How to READ a Poem

A young poet I know suggested that I add a section on finding your voice as a poet. It’s a good topic idea, because it’s something all poets go through and continue to go through throughout their careers.

But there’s only one answer: study the voices of other poets. Reading different poets is how you find your voice.

Maybe you’re already doing that— awesome! But if you struggle with reading poetry, this section is for you.

This is the Quick and Dirty way to read a poem. It’s not a how-to for close readings, and if you’re in school, it may not be how your teacher wants you to read. This is just a method to make it a little easier on your own.

The Short Version (tl;dr)

As a summary, and in a pinch, remember SIN: speaker, images, nouns.

  • The speaker is the voice doing the talking in the poem. What do you think about them? Clear? Likable? Annoying? Why?

  • Images are the sensory details— they tend to carry meaning in a poem. What do you associate with the images?

  • And nouns are people, places or things. They give you the most literal info about what’s happening.

The Long Version

First Read

  • Do not worry about “getting” or understanding the poem. The first read is all about vibes. What did it feel like? Happy? Sad? Weird?

  • Check the obvious clues first. What’s the title, does it give useful info? Is there an epigraph? Does the poet repeat something? Is there a big central idea? Is historical context important?

Second Read (out loud)

  • This is the read where you look for that poetic bag of tricks. What sound effects are happening? What images are happening? Look for metaphor, simile, rhythm, alliteration, all that jazz! Now you may say, I’m a little rusty at all that. Here to help!

  • Ask yourself a second time: what’s the vibe here? Do the sounds and images back that up?

Third Read

  • This is the read for meaning. Start out basic. What is the poem literally saying? Go line by line. If the poem uses sentences, also read sentence by sentence.

  • Now maybe the poem is REALLY non-literal and going sentence by sentence does not clarify anything for you. Don’t worry! In that case, go image by image, like it’s a dream. Trust the associations that arise.

  • If you feel stuck here, just look at the literal language. What are the nouns doing? What’s up with the verbs? Is the punctuation giving you clues?

  • What poetic techniques that you had identified back up the meaning you see?

If All Else Fails

  • Just keep reading it. Let it marinate in your mind.

  • There is nothing wrong with asking for help, from Google, from the author (if you know them), from a teacher, from a friend.

Let’s Try It!

Here’s the most famous of John Donne’s “Holy Sonnets,” titled by its first line: “Batter my heart, three-person’d God.”

Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you

As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;

That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend

Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.

I, like an usurp'd town to another due,

Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;

Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,

But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue.

Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov'd fain,

But am betroth'd unto your enemy;

Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,

Take me to you, imprison me, for I,

Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,

Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

First Read

  • Ok, the speaker is straight up addressing GOD, he seems pretty serious and intense! He says “I” and “me” a lot, and uses a lot of violent images. Hardcore.

  • The “you” in the poem is God, good to know.

  • Clues: this is a religious poem, specifically Christian. It’s also from a different time period, judging from the language, so we can assume contemporary values and meanings may not apply. This is a sign to cut yourself some slack and look up words that are weird to you! (By the way, John Donne was born in 1572 and is a poet of the British Renaissance.)

Second Read (Aloud)

  • Donne is pulling out all the stops! He’s using meter and rhyme (this is a sonnet) in addition to a lot of short, monosyllabic words right next to each other (“knock, breathe, shine, and seek,” for example).

  • The images here are forceful. The speaker says he is like a captured town, and that he cannot be chaste unless God “ravishes” him. So whatever is going on, the speaker feels REALLY strongly.

Third Read

  • So what’s actually happening? Time to look at sentences. I’ll count semicolons as the end of a thought.

  • “Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you

    As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;”

    So here the speaker says “Beat at my heart, Christian God, because right now you are only gently knocking, and that isn’t enough.”

  • That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend

    Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.

    Now he says: overpower me so that I can stand up (a contradiction), and use physical force to make me a new person.

  • I, like an usurp'd town to another due,

    Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;

    The speaker says he is like a captured town, and he is trying to let God in, but is not having any luck.

  • Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,

    But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue.

    Reason should defend me, since it is God’s representative, but reason is unreliable or captured.

  • Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov'd fain,

    But am betroth'd unto your enemy;”

    I love you, God, and I’d like to be loved back, but I’m promised to your enemy, presumably Satan.

  • Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,

    Take me to you, imprison me, for I,

    Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,

    Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

    Untie me from this union with evil and embrace me, lock me up even. I won’t be free until I am your captive (another contradiction), and I shall never be pure unless you seduce/rape me.

  • So! This poem is saying literally that the speaker wants God to besiege and capture him. Really violent way of talking to God. Why does the speaker make this request? Because he believes he is too weak to embrace God on his own.

  • Can you identify the language that supports my claim?

Takeaway

  • Yes I chose a hard one. I hope this will make more contemporary poetry seem easy!

  • If you take away one thing, please let it be that it’s ok not to understand a poem on the first read. Totally normal. Be patient with yourself!

  • Did you love this? Check him out: John Donne at The Poetry Foundation. By the way, if you’ve heard the phrase “ask not for whom the bell tolls,” that’s Donne. It’s from one of his sermons.

  • Did you hate this? Valid! What matters is that you can say why.