best essays on poetry

Essays About Poetry: 5 Interesting Examples and Topic Ideas

Let’s look at some examples of essays about poetry and topics to use as a starting point for your poetry essay.

To many, poetry is like a massage for the soul. Deep lyrics, interesting connections, and reflections on the commonalities that connect all humans make poetry a language that can connect us all.

From Walt Whitman to Edgar Allen Poe, poetry has long been recognized as a form of literary art. Different from visual art, poetry allows authors to use diction, rhyme scheme, and literary devices to paint a picture for the reader. Some poets work to describe physical scenes or events with great detail, while others use language that makes the emotion they’re describing feel real to the reader.

There are many different kinds of poetry, from epic poems to lyric essays. Each poet must decide what poetry format works best to get their point across to their reader. It’s important to note that popular styles of poetry change over time, and readers can expect a different style from an eighteenth-century poet than from a poem written from a modernist perspective.

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Examples Of Essays About Poetry

1. How Poetry Changed My Life By Shuly Cawood
2. 8 Reasons Why Poetry Is Good For The Soul By Kim Barkley
3. Top 20 Best Poets Of All Time By Bizhan Romani
4. Walt Whitman’s Guide To A Thriving Democracy By Mark Edmundson
5. “What Might Have Been And What Has Been”: How T. S. Eliot Looked At Lives By Lyndall Gordon

Topic Ideas For Essays About Poetry

1. who is the greatest american poet of all time, 2. what’s the purpose of poetry, 3. who was the most impactful poet of the twentieth century, 4. what makes a good poem, 5. social standing and poetry, 6. how does gender influence poetry, 7. working through trauma: how poetry and other creative writing can help, 8. poetry and social justice, 9. amanda gorman: who is the national youth poet laureate, 1. how poetry changed my life by shuly cawood.

It was Dr. David Citino who let me into his poetry writing seminar, Dr. David Citino who taught me how to take sentimentality out, Dr. David Citino who made it possible for me to stay in my journalism program and finish. Poetry kept me from quitting. This is one of the reasons that when National Poetry Month comes around every year, I can’t help but celebrate. Poetry did not just save me from quitting my journalism degree: poetry has been my constant companion and has guided me through upheavals, emotions, and changes and has helped me cope, understand, and let go.

Halfway through her master’s degree program in journalism, Cawood wanted to give up on her degree. She felt called to study poetry but knew that her journalism degree would give her the career opportunities she wanted after graduation. In this essay, Cawood celebrates Dr. Citino, her poetry professor, who helped give her the strength to finish her master’s program while learning more about the literature she loved.

2. 8 Reasons Why Poetry Is Good For The Soul By Kim Barkley

Have you ever sat there and not known what to write? Picking up poetry, reading through different excerpts from classic poets can blossom ideas you never knew existed. Reading and writing poetry makes you think of new ideas, but can also dramatically change the way you perceived old ones. It is a way to process experiences, visual descriptions, and emotions.

One of the most common arguments about poetry is that it doesn’t serve a literary purpose or educate readers on important topics. Barkley (rightfully) argues that this isn’t the case. Poetry can help children develop reading skills, open the imagination, and provide a safe space for authors to express difficult emotions that can be difficult to convey using traditional prose.

3. Top 20 Best Poets Of All Time By Bizhan Romani

Like art, poetry can be highly subjective as much of its worth lies in the emotional connection felt by its audience. It can therefore be difficult to judge poetry on its technical merits alone or to rank one poet against another. With that said, there are some poets that have made outstanding achievements in different forms of poetry, influenced literary movements, or left a lasting impression on pop culture.

Whether you’re looking for inspiration for your essay about poetry or you’re simply looking for a good jumping-off point to begin reading poetry in general, Romani’s list is an excellent compilation of some of the best poets of all time, including Sylvia Plath, Sappho, Edgar Allen Poe, Emily Dickinson, Pablo Neruda, and more.

4. Walt Whitman’s Guide To A Thriving Democracy By Mark Edmundson

“Song of Myself,” arguably Whitman’s greatest work, can be seen as a vision quest. In the original version, which had no title when it was published in 1855, in the first edition of Leaves of Grass, Whitman begins as an everyday workingman. He is “one of the roughs,” the tough, laboring type who is depicted on the book’s frontispiece —shirt open, hat tilted to the side, a calmly insouciant expression on his face. Through a series of poetic and spiritual encounters he gains in experience and wisdom to become a representative democratic individual, one who can show his countrymen and countrywomen the way to a thriving and joyous life.

One of the most well-known and well-respected poets in American history, Walt Whitman is known not just for his descriptive, personal poetic style but also for helping to shape pre-abolition America. In this essay, Edmundson doesn’t just dig into Whitman’s life as he wrote his most famous works—he also discusses how Ralph Waldo Emerson and William Wordsworth influenced Whitman. Poetry is full of both original ideas and borrowed thoughts, and Edmundson works to explain how Whitman’s greatness was due to both his literary prowess and his respect for other greats of his time.

5. “What Might Have Been And What Has Been”: How T. S. Eliot Looked At Lives By Lyndall Gordon

Eliot acknowledges the routine plot of existence—“in my beginning is my end”—but he will reverse this: “in my end is my beginning.” Though, of course, this looks to eternal life beyond death, he is thinking also of the life of his ancestor, Andrew Eliott, sailing in 1669 from East Coker, Somerset, across the North Atlantic—a dangerous, three-month voyage—to Salem, Massachusetts. Here is one model life: the risk taker who can begin again in middle age, who takes off for a new life in the New World. This risk mirrors Eliot’s move in middle age to remake his private life during the thirties.

Twentieth-century poet T. S. Eliot seemed to have visions of a perfect life. Since he died in the mid-1960s, many people have been surprised to discover proverbial skeletons in the closet of the poet’s earliest works, including elitism and anti-Semitism present in his early poetry. Today, many wonder how Eliot’s poetry has remained ever-present in today’s literary culture. In this essay, the author suggests that despite Eliot’s unacceptable beginnings, his words—specifically those about how people do not begin to reflect on a person’s life until their death—remain relevant to today’s society.

Exploring the greatest American poets can be fun to delve into different poets’ styles, including Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Edgar Allen Poe, and Sylvia Plath. As you explain your opinion on which poet you believe is the best of all time, explain why you feel the poet you chose stands out among their peers. You may also want to explore current poets and discuss whether it’s possible that the greatest American poet of all time is still alive and writing.

There’s no doubt about it—poetry is art. Musings on the purpose of poetry can provide solid insight into how words can portray emotion. If you decide to write about the purpose of poetry, be sure to explain to your readers how poetry has influenced your life. Share examples of poems that have had a significant impact on you, and explain how poetry contributes to the betterment of society. Be sure to include quotes from well-known poets about the purpose of their work and why they believe they’ve been able to impact society by sharing their creative gifts positively.

Essays about poetry: Who was the most impactful poet of the twentieth century?

Poetry doesn’t just provide poets with an outlet to express themselves—it can also have a significant impact on society and make the world a better place. In an essay on the most impactful poets of the twentieth century, please explain why you feel the poet you selected stands out from their peers. From Maya Angelou to e.e. cummings, you’ll have myriad opportunities to discuss poetic excellence. Explain how the poet you chose affected people, social movements, and history.

While this essay topic is subject to opinion, you can write about what you believe to be a good poem and provide examples from your favorites to support your thesis. You may feel that epic poems that allow the author to tell a detailed story are superior to other forms of poetry, or you may feel that lyrical essays that describe deep human truths are key to the literary world. No matter what argument you choose for what makes a good poem, support your argument with quotes, and don’t rely too much on stories of how a particular form of poetry affected you personally.

Poetry can break down barriers and, in many cases, provide a common language based on shared experiences from people of varying social standing. In your essay about social standing and poetry, explore how poetry has been used throughout history to connect people in various economic situations. You may also want to delve into how poetry can be used to help people understand the experiences of others (for example, explain how poetry can help a person who grew up in poverty express their experience to someone who grew up in a different situation).

Male and female poets both have incredibly valuable offerings to the literary world, and it can be interesting to explore themes of gender within poetry. In your essay on how gender influences poetry, explore both poems about gender and how the idea of gender can influence a poet’s work. Discuss how societal expectations that go with traditional gender roles are a theme in the work of many poets and how rallying against traditional gender roles can cause issues, both in a poet’s personal and professional life.

Writing can be therapeutic, and many people depend on journaling to help them process difficult and traumatic events. In an essay on how writing can help people work through trauma, dig into the latest research on therapeutic writing. You may also want to interview a therapist or counselor about how they use journaling or writing in their practice to help their clients work through difficult issues. If you have personally been able to work through trauma with the help of writing or journaling, it’s fine to use a personal anecdote to begin or end your essay. Be careful that you don’t lean on anecdotes to carry the body of your essay, however. You’ll want to provide research-driven proof that writing can be used to impact mental health positively.

Social justice movements have been used to change the course of history repeatedly. In many cases, poetry has served as an important part of social justice movements, providing a voice to those deemed voiceless. In your essay about poetry and social justice, talk about social justice movements both currently and in the past, and refer to poems that have worked to inform others about social issues and create positive change. In your essay, you can focus on one facet of social justice (such as racism or sexism) or look at how poetry and social justice interact with a wider lens.

Amanda Gorman: Who Is The National Youth Poet Laureate?

National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman took the world by storm with her poem The Hill We Climb, which she read aloud at President Biden’s 2021 inauguration ceremony. In your essay on Gorma, be sure to talk about her past, her education (a Harvard graduate), her rise to fame, and her goals for the future–she has her eyes set on a future presidential run.

If you are interested in learning more, check out our essay writing tips !

Five of the Best Books about Studying Poetry

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

If you’re studying poetry at school or university, or are simply a fan of the world of verse, it’s useful to have some handy guides standing by to assist with the terminology and to shed light on the various poetic forms used by poets, and the sometimes challenging language of poetry.

In our experience, the following five books are among the greatest books for the student of poetry (though there are, needless to say, many more helpful books on the market) and all five books will help the poetry fan to understand and appreciate poetry to a greater degree.

Disclaimer: as an Amazon Associate, we get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Subtitled A Guide to Reading Poetry for Pleasure and Practical Criticism , this book – which was updated for a second edition in 2005 – is a wonderfully clear and comprehensive introduction to the appreciation of poetry. John Lennard shows how we can enjoy poetry by understanding its technical features and techniques: his epigraph, from C. L. R. James, suggests a parallel between appreciating cricket and appreciating poetry.

If we know nothing of the technical aspects of the game of cricket, we can still enjoy it, but if we understand how the game works and what techniques the players use, we can ground our enjoyment in something more specific and informed than ‘mere impressionism’. Invaluable for any student of poetry at university (and very helpful for those at school), but also useful for anyone who wishes to understand the rules of metre, rhyme, syntax, and form in more depth.

