Introduction to Poetry

Revision - The Stages of Studying a Poem

So we're nearly at the end of our journey through the study of this short poem. We've looked at various aspects of the poem, beginning with its shape on the page and taking in vocabulary, imagery, meaning, tone, the author's intention and the importance of the title and the author's name. However, as we've tried to stress throughout these notes, there is no one answer to the question of what does a poem mean. It depends finally on the reader. If, for example you were a Japanese person who had had a relative killed or injured at Hiroshima then you might interpret this poem very differently than if you had no direct link to the event.

In this final section of this short course there is a chance for you to recap the different stages we've moved through as we've studied the poem. Click on the link below to review the course: