Some Suggestions for Comments on Poems

Your assignment is to read your peer's poem and write a one page analysis and commentary, including suggestions for improvement. Here are some of the things to consider and comment on as you read your peer's poem....

1. Title and the titles of the subsections
2. The purpose and the effect of the epigraph
3. The complexity and beauty of the language - has the writer chosen rich, interesting words and put them together in rich, interesting ways. Has the writer used his/her full arsenal of techniques: metaphor, simile, register, imagery, symbolism, connotative word choice? If not, what suggestions can you make? Is there an established mood and tone?
4. How does it sound? Read it out loud. What do you think of the line breaks? Has the writer experimented with enjambment? End-stopped lines? Are there sound devices - onomatopoeia, repetition (both of sounds, vowels or consonents, and of words and phrases), rhyme, meter? How does the sound of it contribute to the meaning?
5. What do you, as reader, perceive as the topics and themes the writer is exploring? Articulate those themes and explain your thinking. If you're confused, explain your confusion.
6. Think of SOAPSTone: who is the speaker of the poem? Does the speaker change? How does the speaker connect to the novel? What occasion does each section of the poem respond to? Who is the audience? What is the purpose and subject? The tone?
7. Last but not least: has your writer followed the assignments and met its requirements?

Please post your response to their poem here. I want a full page, not a paragraph. This will be graded as an open response. Use the title of the poem in your response, but not the author.