This is a highly readable introduction to the practice of literary criticism: how to analyse a poem . Padel considers 52 different poems and offers a close reading of them, beautifully bringing out the subtle meanings of the poetry and the ways in which the poet generates such meanings.

Christopher Ricks, The Force of Poetry .

This 1984 volume is a collection of essays written during the 1960s-1980s, by one of the greatest living critics of poetry. Upon reading Ricks’s biography of Tennyson, W. H. Auden called Ricks ‘exactly the kind of critic every poet dreams of finding’.

But Ricks is also a brilliant writer too, with a fondness (some would say weakness) for puns and wordplay of all kinds. He clearly has great fun pondering the significance of a semi-colon or set of parentheses, or the meaning of a particular image or word. This volume includes essays on, among others, medieval poet John Gower , John Milton, Samuel Johnson , Geoffrey Hill, Stevie Smith, and – indeed, William Empson, author of our next book recommendation.

William Empson (1906-1984) was a poet as well as a critic, and this probably helped him to get under the skin, as it were, of many of the poems he analyses in this pioneering work of poetry criticism, published in 1930 and written when he was still only in his early twenties (and completed shortly after he had been expelled from the University of Cambridge when contraceptives were found in his rooms).

Taking his examples from Geoffrey Chaucer as well as T. S. Eliot, Empson wittily examines the various ways in which poets generate ambiguity in their work, from simple examples to more complex and less easily resolved instances. Jonathan Bate called Empson the funniest critic of the twentieth century . He is also one of the most illuminating.

This book is aimed at those who want to understand how poetry works but also want to write it as well, and Fry is an amiable and informative guide, taking us through the various forms and stylistic features poets use. Despite its focus on such things, the book is never dry and manages to inform and educate as well as entertain.

So much for our five recommendations, which we think should adorn the bookshelf of any poetry fan. But have you got an alternative recommendation for ‘best introduction to poetry’ or ‘greatest books for the student of poetry’? If so, let us know – we realise this list of five books is hardly comprehensive, but merely a whistle-stop introduction to what’s out there.

For more poetry help, see our advice for the close reading of poetry and our English literature essay tips . For the word-lover, we recommend this little-known dictionary of weird and wonderful words .

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4 thoughts on “Five of the Best Books about Studying Poetry”

Add “How Does a Poem Mean?” by poet and critic (and lover of odd words) John Ciardi.

I’m a fan of John Hollander’s RHYME’S REASON, too. In it he details how to write in a bunch of different classic poetic forms — in those poetic forms. Very entertaining.

Reblogged this on Recommended book and blog news, poetry and tarot inspiration and commented: Glad Stephen Fry was included, this book is the definitive introduction to both common and obscure verse forms and should be on every aspiring poets shelf or those who just love the art

Reblogged this on nativemericangirl's Blog .

Writing About Poetry

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Writing about poetry can be one of the most demanding tasks that many students face in a literature class. Poetry, by its very nature, makes demands on a writer who attempts to analyze it that other forms of literature do not. So how can you write a clear, confident, well-supported essay about poetry? This handout offers answers to some common questions about writing about poetry.

What's the Point?

In order to write effectively about poetry, one needs a clear idea of what the point of writing about poetry is. When you are assigned an analytical essay about a poem in an English class, the goal of the assignment is usually to argue a specific thesis about the poem, using your analysis of specific elements in the poem and how those elements relate to each other to support your thesis.

So why would your teacher give you such an assignment? What are the benefits of learning to write analytic essays about poetry? Several important reasons suggest themselves:

To help you learn to make a text-based argument. That is, to help you to defend ideas based on a text that is available to you and other readers. This sharpens your reasoning skills by forcing you to formulate an interpretation of something someone else has written and to support that interpretation by providing logically valid reasons why someone else who has read the poem should agree with your argument. This isn't a skill that is just important in academics, by the way. Lawyers, politicians, and journalists often find that they need to make use of similar skills.
To help you to understand what you are reading more fully. Nothing causes a person to make an extra effort to understand difficult material like the task of writing about it. Also, writing has a way of helping you to see things that you may have otherwise missed simply by causing you to think about how to frame your own analysis.
To help you enjoy poetry more! This may sound unlikely, but one of the real pleasures of poetry is the opportunity to wrestle with the text and co-create meaning with the author. When you put together a well-constructed analysis of the poem, you are not only showing that you understand what is there, you are also contributing to an ongoing conversation about the poem. If your reading is convincing enough, everyone who has read your essay will get a little more out of the poem because of your analysis.

What Should I Know about Writing about Poetry?

Most importantly, you should realize that a paper that you write about a poem or poems is an argument. Make sure that you have something specific that you want to say about the poem that you are discussing. This specific argument that you want to make about the poem will be your thesis. You will support this thesis by drawing examples and evidence from the poem itself. In order to make a credible argument about the poem, you will want to analyze how the poem works—what genre the poem fits into, what its themes are, and what poetic techniques and figures of speech are used.

What Can I Write About?

Theme: One place to start when writing about poetry is to look at any significant themes that emerge in the poetry. Does the poetry deal with themes related to love, death, war, or peace? What other themes show up in the poem? Are there particular historical events that are mentioned in the poem? What are the most important concepts that are addressed in the poem?

Genre: What kind of poem are you looking at? Is it an epic (a long poem on a heroic subject)? Is it a sonnet (a brief poem, usually consisting of fourteen lines)? Is it an ode? A satire? An elegy? A lyric? Does it fit into a specific literary movement such as Modernism, Romanticism, Neoclassicism, or Renaissance poetry? This is another place where you may need to do some research in an introductory poetry text or encyclopedia to find out what distinguishes specific genres and movements.

Versification: Look closely at the poem's rhyme and meter. Is there an identifiable rhyme scheme? Is there a set number of syllables in each line? The most common meter for poetry in English is iambic pentameter, which has five feet of two syllables each (thus the name "pentameter") in each of which the strongly stressed syllable follows the unstressed syllable. You can learn more about rhyme and meter by consulting our handout on sound and meter in poetry or the introduction to a standard textbook for poetry such as the Norton Anthology of Poetry . Also relevant to this category of concerns are techniques such as caesura (a pause in the middle of a line) and enjambment (continuing a grammatical sentence or clause from one line to the next). Is there anything that you can tell about the poem from the choices that the author has made in this area? For more information about important literary terms, see our handout on the subject.

Figures of speech: Are there literary devices being used that affect how you read the poem? Here are some examples of commonly discussed figures of speech:

metaphor: comparison between two unlike things
simile: comparison between two unlike things using "like" or "as"
metonymy: one thing stands for something else that is closely related to it (For example, using the phrase "the crown" to refer to the king would be an example of metonymy.)
synecdoche: a part stands in for a whole (For example, in the phrase "all hands on deck," "hands" stands in for the people in the ship's crew.)
personification: a non-human thing is endowed with human characteristics
litotes: a double negative is used for poetic effect (example: not unlike, not displeased)
irony: a difference between the surface meaning of the words and the implications that may be drawn from them

Cultural Context: How does the poem you are looking at relate to the historical context in which it was written? For example, what's the cultural significance of Walt Whitman's famous elegy for Lincoln "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed" in light of post-Civil War cultural trends in the U.S.A? How does John Donne's devotional poetry relate to the contentious religious climate in seventeenth-century England? These questions may take you out of the literature section of your library altogether and involve finding out about philosophy, history, religion, economics, music, or the visual arts.

What Style Should I Use?

It is useful to follow some standard conventions when writing about poetry. First, when you analyze a poem, it is best to use present tense rather than past tense for your verbs. Second, you will want to make use of numerous quotations from the poem and explain their meaning and their significance to your argument. After all, if you do not quote the poem itself when you are making an argument about it, you damage your credibility. If your teacher asks for outside criticism of the poem as well, you should also cite points made by other critics that are relevant to your argument. A third point to remember is that there are various citation formats for citing both the material you get from the poems themselves and the information you get from other critical sources. The most common citation format for writing about poetry is the Modern Language Association (MLA) format .

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Postmodernism and Poetry: Final Disintegration and Hope for Renewal, by Adam Sedia

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‘becoming a poet laureate’: a formalist poet at the open mic part iv, by daniel kemper, a formalist poet at the open mic part iii: something in the rafters, by daniel kemper.

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On the Meeting of Poets James A. Tweedie, Jeff Eardley, Peter Hartley, and Margaret Coats in the UK: Poems and Other Writings

A formalist poet at the open mic, part ii of an essay series by daniel kemper.

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SCP Journal XII Published—Read the Introduction & Table of Contents Here

A Letter from Incarcerated Poet D.T. Holt to the SCP

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Three Epiphanic Poems (and a Short Note) by Joseph S. Salemi

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‘Limericks on Good English Prose’ by Joseph S. Salemi (with Note on Fictive Mimesis)

Appreciating Shakespeare Video & Intro to Hollow Crown’s Richard II Production

Can Long Poems Still Work? A Discussion Topic from Julian Woodruff

The Cultured Hedonist: An Essay by Joseph S. Salemi

‘ Paradise Lost Satan Found in the Modern’: An Essay by Michael Curtis

An Essay on Geoffrey Chaucer: ‘The Great Legitimizer’ by Euphrates Moss

Book Review: Poems with a Wink and a Smile by James A. Tweedie

Introduction to SCP Journal XI and First Section of Poems

Poetry As The Philosophers’ Stone: An Essay by Joseph S. Salemi

Poems by Human Beings Versus Poems by AI Poems by ChatGPT: Take the Quiz

Essay: ‘On the Musical Language of Poetry’ by A.J. Illingworth

Modernism and the Murder of the People’s Poetry and Art: An Essay by Phillip Whidden

Transgression, Fake and Genuine: An Essay by Joseph S. Salemi

‘I Met a Shepherdess’ by Guido Cavalcanti, Translated by Joseph S. Salemi

Best Words, Best Order

Essays on Poetry

© 2003
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Stephen Dobyns

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About this book

Ben Jonson’s Workes and Bibliographic Integrity

‘A Poet in the Truest and Highest Sense’: The Early Poems and their Reception

Poe Among the Modernists: A (Ghostly) Reappraisal

Table of contents (16 chapters), front matter, metaphor and the authenticating act of memory, writing the reader’s life, notes on free verse, pacing: the ways a poem moves, the function of tone, the voices one listens to, the traffic between two worlds, rilke’s growth as a poet, mandelstam: the poem as event, chekhov’s sense of writing as seen through his letters, ritsos and the metaphysical moment, cemetery nights, the maker’s manipulation of time, the passerby in the birdless street, the problem of beauty and the requirements of art, back matter, about the author, bibliographic information.

