Analysing Poetry

How to: Analyse Poetry

Whether you enjoy writing poetry, reading poetry or you are simply a meter junkie, analysis is a crucial element to succeeding in the literary field. To me, poetry is often the most subjective composition and you can find yourself interpreting a piece of poetry completely differently to perhaps the poet or someone else.

Here, I will look at the basic steps of analysis and how to enhance the ways in which we can interpret certain works. Below, I will explain the steps through the use of a worked example- ‘The Passionate Shepherd to His Love’ by Christopher Marlowe.

1.       Read the poem and establish your initial impressions

I think before even beginning to pick apart any literary works, it is so important to read them for enjoyment first. After reading, I like to mind-map/bullet point any associations I make with the poem and perhaps pick out certain words that I feel define the themes of the poem and brain-storm some connotations:

Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove,
That Valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon the Rocks,
Seeing the Shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow Rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing Madrigals.

And I will make thee bed of Roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of Myrtle;

A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty Lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;

A belt of straw and Ivy buds,
With Coral clasps and Aber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.

The Shepherds' Swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May-morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me, and be my love.

(Accessed via https://www.poetryfoundation.org/)

Themes of the pastoral are established- it seems as though the speaker is idealising the pastoral setting (‘Melodious birds’, ‘cap of flowers’, ‘May-morning’ (alluding to May Day? -a Pagan origin)

·         It is clear that the speaker is addressing his beloved- they are trying to persuade the listener to join them in the more simplistic, pastoral setting (‘Come live with me’, ‘we will sit upon the Rocks’, ‘I will make thee beds of Roses’)

·        Nature references/imagery- does the speaker believe their love for the listener is also natural and therefore should be able to flourish in this setting? Could it be implying that other settings corrupt love? (‘thousand fragrant posies’, ‘Shepherd’s Swains shall dance and sing’)

2.       Focus on the linguistic devices used

After coming to terms with the general gist of the poem, you can start to sharpen your focus on the language analysis. This could include looking at the semantic field and trying to interpret why this particular choice of words has been used, to picking out specific devices that the poet has used and explaining the effects created along with the poet’s intentions.

·         The speaker uses several menial verbs to highlight the simplicity of his request to the listener in order to court them (‘live’, ‘sit’, ‘feed’, ‘pull’)

·         Marlowe uses references that could be carry sexual undertones (‘beds of Roses’, ‘pleasures’ ‘delight’) – perhaps the speaker is more lustful than romantically-orientated and his persuasive request is purely for his own benefit?

·         The speaker uses blazon (a device where the speaker praises another person by singling out different parts of their body using metaphors) to address his lover (‘A belt of straw and ivy buds’, ‘Coral clasps and Amber studs’)

·         The speaker uses the conditional tense in the final stanza which is shifts from his more imperative tone (‘If these delights thy mind may move, / Then live with me, and be my love.’) – the speaker only wants the lover to live with him if she is moved by all the delights he has to offer. Perhaps this is strengthening the speaker’s relationship with the natural world i.e. He wants his lover to join him in his idyllic setting with nature because he feels she is deserving

3.       Analyse structure and form

Once you have looked at the language analysis, you can then start to "get to grips" with the structure and form. This will then help you to draw links in regards to the language choices of the poet- are any words being accented in the meter and what effect does this have? What is the purpose of the rhyme scheme and how does this affect the reader's own interpretation? Every time you spot some structural evidence, try to ask yourself why it has been used and how it contributes to the meaning of the poem.

·         The meter of the poem is almost consistently iambic tetrameter (four feet within a line, one-foot comprising of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable) with a few exceptions- the meter gives the poem an almost melodious texture perhaps mirroring the simplicity of the pastoral and the lives that the speaker and listener could live

·         This meter means certain words are emphasised such as ‘live’, ‘love’, ‘we’, prove’ – the poem is constantly trying to bind both the speaker and listener together in this pastoral setting

·         Marlowe uses a trochee in the second line of the second stanza (a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable) on the word ‘seeing’ – this creates texture within the rhyme but also perhaps places emphasis on the line as it deviates from the original meter. We can also see assonance and alliteration being used in this line which contain soft ‘s’ and ‘f’ sounds – perhaps this line epitomises what the speaker wants if he is to pursue his lover in the pastoral setting

·         The rhyme scheme is a consistent AABB structure – as a reader, I feel this enhances the complete serenity and simplicity of the life the speaker is trying to create for the beloved 

4.       Put it all together

After doing all the hard analysis, I think it is really important to take a more perceptive approach and put all the elements of the poem together in order to draw conclusions. A simple way to do this is to try and write your own summary of the poem. Not only will this consolidate your findings but it is also a useful way to create a bank of poetry summaries which you can quickly refer to in the future.

·         ‘The Passionate Shepherd to His Love’ is a piece of love poetry written by Christopher Marlowe in which the speaker aims to bind the pastoral setting, his relationship with nature, and the beloved together by attempting to persuade the listener to ‘Come live with me [him] and be my [his] love’. The speaker reels off all the things the listener can experience if they join him in this romantic setting, supposedly away from the corrupt one the beloved is already in. The excessiveness of all his ‘delights’ becomes his main argument for persuasion until the last stanza where the speaker uses the conditional – he only wants the lover to join him if she is truly moved by all the things he has to offer.

5.       Cross referencing and further reading

If after your analysis you are not completely satisfied, perhaps you can research the poet’s inspirations for the poem and see if it enhances your findings. It may also be useful to find any historical references to any words used in the poem.

I encountered Marlowe's poem after listening to a podcast by Melvyn Bragg in which he discusses Pastoral Literature (you can listen to it here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003c1cs). This helped me to draw upon some of the contextual factors that may have influenced Marlowe's poem, such as the escapist notions of pastoral settings in the face of a corrupt and urbanised world.