Poetry Analysis Essay Outline
A poetry analysis essay reviews the multiple artistic, structural, and functional pieces that make up a poem. A poetry analysis essay gives an in-depth look at the choices that a poet made and the overall effects of their choices.
Poem Essay Outline
The following is a poetry analysis essay outline:
1. Introduction
Your introduction paragraph should familiarize your reader with the poem by identifying the poet, offering a brief general description of the poem and leading into the thesis statement and development of the argument by narrowing and limiting the subject. Formulate a thesis statement that will allow you to explain the relationships and the effects of elements in the poem. Indicate in the thesis statement the areas and features of the poem that are important to your argument. Your thesis statement must argue a point. Instead of simply saying that a poet uses certain poetic devices, you must provide some indication in your thesis to show how those devices work and what they do to the poem's meaning. Show the relationship between the poem and your argument.
2. Body paragraphs
Each body paragraph should consist of a point that is credible, relevant to your thesis, and analytical. At the beginning of each paragraph, tell your reader the focus of your argument in that paragraph by starting with a topic sentence. The rest of the paragraph should address the assertion with convincing evidence.
In your body paragraphs, you must present evidence that is in the context of your own argument. Try incorporating your evidence into information, which will allow your reader to receive the full impact of the lines. Before the quotation, describe the evidence in terms of the poem. Explain where it is located in the poem and whether it is part of a pattern. Let your readers know what they should be looking for. After the quotation, if the passage is particularly difficult to understand, you should explain the problematic vocabulary. You must then analyze the quote and show how is supports the claims you are making in your thesis statement.
3. Conclusion
Your conclusion you can emphasize crucial ideas, raise questions about the poem or connect the poem to other literary works or experiences. This is where you can offer your interpretation of the poem, which should be convincing to your reader since you have presented your evidence in the body of the paper. Your conclusion should flow naturally from the body of your paper.
4. Citation
Ensure that you cite your evidence properly. Citing from a poem is different from citing from a prose text. You must indicate where lines end by separating them with a slash mark. If you are quoting more than three lines, single space the passage, indent and present the passage as it appears in the poem. Follow the quotation with the appropriate line numbers enclosed in parentheses.