Attacking the Poetry    Section

         It's time!

     —After you have finished completing the multiple choice section of the exam and then the prose essay, you will then be confronted with the poem!

       Questions to Ask Yourself When Reading a Poem

     —Consider the title of the poem carefully. What does it tell you about the poem's subject, tone, and genre?

    — What is your initial impression of the poem's subject?

    — What is the poem's basic situation?

    — Is the poem built on a comparison or analogy?

    — What is the author's attitude toward his subject?

    — Does the poem appeal to a reader's intellect?

**You should also consider the context of the poem such as: What do you know about the poet? About the age it was written?

2013 Poem Prompt “The Black Walnut Tree”

—  How well did students perform on this question?

-The mean score was a 4.21 out of a possible 9 points.

—   What were common student errors or omissions?       

Misreading the prompt or passage.

-  Students were not able to write persuasively about poetry in language appropriate to the genre. They would not discuss common elements of poetry like rhyme, rhythm, form and meter. Instead they chose a list of poetic devices (rather than appropriate ones to demonstrate the students understanding of the poem) and showed little insight with their listings of many devices. Because of this, the essay “became device-driven rather than insight-driven”.

Continued Analysis

*Students also failed to decipher between summary/paraphrase and analysis.

—   Summary: takes the important points of a message or story and puts them into a condensed version.

—   Paraphrase: takes a speech or quotation and restates it in different words (“if snow is white, then her breasts are a brownish gray”).

—   Analysis: Taking a topic and breaking them into smaller pieces to better understand the subject.

**’Students are often able to say “what”, but they cannot, or do not, go the necessary distance to say “why” and “toward what end”

Questions to Ask Yourself When reading a poem

— - Consider the title of the poem carefully. What does it tell you about the poem's subject, tone, and genre?

—   -What is your initial impression of the poem's subject?

—   -What is the poem's basic situation?

—   Is the poem built on a comparison or analogy?

—   -What is the author's attitude toward his subject?

- Does the poem appeal to a reader's intellect?

**You should also consider the context of the poem such as: What do you know about the poet? About the age it was written?

     Essay Questions/

 Literary devices to use

It’s good to pay attention to the speakers attitude/tone, diction, imagery, organization and the figurative language throughout the poem. This is because it is shown to come up frequently in the past  43 years. 

For Example:

 1970 Poem: “Elegy for Jane” (Theodore Roethke)


Prompt:

Write an essay in which you describe the speaker's attitude toward his former student, Jane.

 1982 Poem: “The Groundhog” (Richard Eberhart)
 

Prompt:  

Write an essay in which you analyze how the language of the poem reflects the changing
perceptions and emotions of the Speaker as he considers the metamorphosis of the dead ground hog. Develop your essay with specific references to the text of the poem.

Time Yourself:

-1-3 minutes reading and “working the prompt”

- 5 minutes reading and making marginal         notes about the poem.

-10 minutes preparing to write.

-20 minutes to write your essay.

-3 minutes for proofreading.

 Main Strategies

- The main strategy in the poetry section is to read quickly and then reread it, using the highlighting and marginal notes approach.

 - Reread slowly like if you were speaking aloud and then reread to confirm your understanding.

Strategies for Writing The Poetry Essay

-Use SAT words.

- Make sure to incorporate all literary techniques. Don’t try to refer to too many literary techniques.

 -Try not to be too meticulous in your writing. -Stay calm and if you understood the passage clearly, you should be able to breeze through the essay!

Our Strategy:

-It’s no secret that better understanding of a poem depends solely on the visualization by the reader. When visualizing the time and place of a poem It helps one to better comprehend the poem.

  -One thing you can try when approaching the poem passage (even the prose passage) is to pretend your reading something you actually want to read. Don’t start out on a poem with a preconceived notion that its going to be boring

Also...

Focus on the poem, leave your other thoughts out of your mind! If you have a lot of stuff on your mind, it will cause you to become completely oblivious to what you’re reading.

By: Alexis Green Dantzler, Alam Berlas and Martin Garcia 

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