Poetry analysis

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Poetry analysis is the process of investigating the form of a poem, content, structural semiotics, and history in an informed way, with the aim of heightening one's own and others' understanding and appreciation of the work.^[1]

The words poem and poetry derive from the Greek poiēma (to make) and poieo (to create). One might think of a poem as, in the words of William Carlos Williams,^[2] a "machine made of words."^[3] A reader analyzing a poem is akin to a mechanic taking apart a machine in order to figure out how it works.

There are many different reasons to analyze poetry. A teacher might analyze a poem in order to gain a more conscious understanding of how the poem achieves its effects, in order to communicate this to their students. A writer learning the craft of poetry might use the tools of poetry analysis to expand and strengthen their own mastery.^[4] A reader might use the tools and techniques of poetry analysis in order to discern all that the work has to offer, and thereby gain a fuller, more rewarding appreciation of the poem.^[5] Finally, the full context of the poem might be analyzed in order to shed further light on the text, looking at such aspects as the author's biography and declared intentions, as well as the historical and geographical contexts of the text (though Formalism would deny any significant analytical value for context).