The interpretation of poetry

Abstract

In this chapter I deal with how you can construct a full analysis of a poem and how analyses of individual poems can be put together to build a view of a writer. As always, I am going to deal with specific examples — in this chapter, poems by John Keats and Wilfred Owen — but I hope it is clear that the strategies I describe should work with any writer. More often than not, when you have to study a poet you are likely to be encountering his or her works for the first time, so let us start from that position. You have just discovered that you have to look at the poetry of John Keats. Where and how do you begin?