Book Title : Best Words, Best Order

Book Subtitle : Essays on Poetry

Authors : Stephen Dobyns

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-73116-9

Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan New York

eBook Packages : Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts Collection , Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

Softcover ISBN : 978-1-4039-6147-1 Published: 30 May 2003

eBook ISBN : 978-1-349-73116-9 Published: 30 April 2016

Edition Number : 2

Number of Pages : XIV, 398

Topics : Poetry and Poetics

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Proofs and Theories: Essays on Poetry

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Winner of the 1993 PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction, Proofs and Theories is a compilation of essays on the work of other poets, as well as reflections on the art. Author Louise Gluck is a former U.S. poet laureate who has written numerous poetry collections, including the The Wild Iris , which received the Pulitzer Prize.

More Best Books for Writers

Explore the Greatest Poetry

10 of the best (and easiest) poems to analyze .

A great deal of classical and contemporary writing is a pleasure to indulge in. A few of the best examples are included in the list below.

A great deal of the poetry produced since we started putting our thoughts on paper drowns itself out in complex metaphors , indecipherable decades after they were written. Or, contains language that has fallen out of common use or is a better example of a poet’s desire to sound educated, through the twisting and manipulating of syntax , than it is an expression of any theme worth delving into.

These poems were selected for their ease of understanding, their clear representation of various poetic techniques, and their interesting historical backgrounds. If you’re looking for a powerful, but easy, poem to analyze, this article is for you.

Best/Easiest Poems to Analyze

1 Fire and Ice by Robert Frost
2 Mother to Son by Langston Hughes
3 A Dream Within a Dream by Edgar Allan Poe
4 Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
5 Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas
6 The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus
7 If You Forget Me by Pablo Neruda
8 The Tyger by William Blake
9 Daffodils by William Wordsworth
10 Trees by Joyce Kilmer

Fire and Ice by Robert Frost

Not Robert Frost ’s best-known work, but wonderful all the same, ‘Fire and Ice’ is the perfect choice for someone who is interested in analyzing a poem that speaks on themes of life, death, and opposites. The text is short, only nine lines, and repetition , juxtaposition and rhyme play important roles. Frost’s diction is clear and the syntax is straightforward.

Read an analysis of ‘Fire and Ice’ here.

Mother to Son by Langston Hughes

This poem was first published in December of 1922 in the magazine, Crisis. It was also included in Langston Hughes ’ collection, The Weary Blues, published four years later. Within the text, Hughes uses the metaphor of a staircase to depict the difficulties and dangers one will face in life. The major themes are determination and wisdom. Told from the perspective of a mother, directing her words to her son, this piece is universally relatable. It clearly depicts themes and issues that are just as relevant today as they were when 100 years ago.

Read an analysis of ‘Mother to Son’ here.

A Dream Within a Dream by Edgar Allan Poe

Lovers of poetry, and even those who only enjoy it occasionally, will immediately recognize the line, “All that we see or seem / is but a dream within a dream.” Many examples of Edgar Allan Poe ’s poetry are complex, filled with seemingly indecipherable images and mental landscapes, this piece is much simpler. The speaker knows that life is purposeless, there is no love nor is there reason to keep going. It has all turned into a dream state that he floats, and at the same time struggles, through.

Read an analysis of ‘A Dream Within a Dream’ here.

Still I Rise by Maya Angelou

At its most basic level, ‘Still I Rise’ is a poem about confidence and empowerment. The speaker stands up to prejudice and preconceived notions of who she should be. Through the refrain , “I rise,” the reader should sense power building in the text. Repetition is used skillfully and effectively. This is likely Maya Angelou’ s’ most anthologized work, making it a perfect option for those interested in analyzing a piece of her poetry.

Read an analysis of ‘Still I Rise’ here .

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas’ best-known work, ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’ is a universally relatable poem that has appeared multiple times popular media since its publication. ‘Do not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’ was first published in 1951. Through powerful and skillfully composed language, Thomas encourages his father to realize the importance of his life by fighting back against the dark. Additionally, this piece had an important personal meaning to the poet, adding another layer of information you might choose to write about.

Read an analysis of ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’ here.

The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus

With an important historical context , Emma Lazarus’ ‘The New Colossus’ is another example of how poetry does not need to be complex and filled with complicated images to convey deep meaning. In ‘The New Colossus’ Lazarus speaks about the Statue of Liberty and the fundamental beliefs the statue is supposed to represent. Plus, with all the historical details connected to this piece, there is a great deal for a prospective analyzer to write about.

Read an analysis of ‘The New Colossus’ here.

If You Forget Me by Pablo Neruda

This is a love poem for those who aren’t interested in analyzing traditional stories of loss and heartbreak. Within ‘If You Forget Me’ Pablo Neruda speaks from a first-person perceptive and addresses his lover. He uses metaphors to compare their love to natural imagery and challenges them to forget him. If they do, he’ll have already “forgotten them”. Neruda uses accessible images and diction that makes this poem an interesting read and a great piece to take a deep dive into and analyze.

Read an analysis of ‘If You Forget Me’ here.

The Tyger by William Blake

Usually read alongside ‘ The Lamb ,’ this piece is William Blake ’s famous description of the darker, more dangerous side of God’s creation. Within the text, he juxtaposes the tiger with the kinder elements of the world, such as the lamb. Blake’s speaker asks the tiger where its eyes were made. As well as how any divine being could’ve made the decision to craft it in such a way. Although admitting his own fear of this creature, he also acknowledges its beauty and the skill it would’ve taken to create it. This piece is likely Blake’s most commonly anthologized. This means there is a great deal of information available about its composition and publication.

Read an analysis of ‘The Tyger’ here.

Daffodils by William Wordsworth

Also known as ‘I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud,’ this piece is one of William Wordsworth ’s most popular. It describes one speaker’s progression through fields and hills on which he observes a “host, of golden daffodils”. The natural imagery is quite strong and depicted clearly. Using metaphors and similes Wordsworth also speaks on his own state of being while in natural environments. Then, how he takes that experience back into his less invigorating moments. The consistent rhyme scheme imbues ‘Daffodils’ with an even rhythm , taking the reader calmly and smoothly through the lines. As with most of the poems on this list, there is information readily available about this poem making analyzing it all the simpler.

Read an analysis ‘Daffodils’ here.

Trees by Joyce Kilmer

With its straightforward syntax and clear diction, ‘Trees’ is the perfect poem to analyze if you’re interested in themes of nature, poetic writing, and creation. The poem was written in February of 1913 and was first published in Poetry: A Magazine of Verse . It was then included in Trees and Other Poems , one of Joyce Kilmer ’s most popular volumes. Within this piece, Kilmer depicts a single tree standing in as a representative for all trees. It is, he states, lovelier than any poem he, or anyone else, could ever write. Throughout the text, he praises God’s creation and speaks on man’s inability to create anything close to as majestic.

Read an analysis of ‘Trees’ here .

Home » Explore the Greatest Poetry » Best (and Easiest) Poems to Analyze

About Emma Baldwin

Thanks a lot!, These poems are very easy to analyze!

You’re welcome!

Are we naming our favourite flowers, because I’m a big fan of snapdragons!

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Baldwin, Emma. "10 of the Best (and Easiest) Poems to Analyze ". Poem Analysis , https://poemanalysis.com/best-poems/easy-to-analyze/ . Accessed 25 September 2024.

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Learning Image and Description

Opening the luminous door in your writing..

BY Rachel Richardson

Image of a door opening with bright light on the other side

In order to imagine, we begin with an image. The imagination gets triggered by images and descriptions when we read, making us feel as though we are in the scene. You can think of imagery as an entryway into a poem: a physical realm allowing us to explore the mind of the poet. The images and descriptions also make up the stuff of the poem: the surprising, sumptuous, practical, and impractical items (such as shorts, some sunscreen, that elm tree, and your grandmother’s pearl earrings) packed within. A reader’s interaction with a poem is largely created through the collection of images that animate the language and make us feel we have just participated in an experience.

Images are everywhere in writing, and my introduction is no exception. It’s hard to define an image without using one in the process. While writing this essay I have become hyper-aware that most of the words I use to define image are, in fact, saddled with the physical themselves. Think of it: I just wrote transport, triggered, entryway, packed, and saddled! The physical world and senses are both at the core of our human experience, so imagery and description are often a central aspect of poetry, even in those poems that aim to describe what cannot be seen, such as thoughts and emotions.

It makes sense, then, that if you want to write poems that are engaging and lively, you should start with learning how to craft an image and to develop your skills of description. Many poetry instructors teach about imagery and description in the first weeks of their poetry courses, if not in the very first class. Not only is imagery everywhere in our lives, it is a wonderful way to start writing poetry: you can focus on something concrete that you can describe, rather than jumping right into the more complicated work of writing about emotions or ideas. Here’s an easy way in: start by writing about what’s on your desk, or a tree outside your window, or your father’s beard. With a low-stakes writing exercise like this, you can practice the craft of trying to render the world to a reader in all its sensory richness.

A Few Ways to Begin

The poetic definition of the term image is broader than our everyday one, and this is important to emphasize: the poetic image is not just visual but an activation of any of the five senses. Although in our highly visual culture we tend to think of the visual by default, in fact some of the most evocative imagery engages the nose, the ear, the sense of touch or taste.

Another way teachers often present this subject is to discuss the appeal of showing (as opposed to telling or explaining) the object at hand. Again, in using the word “show” we are limited by the language of our culture—showing seems to refer to sight, but can also encompass other senses. In a poem one can show the sound of the neighbor’s cough, or the feel of the cotton of a lover’s shirt against the speaker’s face, or the smell of the pond in a Vermont town in winter. You can start by listing such sensory evocations, to become more aware of the imagery you come into contact with every day, as well as the images contained in, or as, your memories. Try this preliminary two-part exercise:

1. Sit in a public space for at least 30 minutes. Choose a place others are passing through (a school quadrangle, coffee shop, library, bus stop, etc.). Try to observe, using all five senses, what is happening around you. Record, in list form and in as much detail as possible, at least 20 different images that catch your attention. 2. Then, spending at least 30 minutes on your own in a quiet space, go inward. Think of strong sensory memories and try to capture—again in list form, and without worrying about providing explanatory context for a reader—those memories in language, conveying the strongest sensory details.

