- Introduce the author’s full name, the title of the poem, and offer your topic sentence which signals you are responding to the prompt for that poem.
- Give a brief 1-2 sentence overview of the work–what is it about?
- Move into your argument and introduce your evidence
- Cite AT LEAST 5 lines/phrases/words from the poem
- Use elements of poetry as needed in your analysis–PUT THESE IN BOLD
- speaker and tone
- figurative speech (metaphor, simile, synechdoce, symbol, personification)
- sound
- rhyme
- rhythm and meter
- diction and syntax
- theme
- When you cite, use a forward slash to separate lines and cite the lines in ( )
- He seems to reject “old time-covered/History” (7-8) in favor of “Mythology” (11).
- Use the key words in your topic sentence–stay focused
- Use a formal tone
- Eliminate careless errors in spelling, punctuation, capitalization and grammar
