21/09/10
Guidelines for textual analysis.

1st step:
- consider the title and see what expectation it creates;

- the possible content of the poem;
- just considering the title I expect the poem to be about something happening in spring, probably when the spring has just started (early spring).

2nd step:
- read the poem at least twice in order to be sure to have understood what it is about;
- look for the words in order to able to translate each lines;
- try to find some connection between the content of the poem and the title.

3rd step:
- write the denotative analysis of the poem (in your words say what the poem is about).
example:
The poem is expressed by a speaking voice, in the 1st person who says he or she heard the notes of Nature while he or she was sitting in a grove.
The speaking voice was in a good mood thinking of something pleasant when suddenly his or her was crossed by some sad thoughts.

4th step:
- write a structural analysis (describe the component) of the text and say what the function of each part is.
example:
The poem consists of (consists of= is made up=is arranged into) six quatrains, (a quatrain is a stanza consisting of four lines each where the poet at first provides the reader with the description of a pleasant spring landscape and in the last part invites him or her to reflect on the relationship between man and Nature.
Therefore the poem is partly descriptive and partly descriptive and partly reflective.
The reflection is anticipated in the refrain of the 2nd stanza "What man has made of man".

5th step: write a connotative analysis which consists in:
a) phonological level (all that concerns sound devices)
- kind of vowel sounds
- rhyme scheme
- rhythm
- assonances and alliterations
- pauses and punctuations
- run-on lines (enjambments)
- end-stopped lines
also explain what is the effect that produces and how the choices add meaning to the text.

b) semantic level
-consider the word choice, Latinate or Anglo Saxon words, semantic field, metaphorical use of words:
are words recurrent?
what verb tenses are used?
what is the effect created?
what meaning this choice add to the text?

c) syntactical level (word order)
- deviation from the norm;
- punctuation;
- pauses;
- inversion;
example:
"I have never seen" is not equal to "never did I see".
Visentin Luca