To take imagery deeper, and explore its potential for catalyzing new poems, you could expand upon the observation exercise above. For example, try taking one image from your observation and writing a page about it, not limiting yourself to what you see and hear and smell directly anymore, but allowing the sensory input to spark other thoughts, memories, images, story, and emotional weight. Robert Pinsky ’s “ Shirt ” seems to do just this, beginning as it does with a physical examination of how a shirt is made: “The back, the yoke, the yardage. Lapped seams, / The nearly invisible stitches along the collar …” We imagine the writer may actually be looking at a shirt as he begins writing this. But then the imagination takes over, and the shirt’s journey comes to life: “the collar / Turned in a sweatshop by Koreans or Malaysians / Gossiping over tea and noodles on their break.” By line 10 of the poem we are in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in 1911. Then a jaunt through Scotland, and finally the modern-day factory in South Carolina where this shirt has received its inspection by someone named Irma (a detail we presume the speaker knew from finding the inspection sticker on the inside of the fabric). The poem takes us on a high-speed, higher-intensity whirl through history, reimagining its scenes, and ends back where it started, in close examination of this shirt’s physical features, but with new import: “the buttons of simulated bone, / the buttonholes, the sizing, the facing, the characters / Printed in black on neckband and tail.”

To continue with the clothing theme, we might also look at Kim Addonizio ’s “‘ What Do Women Want? ’” This poem launches its meditation from the subject of a red dress. The dress is a fantasy, we quickly see, so Addonizio’s speaker is not physically handling it as Pinsky’s speaker does. Instead, she describes the feel of it, and feel in it: “I want it sleeveless and backless, / this dress, so no one has to guess / what’s underneath.” From here the speaker imagines she is wearing it, walking through her urban neighborhood, newly attuned to all the other details around her because of the attention she attracts in this radiant dress:

past Mr. and Mrs. Wong selling day-old donuts in their café, past the Guerra brothers slinging pigs from the truck and onto the dolly, hoisting the slick snouts over their shoulders.

Once we start focusing on the richness of the description here, we see images within images. This poem can help us to understand how an image potentially launches a poem into the world of the imagination. Addonizio’s lush, energetic portraiture also shows us how images breed images and images breed ideas. She started with one concrete and finite thing—that red dress. But by the time we’ve caught our breath, the poem has expanded exponentially in time, object, and space: she sees a whole human lifespan, and an intricate and bustling urban landscape. What is the central image of this poem? First it seems to be the dress, then the speaker’s imagined vision of herself in the dress, then perhaps the bird’s-eye view of the scene in the neighborhood as a whole. And further, which parts are details—additions, helpful but not central—and which are images? There may be multiple answers to these questions, depending on the reader’s interpretation of the poem.

Some Background

Poets have, at different cultural moments, taken particular interest in defining image and its use in the poem. In the early 20th century, Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell became the (often warring) figureheads for the Imagist movement, a loose group of poets who rejected the sentimentality of the Romantic and Victorian periods and called for a return to economy of language and precision of image. Their general philosophy is seen as the catalyst for Modernism .

In his prescriptive essay, “ A Few Don’ts by an Imagiste ,” Pound defined the image as “that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time.” He went on to say that this “complex” should provoke the feeling of freedom, or sudden growth, such as we experience in looking at great works of art. The image itself, he argued, is the proper and adequate symbol , and is dulled by abstract language. In privileging the image as the central element of the poem, Pound referred to the excavation of the object in poetry as finding and employing its “luminous details.” The luminous details are those details that reveal and transmit an image most swiftly and deeply. “Use either no ornament or good ornament,” Pound further warned, underscoring his advice to find the most compelling, revealing words for the descriptive task rather than simply showing everything . In other words, the task of writing a descriptive poem is not akin to that of a camera panning across a scene. The mind of the poet acts as a filter, finding the most resonant, charged details to transmit the image to the reader.

The Imagists’ ideas about imagery and description continue to deeply influence contemporary poetry. Those associated with the Imagist movement included H.D ., William Carlos Williams , Ford Madox Ford , D.H. Lawrence , James Joyce , and Marianne Moore . Williams’s “ The Red Wheelbarrow ,” H.D.’s “ The Sea Iris ,” and Moore’s “The Fish” all provide excellent examples of how focus on the single image and finding its “luminous details” can provide great satisfaction, even revelation, for the reader.

Definitions and Some Excavation Exercises

Image deepens, activates, invokes, invites. All of these verbs suggest that images serve to bring readers somewhere; images move us and move poems forward. They’re hard to define in isolation because they don’t sit still. Take a look at Rick Barot ’s poem “ The Wooden Overcoat ” to listen in on another poet wrestling with how to define imagery. He offers, by way of example,

If the dandelion on the sidewalk is mere detail, the dandelion inked on a friend’s bicep is an image because it moves when her body does, even when a shirt covers the little thorny black sun on a thin stalk.

The whole poem considers, in a lovely and intimate way, what makes an image, and why it moves us.

On top of that, we have the credo “No ideas but in things,” as William Carlos Williams famously proclaimed. Those of us who don’t identify ourselves as fully belonging to the Imagist school might soften the strength of that statement, but ultimately come to a similar point: the image helps reveal ideas, both in the poems and to the writer herself.

Ultimately, we might say that the close study of imagery is a way to escape, transcend, or recontextualize the self. This is a helpful entry point—an open door, to use an image—for those new to the craft of poetry. It welcomes you and your perspectives, and focuses you on the physical world around you, offering far more subjects and angles of approach than you dreamed you had.

To begin to excavate these subjects more deeply, try to “trace” an image poem you admire. A trace is an act of imitation in which you choose your own subject (locale, weather, objects, etc.) and then apply it to the master poem, in effect rewriting the poem with different objects. Try to adhere as closely as possible to the author’s use of the parts of speech, sentence structure, and every other stylistic element of the master poem. Some poems that might give you great results include “ Little Exercise ” by Elizabeth Bishop , “Fiesta Melons” by Sylvia Plath , “ Piano ” by D.H. Lawrence, and “ Devon House ” by C. Dale Young .

For example, you read Bishop’s poem, which begins, “Think of the storm roaming the sky uneasily / like a dog looking for a place to sleep in, / listen to it growling.” As the tracer, then, you may decide to describe a quiet snowfall instead; you would begin with “Think of the snow …”—but then what verb? “Roaming” is such an evocative word, suggesting the impending dramatic weather, the unease seeming so present in the sky itself. For snow this impending feeling will be different. Perhaps you decide on “Think of the snow congregating in the sky silently.” Then you must figure out a new image that this sky suggests, a metaphor to parallel Bishop’s stray dog. What will you use?

To attempt to rewrite a poem this way is hugely instructive because it shows us, firstly, the skill involved in the master poem: that to describe anything well, even a seemingly simple thing like a storm or a melon, is immensely difficult and requires great precision of observation and language. Secondly, the act of tracing can help you see the many ways poets use to describe; it shows you many of the tools you might like to employ yourself.

Launching from Image into Device and Technique

A central distinction that teachers will make when discussing image—one that we have already encountered numerous times in the poems we’ve discussed above—is that of literal and figurative language. If we say that literal description relies on careful physical observation, figurative description allows for the imagination to take the reins. For the poem to work well, the observation should be just as clear and precise when presented figuratively (think again of Bishop’s storm as a growling dog) as when presented literally (the storm roaming the sky). Even here, in the literal moment of the poem, “roaming” might be called mild personification , which makes the point that the literal and figurative are not hard barriers, and poets often move about freely between them within a poem, and even within a line.

To look at the difference created by the focus on the literal image versus the figurative, try pairing Tess Taylor ’s “ Elk at Tomales Bay ” with Sylvia Plath’s “ You’re .” These are strikingly different poems in almost every way but, at their core, both attempt to direct sharp focus on a single object. In Taylor’s case, that object is a tule elk skeleton, and in Plath’s, it is a developing fetus. Taylor’s poem edges into figurative language at moments, but is grounded in the literal:

Ribs fanned open hollow, emptied of organs. In the bushes its skull. Sockets and sinuses, mandible, its few small teeth.

Contrast that to Plath’s breathless series of figurative descriptors for this unborn and already-loved “you”:

Wrapped up in yourself like a spool Trawling your dark as owls do. Mute as a turnip from the Fourth of July to All Fools’ Day, O high-riser, my little loaf.

How do the different types of image used help to develop the tones of these poems? How do they present the objects being described? When you read each of these poems, do you find your attention drawn to particular elements of description? How are the language choices focusing your attention and encouraging you to make associations within the poem? Try to think like the poet: how do the choices of image help to develop the overall emotional feel of the poem?

To look at another poem that attempts to freshly present a landscape, check out Jamaal May ’s “ There Are Birds Here .” This poem pointedly addresses not just the place itself, but how the poet’s use of image attempts to shape the reader’s perception of that place. This is a poem about the use of images as much as it is a poem that uses images. The setting in this poem is the city of Detroit, and the speaker is frustrated with how readers resist registering the image presented (that there are birds there) because of their stubborn expectation of a different reality (that there must not be birds in this blighted city). But this is all the more reason to keep insisting upon his image. He says, of Detroit,

The birds are here to root around for bread the girl’s hands tear and toss like confetti. No, I don’t mean the bread is torn like cotton, I said confetti, and no not the confetti a tank can make of a building. I mean the confetti a boy can’t stop smiling about and no his smile isn’t much like a skeleton at all. And no his neighborhood is not like a war zone.

The defense of the image in this poem—there are birds here, he repeats—serves as a reminder of the extent to which imagery can shape how the reader/listener/viewer understands and responds. In this case, the speaker seems dismayed that the reader already has a bunch of preconceived images of his city as a war zone, which are ingrained and hard to shake loose, even with his insistent showing of a joyful, beautiful place. This is a lesson for politics and for writers of poetry: a reminder to present with accuracy and integrity and force, recognizing what we can be up against in doing so.

The poems we have just explored will help you hone your sensory faculties on the physical environment. Now that you are paying attention to the types of images poets choose—whether literal or figurative, and which senses get activated in the imagery—you might think also about how these images do this work. Do they make music together? A percussive rhythm , an alliterative lull, an onomatopoetic evocation? Do they show by synecdoche , personification , hyperbole ? It can be fun to explore your many style options here, thinking about how such choices of device change the way the image is perceived. Try some of these quick exercises to broaden your descriptive range and help you discover which modes you like best.

1. Describe a place using a repeated phrase as a refrain (such as “there are birds here”). 2. Describe a person using only non-human metaphors (similar to Plath’s approach in “You’re”). 3. Describe a landscape you know well in a long string of images, literal or figurative, and try to make some of them rhyme . 4. Take a couple of the descriptions you liked best in one of the first three exercises and write them down on a new sheet of paper. Then try to build on them with alliterative description. Make a paragraph/list/bunch of lines that feels pleasurable to say and evokes some cohesive mood, even if it doesn’t mean a lot logically. 5. Describe one very small physical part of a landscape—say, a barn, rather than a whole Nebraska plain—in great physical detail. Try to imbue the small object, through as many senses as possible, with the feeling of the whole locale.

The 10 Best Essay Collections of the Decade

Ever tried. ever failed. no matter..

