Guide Lines To Write An Analysis

First step. Consider  the title and see what expectation it creates about the possible content of the poem.

 Es. Just considering the title I aspect the poem to be about something happening in spring, probably when spring as just started(“early spring”).

Second step. Read the poem at list twice in order to be sure to have understood what it is about: look for the new words ,be able to translate each line, try to find some connections between the content of the poem and the title.

Third step. Write the denotative analysis of the poem(in your own words say what the poem is about).

Es. The poem is expressed by a speaking voice in the first person, who says he or she heard the notes of nature while he was sitting in a grove. The speaking voice was in a  good mood, thinking of something pleasant where suddenly his or her mind was crossed by some sad thoughts.

Fourth step. Structure analysis (you describe component part of the poem and say what the function of each part is).

Es. The poem consists of ( is made up of, is arranged into, is organized into) six quatrain(stanza made up of four lines each) where the poet at first provides the reader with (to provide smb with) the description of a pleasant spring landscape and in the last part invites him/her to reflect on the relationship between man and nature.  Therefore the poem is partly descript and partly reflective (the reflection invited is anticipated in the refrain of the second stanza “what man has made of a man”.

Fifth step. Connotative analysis which consists in:

a.   Phonological level ( all that concerns sound devices: kind of v and consonance soun,kind of consonance sound, rhyme scheme, rhythm, assonance and  alliteration, pauses and punctuation, run-on lines and stop lines,  explain what is the effect they produce  and explain how  the choices  may add meaning  to the text.

b.   Semantic level. Consider Latinate or Anglo-Saxons words, semantic fields, metaphorical use  of words, are words recurrent? What verb tense are used? What is the effect created and explain how thechoices made add meaning to the text.

c.    Syntactical level : deviation from the norm. Punctuation.