Historically, poetry has a direct relationship to music that can be heard when the poem is read aloud. This strategy gives readers a feel for the rhyme and rhythm of the poem, as well as the speaker's tone and mood. When reading the text aloud, look for repeated words and phrases that may gesture to a broader idea in the poem. Also look for metaphors and similes that paint pictures and draw correlations between usually unrelated things.
Information outside of the poem sometimes can help the reader better understand it. The context surrounding a piece of literature includes biographical information about the author, other literature written by the author and common themes and issues that can be found in his or her work. For example, an analysis of the poem "I'm Nobody! Who Are You" by Emily Dickinson can be greatly enriched with knowledge of the author's solitary and secluded life. The time period and the social and political climate in which the poem was written also can illuminate the motivations of the writer as well as the overall message of the text.
During the first reading, mark unfamiliar words. When defining the words, make certain to read all of their various definitions. Poems often play on the multiple usages and meanings of words to convey various layers of meanings and references? Thoroughly understanding the author's diction and choice of phrase in a poem helps readers identify and interpret simultaneous meanings in a single poem.
Identifying the speaker and the tone in a poem is an important step in reading and understanding poetry. The tone of a poem is how a poem says what it says. It is the mood of the poem and often is related to the poem's theme. Examples of tone in literature include pessimistic, sad, optimistic, paranoid, detached, nostalgic, hopeful, calm and proud. For example, Langston Hughes' poem "Harlem" conveys a tone of lament and wonder through the imagery it uses.
To identify and evaluate a poem's theme, a reader should look for repeated images and words, the speaker's tone and specific details and emotions in the text. For example, Dylan Thomas' poem "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" repeats the phrase "do not go gentle into that good night" and expresses the theme of the inevitability of mortality. Common examples of theme in poetry include death and mourning, vision and blindness, aging, rebirth, sacrifice and romantic love.