Friends, it’s true: the end of the decade approaches. It’s been a difficult, anxiety-provoking, morally compromised decade, but at least it’s been populated by some damn fine literature. We’ll take our silver linings where we can.

So, as is our hallowed duty as a literary and culture website—though with full awareness of the potentially fruitless and endlessly contestable nature of the task—in the coming weeks, we’ll be taking a look at the best and most important (these being not always the same) books of the decade that was. We will do this, of course, by means of a variety of lists. We began with the best debut novels , the best short story collections , the best poetry collections , and the best memoirs of the decade , and we have now reached the fifth list in our series: the best essay collections published in English between 2010 and 2019.

The following books were chosen after much debate (and several rounds of voting) by the Literary Hub staff. Tears were spilled, feelings were hurt, books were re-read. And as you’ll shortly see, we had a hard time choosing just ten—so we’ve also included a list of dissenting opinions, and an even longer list of also-rans. As ever, free to add any of your own favorites that we’ve missed in the comments below.

The Top Ten

Oliver sacks, the mind’s eye (2010).

Toward the end of his life, maybe suspecting or sensing that it was coming to a close, Dr. Oliver Sacks tended to focus his efforts on sweeping intellectual projects like On the Move (a memoir), The River of Consciousness (a hybrid intellectual history), and Hallucinations (a book-length meditation on, what else, hallucinations). But in 2010, he gave us one more classic in the style that first made him famous, a form he revolutionized and brought into the contemporary literary canon: the medical case study as essay. In The Mind’s Eye , Sacks focuses on vision, expanding the notion to embrace not only how we see the world, but also how we map that world onto our brains when our eyes are closed and we’re communing with the deeper recesses of consciousness. Relaying histories of patients and public figures, as well as his own history of ocular cancer (the condition that would eventually spread and contribute to his death), Sacks uses vision as a lens through which to see all of what makes us human, what binds us together, and what keeps us painfully apart. The essays that make up this collection are quintessential Sacks: sensitive, searching, with an expertise that conveys scientific information and experimentation in terms we can not only comprehend, but which also expand how we see life carrying on around us. The case studies of “Stereo Sue,” of the concert pianist Lillian Kalir, and of Howard, the mystery novelist who can no longer read, are highlights of the collection, but each essay is a kind of gem, mined and polished by one of the great storytellers of our era. –Dwyer Murphy, CrimeReads Managing Editor

John Jeremiah Sullivan, Pulphead (2011)

The American essay was having a moment at the beginning of the decade, and Pulphead was smack in the middle. Without any hard data, I can tell you that this collection of John Jeremiah Sullivan’s magazine features—published primarily in GQ , but also in The Paris Review , and Harper’s —was the only full book of essays most of my literary friends had read since Slouching Towards Bethlehem , and probably one of the only full books of essays they had even heard of.

Well, we all picked a good one. Every essay in Pulphead is brilliant and entertaining, and illuminates some small corner of the American experience—even if it’s just one house, with Sullivan and an aging writer inside (“Mr. Lytle” is in fact a standout in a collection with no filler; fittingly, it won a National Magazine Award and a Pushcart Prize). But what are they about? Oh, Axl Rose, Christian Rock festivals, living around the filming of One Tree Hill , the Tea Party movement, Michael Jackson, Bunny Wailer, the influence of animals, and by god, the Miz (of Real World/Road Rules Challenge fame).

But as Dan Kois has pointed out , what connects these essays, apart from their general tone and excellence, is “their author’s essential curiosity about the world, his eye for the perfect detail, and his great good humor in revealing both his subjects’ and his own foibles.” They are also extremely well written, drawing much from fictional techniques and sentence craft, their literary pleasures so acute and remarkable that James Wood began his review of the collection in The New Yorker with a quiz: “Are the following sentences the beginnings of essays or of short stories?” (It was not a hard quiz, considering the context.)

It’s hard not to feel, reading this collection, like someone reached into your brain, took out the half-baked stuff you talk about with your friends, researched it, lived it, and represented it to you smarter and better and more thoroughly than you ever could. So read it in awe if you must, but read it. –Emily Temple, Senior Editor

Aleksandar Hemon, The Book of My Lives (2013)

Such is the sentence-level virtuosity of Aleksandar Hemon—the Bosnian-American writer, essayist, and critic—that throughout his career he has frequently been compared to the granddaddy of borrowed language prose stylists: Vladimir Nabokov. While it is, of course, objectively remarkable that anyone could write so beautifully in a language they learned in their twenties, what I admire most about Hemon’s work is the way in which he infuses every essay and story and novel with both a deep humanity and a controlled (but never subdued) fury. He can also be damn funny. Hemon grew up in Sarajevo and left in 1992 to study in Chicago, where he almost immediately found himself stranded, forced to watch from afar as his beloved home city was subjected to a relentless four-year bombardment, the longest siege of a capital in the history of modern warfare. This extraordinary memoir-in-essays is many things: it’s a love letter to both the family that raised him and the family he built in exile; it’s a rich, joyous, and complex portrait of a place the 90s made synonymous with war and devastation; and it’s an elegy for the wrenching loss of precious things. There’s an essay about coming of age in Sarajevo and another about why he can’t bring himself to leave Chicago. There are stories about relationships forged and maintained on the soccer pitch or over the chessboard, and stories about neighbors and mentors turned monstrous by ethnic prejudice. As a chorus they sing with insight, wry humor, and unimaginable sorrow. I am not exaggerating when I say that the collection’s devastating final piece, “The Aquarium”—which details his infant daughter’s brain tumor and the agonizing months which led up to her death—remains the most painful essay I have ever read. –Dan Sheehan, Book Marks Editor

Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass (2013)

Of every essay in my relentlessly earmarked copy of Braiding Sweetgrass , Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer’s gorgeously rendered argument for why and how we should keep going, there’s one that especially hits home: her account of professor-turned-forester Franz Dolp. When Dolp, several decades ago, revisited the farm that he had once shared with his ex-wife, he found a scene of destruction: The farm’s new owners had razed the land where he had tried to build a life. “I sat among the stumps and the swirling red dust and I cried,” he wrote in his journal.

So many in my generation (and younger) feel this kind of helplessness–and considerable rage–at finding ourselves newly adult in a world where those in power seem determined to abandon or destroy everything that human bodies have always needed to survive: air, water, land. Asking any single book to speak to this helplessness feels unfair, somehow; yet, Braiding Sweetgrass does, by weaving descriptions of indigenous tradition with the environmental sciences in order to show what survival has looked like over the course of many millennia. Kimmerer’s essays describe her personal experience as a Potawotami woman, plant ecologist, and teacher alongside stories of the many ways that humans have lived in relationship to other species. Whether describing Dolp’s work–he left the stumps for a life of forest restoration on the Oregon coast–or the work of others in maple sugar harvesting, creating black ash baskets, or planting a Three Sisters garden of corn, beans, and squash, she brings hope. “In ripe ears and swelling fruit, they counsel us that all gifts are multiplied in relationship,” she writes of the Three Sisters, which all sustain one another as they grow. “This is how the world keeps going.” –Corinne Segal, Senior Editor

Hilton Als, White Girls (2013)

In a world where we are so often reduced to one essential self, Hilton Als’ breathtaking book of critical essays, White Girls , which meditates on the ways he and other subjects read, project and absorb parts of white femininity, is a radically liberating book. It’s one of the only works of critical thinking that doesn’t ask the reader, its author or anyone he writes about to stoop before the doorframe of complete legibility before entering. Something he also permitted the subjects and readers of his first book, the glorious book-length essay, The Women , a series of riffs and psychological portraits of Dorothy Dean, Owen Dodson, and the author’s own mother, among others. One of the shifts of that book, uncommon at the time, was how it acknowledges the way we inhabit bodies made up of variously gendered influences. To read White Girls now is to experience the utter freedom of this gift and to marvel at Als’ tremendous versatility and intelligence.

He is easily the most diversely talented American critic alive. He can write into genres like pop music and film where being part of an audience is a fantasy happening in the dark. He’s also wired enough to know how the art world builds reputations on the nod of rich white patrons, a significant collision in a time when Jean-Michel Basquiat is America’s most expensive modern artist. Als’ swerving and always moving grip on performance means he’s especially good on describing the effect of art which is volatile and unstable and built on the mingling of made-up concepts and the hard fact of their effect on behavior, such as race. Writing on Flannery O’Connor for instance he alone puts a finger on her “uneasy and unavoidable union between black and white, the sacred and the profane, the shit and the stars.” From Eminem to Richard Pryor, André Leon Talley to Michael Jackson, Als enters the life and work of numerous artists here who turn the fascinations of race and with whiteness into fury and song and describes the complexity of their beauty like his life depended upon it. There are also brief memoirs here that will stop your heart. This is an essential work to understanding American culture. –John Freeman, Executive Editor

Eula Biss, On Immunity (2014)

We move through the world as if we can protect ourselves from its myriad dangers, exercising what little agency we have in an effort to keep at bay those fears that gather at the edges of any given life: of loss, illness, disaster, death. It is these fears—amplified by the birth of her first child—that Eula Biss confronts in her essential 2014 essay collection, On Immunity . As any great essayist does, Biss moves outward in concentric circles from her own very private view of the world to reveal wider truths, discovering as she does a culture consumed by anxiety at the pervasive toxicity of contemporary life. As Biss interrogates this culture—of privilege, of whiteness—she interrogates herself, questioning the flimsy ways in which we arm ourselves with science or superstition against the impurities of daily existence.

Five years on from its publication, it is dismaying that On Immunity feels as urgent (and necessary) a defense of basic science as ever. Vaccination, we learn, is derived from vacca —for cow—after the 17th-century discovery that a small application of cowpox was often enough to inoculate against the scourge of smallpox, an etymological digression that belies modern conspiratorial fears of Big Pharma and its vaccination agenda. But Biss never scolds or belittles the fears of others, and in her generosity and openness pulls off a neat (and important) trick: insofar as we are of the very world we fear, she seems to be suggesting, we ourselves are impure, have always been so, permeable, vulnerable, yet so much stronger than we think. –Jonny Diamond, Editor-in-Chief

Rebecca Solnit, The Mother of All Questions (2016)

When Rebecca Solnit’s essay, “Men Explain Things to Me,” was published in 2008, it quickly became a cultural phenomenon unlike almost any other in recent memory, assigning language to a behavior that almost every woman has witnessed—mansplaining—and, in the course of identifying that behavior, spurring a movement, online and offline, to share the ways in which patriarchal arrogance has intersected all our lives. (It would also come to be the titular essay in her collection published in 2014.) The Mother of All Questions follows up on that work and takes it further in order to examine the nature of self-expression—who is afforded it and denied it, what institutions have been put in place to limit it, and what happens when it is employed by women. Solnit has a singular gift for describing and decoding the misogynistic dynamics that govern the world so universally that they can seem invisible and the gendered violence that is so common as to seem unremarkable; this naming is powerful, and it opens space for sharing the stories that shape our lives.

