How to Read Poetry for Beginners: A 3-Step Guide

Have you ever stared blankly at a poem and felt out of place trying to analyze it? Not known how to respond – or even who to respond to? Many people have experienced that exact sense of intimidation. Maybe it happened to you in a high school English class or when a friend mentioned a poem that meant something to them, but left you feeling lost. Either way, poetry can seem like a puzzle to solve – a secret code pointing to a hidden meaning.

What if we broke down that barrier? Reading poetry then becomes experience to feel, rather than a single “right answer” to arrive at. To help you connect with a poem, use this simple three-step process:

1. First: Read for sound and rhythm.
2. Second: Track word choice, imagery, and speaker.
3. Third: Analyze the architecture and shifts.

Step 1: Read with Your Ears

As a first step, you might read through the poem without trying to analyze it. Here, the idea of poetry as an oral tradition comes alive – particularly if you read the poem out loud. People have read poetry aloud for thousands of years!

In finding where to pause, look for punctuation such as periods and commas. Natural pauses do not always occur at line breaks. As you notice these pauses and rhythms as you read, note how they make you feel. This feeling develops before you dive deeper into a possible interpretation.

• Do frequent pauses arouse a sense of urgency or anticipation?
• Do shorter or less frequent pauses draw out a sense of calm?
• Does the lack of rhyme give the poem a more casual or carefree feel?

Try It Now: “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks

This short poem is the ultimate tool for practicing natural pauses and rhythm. Notice how the word “We” hangs at the end of the lines, forcing a jazzy, breathless pause when read aloud:

We real cool. We
Left school. We

Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon.

Step 2: Track Word Choice and Imagery

Your second time reading through the poem, focus on the word choice, imagery, and symbolism.

Perspective matters. When you come across the word “I,” realize that it does not always refer to the poet. It refers to the speaker of the poem. Think about the possible identity of the speaker and who the speaker might address through the poem (the “you”).

Going back to word choice and imagery, note any recurring words or images. Does a certain object, color, setting, weather condition, person, group, animal, or anything else come up multiple times? What emotions do these evoke? How might this connect to the feelings stirred up by the pauses and rhythms from the first reading in step one?

Try It Now: “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams

This 16-word poem provides a rich chance to look for anchor images. Its short length forces you to slow down and take in a single, vivid picture:

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens

Ask yourself: Why does “so much depend” on these everyday objects? What do the rain and the contrast of red and white bring to mind?

By the way, feel free to also look up the meanings of any unfamiliar words. The multiple meanings words sometimes take on can offer some insight.

Step 3: Analyze the Architecture and the “Turn”

As a third step, you might focus on the overall structure of the poem. Some poems take on the loose form of free verse. In this case, the poem does not adhere to any particular rhyme scheme or predetermined rhythm rules (aside from, of course, the natural rhythm we talked about before). Other poems to fit a particular form, such as sonnet.

Again, feel free to look up any unfamiliar forms. Do these boundaries, or the lack of boundaries, add to the overall feeling of the poem? Why might the poet have chosen them?

Aside from form, look for any shifts in the direction of the poem. This might show up as a change in perspective or mood. It often comes with a marker such as “but” or “yet.” Once again, how does this change, if it exists, make you feel?

Try It Now: “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost

This poem gives readers a perfect chance to search for a dramatic perspective shift. Watch how line 4 completely changes the direction of the piece:

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

The word “But” pivots the poem instantly from celebrating the beautiful gold of early spring to mourning how quickly time passes and decays.

Trust Your Own Interpretation

When it comes to poetry, one single right interpretation rarely exists – only one you can support with references to the poem itself, examples, and the emotions the poem brings up.

In some cases, background information may provide the context in which the poet wrote the poem, offering insight into their intending meaning. Either way, feel free to form your own interpretation. What does the poem remind you of in your own life?

As a bonus tip, it might help to not only analyze each line or stanza individually, but the overall context of the poem as a whole. How might the images or symbols in toward the beginning of the poem communicate with those at the end?

Oh, and have fun!