Analyzing Poetry With SWIMTAG
Analyzing Poetry With SWIMTAG
Analyzing Poetry With SWIMTAG
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Meter - Scan by reading aloud<br />
Note preponderance of dactyls or spondees in any lines.<br />
dactyls - faster, lighter, lilting; spondees - slower, heavier, grander.<br />
Several elisions together - halting, emotional, fearful. Rhythm often reflects pace or<br />
mood of narrative.<br />
Mood<br />
What feelings come through?<br />
Look at adjectives and verbs. Is it formal, tragic, frightening, joyous, foreboding?<br />
Tone<br />
Can you sense or infer the author's attitude about the characters or the action (from<br />
choice of words or actual comments to reader)?<br />
Theme<br />
How does the passage relate to the overall theme(s) of the work?<br />
Note philosophical beliefs and/or political program.<br />
Allusions<br />
Note proper nouns - myths, customs, beliefs, history, geography.<br />
Note significance and how and what these add to the passage.<br />
Grammar<br />
Look at pattern of verb tenses - any unexpected?<br />
Look at person of verb. Who speaks? - To whom?<br />
Tone formal or intimate? (2nd sing. - more intimate)<br />
Many passive verbs?<br />
Imperatives imply authority;<br />
Gerundives, obligation.<br />
Interjections imply strong emotion<br />
Is sentence structure convoluted, complex? Are sentences short, abrupt? Does<br />
sentence structure reflect action?
Change language