The Mother of All Questions, comprised of essays written between 2014 and 2016, in many ways armed us with some of the tools necessary to survive the gaslighting of the Trump years, in which many of us—and especially women—have continued to hear from those in power that the things we see and hear do not exist and never existed. Solnit also acknowledges that labels like “woman,” and other gendered labels, are identities that are fluid in reality; in reviewing the book for The New Yorker , Moira Donegan suggested that, “One useful working definition of a woman might be ‘someone who experiences misogyny.'” Whichever words we use, Solnit writes in the introduction to the book that “when words break through unspeakability, what was tolerated by a society sometimes becomes intolerable.” This storytelling work has always been vital; it continues to be vital, and in this book, it is brilliantly done. –Corinne Segal, Senior Editor

Valeria Luiselli, Tell Me How It Ends (2017)

The newly minted MacArthur fellow Valeria Luiselli’s four-part (but really six-part) essay Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions was inspired by her time spent volunteering at the federal immigration court in New York City, working as an interpreter for undocumented, unaccompanied migrant children who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. Written concurrently with her novel Lost Children Archive (a fictional exploration of the same topic), Luiselli’s essay offers a fascinating conceit, the fashioning of an argument from the questions on the government intake form given to these children to process their arrivals. (Aside from the fact that this essay is a heartbreaking masterpiece, this is such a good conceit—transforming a cold, reproducible administrative document into highly personal literature.) Luiselli interweaves a grounded discussion of the questionnaire with a narrative of the road trip Luiselli takes with her husband and family, across America, while they (both Mexican citizens) wait for their own Green Card applications to be processed. It is on this trip when Luiselli reflects on the thousands of migrant children mysteriously traveling across the border by themselves. But the real point of the essay is to actually delve into the real stories of some of these children, which are agonizing, as well as to gravely, clearly expose what literally happens, procedural, when they do arrive—from forms to courts, as they’re swallowed by a bureaucratic vortex. Amid all of this, Luiselli also takes on more, exploring the larger contextual relationship between the United States of America and Mexico (as well as other countries in Central America, more broadly) as it has evolved to our current, adverse moment. Tell Me How It Ends is so small, but it is so passionate and vigorous: it desperately accomplishes in its less-than-100-pages-of-prose what centuries and miles and endless records of federal bureaucracy have never been able, and have never cared, to do: reverse the dehumanization of Latin American immigrants that occurs once they set foot in this country. –Olivia Rutigliano, CrimeReads Editorial Fellow

Zadie Smith, Feel Free (2018)

In the essay “Meet Justin Bieber!” in Feel Free , Zadie Smith writes that her interest in Justin Bieber is not an interest in the interiority of the singer himself, but in “the idea of the love object”. This essay—in which Smith imagines a meeting between Bieber and the late philosopher Martin Buber (“Bieber and Buber are alternative spellings of the same German surname,” she explains in one of many winning footnotes. “Who am I to ignore these hints from the universe?”). Smith allows that this premise is a bit premise -y: “I know, I know.” Still, the resulting essay is a very funny, very smart, and un-tricky exploration of individuality and true “meeting,” with a dash of late capitalism thrown in for good measure. The melding of high and low culture is the bread and butter of pretty much every prestige publication on the internet these days (and certainly of the Twitter feeds of all “public intellectuals”), but the essays in Smith’s collection don’t feel familiar—perhaps because hers is, as we’ve long known, an uncommon skill. Though I believe Smith could probably write compellingly about anything, she chooses her subjects wisely. She writes with as much electricity about Brexit as the aforementioned Beliebers—and each essay is utterly engrossing. “She contains multitudes, but her point is we all do,” writes Hermione Hoby in her review of the collection in The New Republic . “At the same time, we are, in our endless difference, nobody but ourselves.” –Jessie Gaynor, Social Media Editor

Tressie McMillan Cottom, Thick: And Other Essays (2019)

Tressie McMillan Cottom is an academic who has transcended the ivory tower to become the sort of public intellectual who can easily appear on radio or television talk shows to discuss race, gender, and capitalism. Her collection of essays reflects this duality, blending scholarly work with memoir to create a collection on the black female experience in postmodern America that’s “intersectional analysis with a side of pop culture.” The essays range from an analysis of sexual violence, to populist politics, to social media, but in centering her own experiences throughout, the collection becomes something unlike other pieces of criticism of contemporary culture. In explaining the title, she reflects on what an editor had said about her work: “I was too readable to be academic, too deep to be popular, too country black to be literary, and too naïve to show the rigor of my thinking in the complexity of my prose. I had wanted to create something meaningful that sounded not only like me, but like all of me. It was too thick.” One of the most powerful essays in the book is “Dying to be Competent” which begins with her unpacking the idiocy of LinkedIn (and the myth of meritocracy) and ends with a description of her miscarriage, the mishandling of black woman’s pain, and a condemnation of healthcare bureaucracy. A finalist for the 2019 National Book Award for Nonfiction, Thick confirms McMillan Cottom as one of our most fearless public intellectuals and one of the most vital. –Emily Firetog, Deputy Editor

Dissenting Opinions

The following books were just barely nudged out of the top ten, but we (or at least one of us) couldn’t let them pass without comment.

Elif Batuman, The Possessed (2010)

In The Possessed Elif Batuman indulges her love of Russian literature and the result is hilarious and remarkable. Each essay of the collection chronicles some adventure or other that she had while in graduate school for Comparative Literature and each is more unpredictable than the next. There’s the time a “well-known 20th-centuryist” gave a graduate student the finger; and the time when Batuman ended up living in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, for a summer; and the time that she convinced herself Tolstoy was murdered and spent the length of the Tolstoy Conference in Yasnaya Polyana considering clues and motives. Rich in historic detail about Russian authors and literature and thoughtfully constructed, each essay is an amalgam of critical analysis, cultural criticism, and serious contemplation of big ideas like that of identity, intellectual legacy, and authorship. With wit and a serpentine-like shape to her narratives, Batuman adopts a form reminiscent of a Socratic discourse, setting up questions at the beginning of her essays and then following digressions that more or less entreat the reader to synthesize the answer for herself. The digressions are always amusing and arguably the backbone of the collection, relaying absurd anecdotes with foreign scholars or awkward, surreal encounters with Eastern European strangers. Central also to the collection are Batuman’s intellectual asides where she entertains a theory—like the “problem of the person”: the inability to ever wholly capture one’s character—that ultimately layer the book’s themes. “You are certainly my most entertaining student,” a professor said to Batuman. But she is also curious and enthusiastic and reflective and so knowledgeable that she might even convince you (she has me!) that you too love Russian literature as much as she does. –Eleni Theodoropoulos, Editorial Fellow

Roxane Gay, Bad Feminist (2014)

Roxane Gay’s now-classic essay collection is a book that will make you laugh, think, cry, and then wonder, how can cultural criticism be this fun? My favorite essays in the book include Gay’s musings on competitive Scrabble, her stranded-in-academia dispatches, and her joyous film and television criticism, but given the breadth of topics Roxane Gay can discuss in an entertaining manner, there’s something for everyone in this one. This book is accessible because feminism itself should be accessible – Roxane Gay is as likely to draw inspiration from YA novels, or middle-brow shows about friendship, as she is to introduce concepts from the academic world, and if there’s anyone I trust to bridge the gap between high culture, low culture, and pop culture, it’s the Goddess of Twitter. I used to host a book club dedicated to radical reads, and this was one of the first picks for the club; a week after the book club met, I spied a few of the attendees meeting in the café of the bookstore, and found out that they had bonded so much over discussing Bad Feminist that they couldn’t wait for the next meeting of the book club to keep discussing politics and intersectionality, and that, in a nutshell, is the power of Roxane. –Molly Odintz, CrimeReads Associate Editor

Rivka Galchen, Little Labors (2016)

Generally, I find stories about the trials and tribulations of child-having to be of limited appeal—useful, maybe, insofar as they offer validation that other people have also endured the bizarre realities of living with a tiny human, but otherwise liable to drift into the musings of parents thrilled at the simple fact of their own fecundity, as if they were the first ones to figure the process out (or not). But Little Labors is not simply an essay collection about motherhood, perhaps because Galchen initially “didn’t want to write about” her new baby—mostly, she writes, “because I had never been interested in babies, or mothers; in fact, those subjects had seemed perfectly not interesting to me.” Like many new mothers, though, Galchen soon discovered her baby—which she refers to sometimes as “the puma”—to be a preoccupying thought, demanding to be written about. Galchen’s interest isn’t just in her own progeny, but in babies in literature (“Literature has more dogs than babies, and also more abortions”), The Pillow Book , the eleventh-century collection of musings by Sei Shōnagon, and writers who are mothers. There are sections that made me laugh out loud, like when Galchen continually finds herself in an elevator with a neighbor who never fails to remark on the puma’s size. There are also deeper, darker musings, like the realization that the baby means “that it’s not permissible to die. There are days when this does not feel good.” It is a slim collection that I happened to read at the perfect time, and it remains one of my favorites of the decade. –Emily Firetog, Deputy Editor

Charlie Fox, This Young Monster (2017)

On social media as in his writing, British art critic Charlie Fox rejects lucidity for allusion and doesn’t quite answer the Twitter textbox’s persistent question: “What’s happening?” These days, it’s hard to tell. This Young Monster (2017), Fox’s first book,was published a few months after Donald Trump’s election, and at one point Fox takes a swipe at a man he judges “direct from a nightmare and just a repulsive fucking goon.” Fox doesn’t linger on politics, though, since most of the monsters he looks at “embody otherness and make it into art, ripping any conventional idea of beauty to shreds and replacing it with something weird and troubling of their own invention.”

If clichés are loathed because they conform to what philosopher Georges Bataille called “the common measure,” then monsters are rebellious non-sequiturs, comedic or horrific derailments from a classical ideal. Perverts in the most literal sense, monsters have gone astray from some “proper” course. The book’s nine chapters, which are about a specific monster or type of monster, are full of callbacks to familiar and lesser-known media. Fox cites visual art, film, songs, and books with the screwy buoyancy of a savant. Take one of his essays, “Spook House,” framed as a stage play with two principal characters, Klaus (“an intoxicated young skinhead vampire”) and Hermione (“a teen sorceress with green skin and jet-black hair” who looks more like The Wicked Witch than her namesake). The chorus is a troupe of trick-or-treaters. Using the filmmaker Cameron Jamie as a starting point, the rest is free association on gothic decadence and Detroit and L.A. as cities of the dead. All the while, Klaus quotes from Artforum , Dazed & Confused , and Time Out. It’s a technical feat that makes fictionalized dialogue a conveyor belt for cultural criticism.

