways to find a text, plus the catalogue of English-language articles.
Sources
- Reference works on verse theory
- Philosofiya editorial materials
The poets' life dates and the facts about the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum come from reference sources; everything else is described in general terms, without reference to any particular edition. Check with the organizers for the times of poetry evenings, lectures and reading-room hours.