How to Analyse a Poem (Edexcel IGCSE English Literature): Revision Note

What does it mean to analyse a poem?

Analysing a poem means explaining what the poem means and how the poet creates that meaning. The poet’s methods are the choices the poet makes about language, form and structure.

Good poem analysis connects the two. Every time you point out a method, explain what that method adds to the poem’s meaning.

Why does poetry analysis matter in IGCSE English Literature?

Poetry analysis is a core skill in your Edexcel International GCSE English Literature exam, for three reasons:

• Poetry appears as both anthology poems and unseen poems, so you’ll use this skill more than once

• The same method works for any poem, so you don’t need a different approach for each one

• It builds the close reading that you also need for your plays and novels

This is the kind of poem analysis IGCSE examiners look for: a clear idea about the poem, supported by close comments on the poet’s methods.

How to analyse a poem step by step

Here is how to analyse a poem IGCSE students meet in Paper 1, in six steps. The steps work in this order because it’s much easier to explain a method once you know what the poem is about.

• Read the poem once for meaning, and sum up in one sentence what happens in the poem

• Work out who the speaker is, who they’re talking to and what situation they’re in

• Pick out the key images and word choices, and note what each one suggests. You can annotate directly on the poem for this step

• Look at the form, including the type of poem, the length of the lines and stanzas, and any rhyme

• Look at the structure, including where the poem changes in tone or focus, what is repeated and how the poem ends

• Decide on the poet’s big idea, and link that idea to the question you’ve been asked

If you’re unsure what to look for when analysing a poem, steps 2 to 5 give you a checklist of the speaker, the language, the form and the structure.

How to work out the speaker and voice

The speaker isn’t always the poet, so call the voice of the poem “the speaker” in your essays. For example, in ‘My Last Duchess’, Browning’s speaker is a duke who shows a visitor a painting of his dead wife and asks “Will’t please you sit and look at her?” The polite questions make the poem sound like a friendly conversation with a guest. When the speaker says “I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together”, the polite voice starts to break down, which suggests that he had his wife killed.

How do you work out what a poem means?

Start with the title, the ending and any shift, because poets often put the most important idea in one of these places. For example, the title ‘Blessing’ sounds like a poem about religion. However, Dharker ends with the lines “as the blessing sings / over their small bones”. The ending suggests the poem is about the people who rush to collect the water, especially the children, and how fragile their lives are in a place where “There never is enough water”.

How to analyse form and structure in poetry

You don’t need to name a metre to write well about form and structure. Notice the shape of the poem, such as a line that is much shorter than the others, rhyme that breaks its pattern, or a volta.

For example, ‘Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds’ is a sonnet. Shakespeare’s speaker first describes true love as “an ever-fixèd mark / That looks on tempests and is never shaken”. The poem then turns with the word “If”, when the speaker stakes all of his own writing on his claim. The final couplet reads “If this be error and upon me proved, / I never writ, nor no man ever loved”.

Enjambment can create a sudden change. In ‘Blessing’, Dharker writes “Sometimes, the sudden rush / of fortune”. The line break makes you pause on “rush” before “of fortune” arrives, so the reader feels the shock of the change.

What is the SMILE method for poetry analysis?

SMILE poem analysis uses an acronym to remind you what to look for. One common version is Structure, Meaning, Imagery, Language and Effect.

SMILE is useful for annotating, because it helps you check that you’ve noticed each type of method. However, writing one paragraph for each letter separates the poem’s meaning from its methods, so plan your paragraphs around your ideas about the poem, not around any fixed writing frame.

Analysing a poem you’ve studied and an unseen poem

The six steps work for both. With an anthology poem, you already know what the poem means, so spend more time on its methods. With an unseen poem, follow the steps in order, and expect your first reading to change as you read more closely.

What does a poem analysis look like?

Here is the six-step method applied to ‘Remember’ by Christina Rossetti.

First-read notes

• Meaning: the speaker asks the person she loves to remember her after she dies, then tells him it is better to forget her than to be sad

• Speaker: the speaker talks to the lover as “you”, in a gentle, pleading tone

• Language: death sounds peaceful at first, as “the silent land”, until “the darkness and corruption” near the end

• Structure: the poem is a sonnet, and it turns with the word “Yet” in line 9, when the speaker changes her mind

• Big idea: loving someone can mean wanting them to be happy, even if they forget you

A strong analytical paragraph

Rossetti presents love as something that can mean letting go. In the first eight lines, the speaker repeats the command “Remember me”, as if she needs her lover to hold on to her after death. She describes dying as going “far away into the silent land”, which makes death sound calm and distant. However, the poem turns with “Yet” in line 9, when the speaker tells her lover that if he forgets her, he should “not grieve”. The final lines say it is “Better by far you should forget and smile / Than that you should remember and be sad”. The contrast between “smile” and “sad” suggests the speaker’s love has become less selfish. Structurally, the turn at “Yet” matches her change of heart, because the commands of the opening become permission to forget.

How to write about the effect of a poetic technique

The effect of a technique is what the technique makes the reader think or feel. A strong comment on effect also links that effect to the poem’s meaning, so the examiner can see why the technique is significant.

What are the common mistakes when analysing a poem?

• Retelling the poem line by line: a summary leaves no room to analyse the poet’s methods, so it earns few marks

• Technique spotting: naming a technique without explaining its effect earns very little credit, because the Edexcel mark scheme rewards the “effect on the reader”

• Ignoring form and structure: writing only about language means you miss two of the three types of method you’re able to analyse

• Guessing about the poet’s life: inventing a link to the poet’s biography wastes time and can lead you to misread the poem

• Missing the shift: describing only the mood of the opening leaves your interpretation incomplete, and it may contradict the ending

Analysing poems in your Edexcel International GCSE English Literature exam

Edexcel assesses your poem analysis mainly through AO2. AO2 asks you to “analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects”. AO3 asks you to “explore links and connections between texts”.

Both poetry sections are on Paper 1 (Poetry and Modern Prose). Paper 1 is closed book, but the anthology poems are printed for you in the exam:

The anthology question also assesses AO3 (comparison). Section A doesn’t, so spend your time there on the poem’s meaning and methods. In Section B, half the marks are for AO3, so use the six steps to find links between the two poems. Poetry appears only on Paper 1. Paper 2, or the coursework option (Component 3), covers your modern drama and literary heritage texts.