In Fox’s imagination, David Bowie and the Hydra coexist alongside Peter Pan, Dennis Hopper, and the maenads. Fox’s book reaches for the monster’s mask, not really to peel it off but to feel and smell the rubber schnoz, to know how it’s made before making sure it’s still snugly set. With a stylistic blend of arthouse suavity and B-movie chic, This Young Monster considers how monsters in culture are made. Aren’t the scariest things made in post-production? Isn’t the creature just duplicity, like a looping choir or a dubbed scream? –Aaron Robertson, Assistant Editor

Elena Passarello, Animals Strike Curious Poses (2017)

Elena Passarello’s collection of essays Animals Strike Curious Poses picks out infamous animals and grants them the voice, narrative, and history they deserve. Not only is a collection like this relevant during the sixth extinction but it is an ambitious historical and anthropological undertaking, which Passarello has tackled with thorough research and a playful tone that rather than compromise her subject, complicates and humanizes it. Passarello’s intention is to investigate the role of animals across the span of human civilization and in doing so, to construct a timeline of humanity as told through people’s interactions with said animals. “Of all the images that make our world, animal images are particularly buried inside us,” Passarello writes in her first essay, to introduce us to the object of the book and also to the oldest of her chosen characters: Yuka, a 39,000-year-old mummified woolly mammoth discovered in the Siberian permafrost in 2010. It was an occasion so remarkable and so unfathomable given the span of human civilization that Passarello says of Yuka: “Since language is epically younger than both thought and experience, ‘woolly mammoth’ means, to a human brain, something more like time.” The essay ends with a character placing a hand on a cave drawing of a woolly mammoth, accompanied by a phrase which encapsulates the author’s vision for the book: “And he becomes the mammoth so he can envision the mammoth.” In Passarello’s hands the imagined boundaries between the animal, natural, and human world disintegrate and what emerges is a cohesive if baffling integrated history of life. With the accuracy and tenacity of a journalist and the spirit of a storyteller, Elena Passarello has assembled a modern bestiary worthy of contemplation and awe. –Eleni Theodoropoulos, Editorial Fellow

Esmé Weijun Wang, The Collected Schizophrenias (2019)

Esmé Weijun Wang’s collection of essays is a kaleidoscopic look at mental health and the lives affected by the schizophrenias. Each essay takes on a different aspect of the topic, but you’ll want to read them together for a holistic perspective. Esmé Weijun Wang generously begins The Collected Schizophrenias by acknowledging the stereotype, “Schizophrenia terrifies. It is the archetypal disorder of lunacy.” From there, she walks us through the technical language, breaks down the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual ( DSM-5 )’s clinical definition. And then she gets very personal, telling us about how she came to her own diagnosis and the way it’s touched her daily life (her relationships, her ideas about motherhood). Esmé Weijun Wang is uniquely situated to write about this topic. As a former lab researcher at Stanford, she turns a precise, analytical eye to her experience while simultaneously unfolding everything with great patience for her reader. Throughout, she brilliantly dissects the language around mental health. (On saying “a person living with bipolar disorder” instead of using “bipolar” as the sole subject: “…we are not our diseases. We are instead individuals with disorders and malfunctions. Our conditions lie over us like smallpox blankets; we are one thing and the illness is another.”) She pinpoints the ways she arms herself against anticipated reactions to the schizophrenias: high fashion, having attended an Ivy League institution. In a particularly piercing essay, she traces mental illness back through her family tree. She also places her story within more mainstream cultural contexts, calling on groundbreaking exposés about the dangerous of institutionalization and depictions of mental illness in television and film (like the infamous Slender Man case, in which two young girls stab their best friend because an invented Internet figure told them to). At once intimate and far-reaching, The Collected Schizophrenias is an informative and important (and let’s not forget artful) work. I’ve never read a collection quite so beautifully-written and laid-bare as this. –Katie Yee, Book Marks Assistant Editor

Ross Gay, The Book of Delights (2019)

When Ross Gay began writing what would become The Book of Delights, he envisioned it as a project of daily essays, each focused on a moment or point of delight in his day. This plan quickly disintegrated; on day four, he skipped his self-imposed assignment and decided to “in honor and love, delight in blowing it off.” (Clearly, “blowing it off” is a relative term here, as he still produced the book.) Ross Gay is a generous teacher of how to live, and this moment of reveling in self-compassion is one lesson among many in The Book of Delights , which wanders from moments of connection with strangers to a shade of “red I don’t think I actually have words for,” a text from a friend reading “I love you breadfruit,” and “the sun like a guiding hand on my back, saying everything is possible. Everything .”

Gay does not linger on any one subject for long, creating the sense that delight is a product not of extenuating circumstances, but of our attention; his attunement to the possibilities of a single day, and awareness of all the small moments that produce delight, are a model for life amid the warring factions of the attention economy. These small moments range from the physical–hugging a stranger, transplanting fig cuttings–to the spiritual and philosophical, giving the impression of sitting beside Gay in his garden as he thinks out loud in real time. It’s a privilege to listen. –Corinne Segal, Senior Editor

Honorable Mentions

A selection of other books that we seriously considered for both lists—just to be extra about it (and because decisions are hard).

Terry Castle, The Professor and Other Writings (2010) · Joyce Carol Oates, In Rough Country (2010) · Geoff Dyer, Otherwise Known as the Human Condition (2011) · Christopher Hitchens, Arguably (2011) · Roberto Bolaño, tr. Natasha Wimmer, Between Parentheses (2011) · Dubravka Ugresic, tr. David Williams, Karaoke Culture (2011) · Tom Bissell, Magic Hours (2012) · Kevin Young, The Grey Album (2012) · William H. Gass, Life Sentences: Literary Judgments and Accounts (2012) · Mary Ruefle, Madness, Rack, and Honey (2012) · Herta Müller, tr. Geoffrey Mulligan, Cristina and Her Double (2013) · Leslie Jamison, The Empathy Exams (2014) · Meghan Daum, The Unspeakable (2014) · Daphne Merkin, The Fame Lunches (2014) · Charles D’Ambrosio, Loitering (2015) · Wendy Walters, Multiply/Divide (2015) · Colm Tóibín, On Elizabeth Bishop (2015) · Renee Gladman, Calamities (2016) · Jesmyn Ward, ed. The Fire This Time (2016) · Lindy West, Shrill (2016) · Mary Oliver, Upstream (2016) · Emily Witt, Future Sex (2016) · Olivia Laing, The Lonely City (2016) · Mark Greif, Against Everything (2016) · Durga Chew-Bose, Too Much and Not the Mood (2017) · Sarah Gerard, Sunshine State (2017) · Jim Harrison, A Really Big Lunch (2017) · J.M. Coetzee, Late Essays: 2006-2017 (2017) · Melissa Febos, Abandon Me (2017) · Louise Glück, American Originality (2017) · Joan Didion, South and West (2017) · Tom McCarthy, Typewriters, Bombs, Jellyfish (2017) · Hanif Abdurraqib, They Can’t Kill Us Until they Kill Us (2017) · Ta-Nehisi Coates, We Were Eight Years in Power (2017) · Samantha Irby, We Are Never Meeting in Real Life (2017) · Alexander Chee, How to Write an Autobiographical Novel (2018) · Alice Bolin, Dead Girls (2018) · Marilynne Robinson, What Are We Doing Here? (2018) · Lorrie Moore, See What Can Be Done (2018) · Maggie O’Farrell, I Am I Am I Am (2018) · Ijeoma Oluo, So You Want to Talk About Race (2018) · Rachel Cusk, Coventry (2019) · Jia Tolentino, Trick Mirror (2019) · Emily Bernard, Black is the Body (2019) · Toni Morrison, The Source of Self-Regard (2019) · Margaret Renkl, Late Migrations (2019) · Rachel Munroe, Savage Appetites (2019) · Robert A. Caro, Working (2019) · Arundhati Roy, My Seditious Heart (2019).

Emily Temple

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The Poetry issue

The Shape of the Void: Toward a Definition of Poetry

“Poetry leaves something out,” our columnist Elisa Gabbert says. But that’s hardly the extent of it.

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By Elisa Gabbert

I once heard a student say poetry is language that’s “coherent enough.” I love a definition this ambiguous. It’s both helpful (there’s a limit to coherence, and the limit is aesthetic) and unhelpful (enough for what, or whom?). It reminds me of a dictionary entry for “detritus” that I copied down in a notebook: “the pieces that are left when something breaks, falls apart, is destroyed, etc.” That seemed so artfully vague to me, so uncharacteristically casual for a dictionary. It has a quality of distraction, of trailing off, of suggesting you already know what detritus means. Part of me resists the question of what poetry is, or resists the answer — you already know what it means.

But let’s answer it anyway, starting with the obvious: If the words have rhyme and meter, it’s poetry. Nonwords with rhyme and meter, as in “Jabberwocky,” also are poetry. And since words in aggregate have at least some rhyme and rhythm, which lines on the page accentuate, any words composed in lines are poetry. There’s something to be said for the obvious. Virginia Woolf wrote of E.M. Forster: “He says the simple things that clever people don’t say; I find him the best of critics for that reason. Suddenly out comes the obvious thing one has overlooked.”

Is there much else? I think so. I think poetry leaves something out. All texts leave something out, of course — otherwise they’d be infinite — but most of the time, more is left out of a poem. Verse, by forcing more white space on the page, is constantly reminding you of what’s not there. This absence of something, this hyper-present absence, is why prose poems take up less space than other prose forms; the longer they get, the less they feel like poems. It’s why fragments are automatically poetic: Erasure turns prose into poems. It’s why any text that’s alluringly cryptic or elusive — a road sign, assembly instructions — is described as poetic. The poetic is not merely beauty in language, but beauty in incoherence, in resistance to common sense. The missingness of poetry slows readers down, making them search for what can’t be found. The encounter is almost inherently frustrating, as though one could not possibly pay enough attention. This is useful: Frustration is erotic.

“What is poetry?” is not the same question, quite, as “What is a poem?” How many poems did Emily Dickinson write? It depends what you count. In “Writing in Time,” the scholar Marta Werner writes, of Dickinson’s so-called Master letters, “At their most fundamental, ontological level, we don’t know what they are.” Perhaps my favorite poem of Dickinson’s is not, perhaps, a poem — it’s an odd bit of verse in the form of a letter to her sister-in-law, ending with the loveliest, slantest of rhymes: “Be Sue, while/I am Emily —/Be next, what/you have ever/been, Infinity.” Are the “breaks” really breaks? The letter is written on a small, narrow card; the words go almost to the edge of the paper. I think, too, of Rilke’s letters, which often read like poems. In 1925, he wrote to his Polish translator: “We are the bees of the Invisible. We wildly gather the honey of the visible, in order to store it in the great golden hive of the Invisible.” In these letter-poems, poetry reveals itself as more a mode of writing, a mode of thinking, even a mode of being , than a genre. The poem is not the only unit of poetry; poetic lines in isolation are still poetry. The poem is a vessel; poetry is liquid.

From time to time I’m asked, with bewilderment or derision, if this or that poem isn’t just “prose chopped into lines.” This idea of the free verse poem as “chopped” prose comes from Ezra Pound via Marjorie Perloff, who quotes Pound in her influential essay “The Linear Fallacy,” published in 1981. The essay encourages an oddly suspicious, even paranoid reading of most free verse as phony poetry, as prose in costume. The line, in Perloff’s view, in these ersatz poems, is a “surface device,” a “gimmick.” She removes all the breaks from a C.K. Williams poem to make the case that a stanza without the intentional carriage returns is merely a paragraph.

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Mastering the art of crafting a poetry essay – essential tips and strategies.

Poetry is a beautiful and complex form of literature that allows individuals to express emotions, thoughts, and experiences in a creative and unique way. When writing an essay about poetry, it is essential to approach the task with care and attention to detail. Crafting an effective poetry essay requires a deep understanding of the art form and the ability to analyze and interpret poetic works. In this article, we will explore some tips to help you create a compelling and insightful poetry essay that showcases your analytical skills and appreciation for poetry.

One of the first steps in writing a poetry essay is to carefully read and analyze the poem or poems you are writing about. Take the time to read the poem multiple times, paying close attention to the language, structure, and overall theme. Consider the tone of the poem, the use of imagery and metaphor, and the emotions evoked by the language. By immersing yourself in the poem and exploring its nuances, you will be better equipped to craft a thoughtful and well-informed essay.

Another important tip for writing a poetry essay is to develop a clear thesis statement that outlines the main argument or interpretation you will be making about the poem. Your thesis should be specific, concise, and focused, providing readers with a roadmap of the points you will be discussing in your essay. Use your thesis statement to guide your analysis and ensure that each paragraph in your essay contributes to your overall argument.

Key Strategies for Writing a Successful Poetry Essay

1. Close Reading: Begin by closely reading the poem multiple times to understand its structure, themes, and language use.

2. Analysis: Analyze the poem’s meaning, symbolism, and poetic devices such as metaphors, similes, and imagery.

3. Thesis Statement: Develop a clear and focused thesis statement that encapsulates your interpretation of the poem.

4. Organization: Organize your essay in a logical and coherent manner, with each paragraph supporting your thesis.

5. Evidence: Use specific examples and quotes from the poem to support your analysis and arguments.

6. Interpretation: Offer your own interpretation of the poem while considering different perspectives and engaging critically with the text.

7. Conclusion: Conclude your essay by summarizing your key points and reiterating the significance of your analysis.

8. Revision: Revise your essay for clarity, coherence, and effectiveness, ensuring that your ideas are well-developed and supported.

9. Proofreading: Proofread your essay carefully to eliminate any errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

10. Feedback: Seek feedback from peers, instructors, or writing centers to improve your essay and gain different perspectives.

Understand the Poem’s Context

Before analyzing a poem, it is essential to understand the context in which it was written. Consider the historical period, the poet’s background, and any events that may have influenced the writing of the poem. Understanding the context can provide valuable insights into the poet’s intentions, the themes addressed, and the overall impact of the poem.

Analyze the Poem’s Structure

Poetry is often characterized by its unique structure, which plays a crucial role in conveying the poet’s message. When analyzing a poem’s structure, pay attention to the following aspects:

Line Length: Examine the length of each line in the poem. Short lines can create a quick, staccato rhythm, while long lines can slow down the pace and add a sense of contemplation.

Stanza Formation: Look at how the poem is divided into stanzas. The number of lines in each stanza and their arrangement can highlight key ideas or themes.

Rhyme Scheme: Identify any rhyme scheme employed by the poet. Rhyme can create a musical quality in the poem and emphasize certain words or ideas.

Meter and Rhythm: Consider the meter and rhythm of the poem. The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables can influence the poem’s flow and mood.

Understanding these structural elements can deepen your analysis of the poem and help you appreciate the poet’s craft in conveying meaning through form.

Explore the Poem’s Themes

One crucial aspect of crafting an effective poetry essay is to delve into the themes present in the poem. Themes are the underlying messages or concepts that the poet is trying to convey through their work. To effectively analyze a poem’s themes, consider the following:

Identify recurring ideas or motifs throughout the poem.
Consider the emotions or feelings evoked by the poem and how they contribute to the overall theme.
Look for symbolic elements that represent deeper meanings within the poem.
Reflect on the social, cultural, or historical context of the poem to better understand its themes.

By exploring the poem’s themes in depth, you can gain a deeper understanding of the poet’s intentions and craft a more insightful analysis in your essay.

Examine the Poem’s Use of Language

When crafting a poetry essay, it is essential to analyze the poem’s use of language. Pay close attention to the words, phrases, and imagery used by the poet to convey their message. Consider the tone, mood, and atmosphere created through the poet’s choice of language.

Look for literary devices such as metaphor, simile, personification, and symbolism, and evaluate how they contribute to the overall meaning of the poem. Note the cadence and rhythm of the poem, as well as any rhyme or meter patterns that enhance the poetic effect.

Furthermore, explore the connotations and denotations of key words in the poem, as well as the poet’s use of figurative language. Consider how the poet’s linguistic choices shape the reader’s understanding and emotional response to the poem.

By closely examining the poem’s use of language, you can uncover deeper layers of meaning and appreciate the artistry behind the poet’s writing.

Consider the Poet’s Background

When analyzing a poem for an essay, it’s crucial to consider the poet’s background and life experiences. Understanding the context in which the poet lived can offer valuable insights into the themes, symbols, and emotions expressed in their poetry. Researching the poet’s biography, cultural influences, and historical events that shaped their worldview can deepen your understanding of the poem and enhance your analysis. By considering the poet’s background, you can uncover hidden meanings and nuances that may not be immediately apparent, enriching your interpretation and creating a more comprehensive essay.

Connect Themes to Personal Experience

One effective way to enhance your poetry essay is to connect the themes discussed in the poem to your personal experiences. By relating the themes to your own life, you can offer a unique and personal perspective that will enrich your analysis.

Consider how the themes of the poem resonate with your own emotions, experiences, or beliefs. Share personal anecdotes or examples that illustrate how the themes are relevant to your life. This personal connection can add depth and nuance to your essay, making it more engaging and insightful.

Furthermore, drawing on personal experiences can help you better understand and interpret the poem’s themes. Your own life experiences can provide valuable insights and interpretations that may not be immediately apparent. By exploring the connections between the poem and your personal experiences, you can uncover new layers of meaning and significance.

Craft a Compelling Thesis Statement

One of the most important elements of your poetry essay is the thesis statement. Your thesis should clearly express the main argument or interpretation of the poem you are analyzing. It should be specific, debatable, and insightful.

To craft a compelling thesis statement, start by carefully reading and analyzing the poem. Identify the key themes, symbols, and poetic devices that the poet uses. Consider how these elements contribute to the overall meaning of the poem.

Your thesis statement should make a claim about the poem that can be supported with evidence from the text. Avoid simply summarizing the poem or stating the obvious. Instead, strive to present a unique and thought-provoking interpretation.

Remember that your thesis statement will guide the rest of your essay, so take the time to refine it until you are confident that it effectively captures the essence of your analysis. A strong thesis statement will help you organize your thoughts and present a clear and coherent argument in your poetry essay.

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Best Words, Best Order: Essays on Poetry Paperback – January 1, 1997

Print length 352 pages
Language English
Publisher Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date January 1, 1997
Dimensions 8.15 x 5.48 x 0.9 inches
ISBN-10 031217229X
ISBN-13 978-0312172299
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Publisher ‏ : ‎ Palgrave Macmillan; ST MARTIN'S GRIFFIN ed. edition (January 1, 1997)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 031217229X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0312172299
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.15 x 5.48 x 0.9 inches
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Altoona English professor’s poems and essay featured in 'Just YA' anthology

Erin Murphy, professor of English at Penn State Altoona, has three original works published in a new anthology of contemporary literature for young adults. “Just YA: Short Poems, Stories, and Essays,” edited by Sarah Donovan, is designed for teachers of grades 7 through 12. The book includes a teacher’s guide and is organized around the themes of identity, love, place, justice, and the future. Credit: Penn State . Creative Commons

September 24, 2024

ALTOONA, Pa. — Erin Murphy, professor of English at Penn State Altoona, has three original works published in a new anthology of contemporary literature for young adults.

“Just YA: Short Poems, Stories, and Essays,” edited by Sarah Donovan, is designed for teachers of grades seven through 12. The book includes a teacher’s guide and is organized around the themes of identity, love, place, justice and the future.

Murphy’s featured works include “Erased,” an erasure poem about climate change; “Illuminated,” a poem about social media; and “Slow Burn,” a creative nonfiction essay about family and mental health.

“Just YA” is published as an open-access book, which means that all content is free of charge and available online. Interested teachers and readers may download the anthology from the anthology website .

“Just YA” is a “rich anthology … with an emphasis on currency and relevance missing from commercial textbooks,” writes educator Wendy Stephens, adding that the book is “an incredible resource with immediate curricular application and more than fifty pages of ideas for instructional support.”

Murphy is the author or editor of more than a dozen books, chapbooks and anthologies, with two additional books forthcoming from Salmon Poetry and Wesleyan University Press. She is the Poet Laureate of Blair County and is currently serving as Penn State’s inaugural Mellon Academic Leadership Fellow for the Big Ten Academic Alliance. You can read more about her work on the author's website .

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COMMENTS

Essays About Poetry: 5 Interesting Examples and Topic Ideas
Examples Of Essays About Poetry. 1. How Poetry Changed My Life By Shuly Cawood. It was Dr. David Citino who let me into his poetry writing seminar, Dr. David Citino who taught me how to take sentimentality out, Dr. David Citino who made it possible for me to stay in my journalism program and finish. Poetry kept me from quitting.
How to Write a Poetry Essay (Complete Guide)
Main Paragraphs. Now, we come to the main body of the essay, the quality of which will ultimately determine the strength of our essay. This section should comprise of 4-5 paragraphs, and each of these should analyze an aspect of the poem and then link the effect that aspect creates to the poem's themes or message.
Tradition and the Individual Talent
Perhaps his best-known essay, "Tradition and the Individual Talent" was first published in 1919 and soon after included in The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism (1920). Eliot attempts to do two things in this essay: he first redefines "tradition" by emphasizing the importance of history to writing and understanding poetry, and ...
The Machine of Poetry
Matthew Zapruder is the author of four collections of poetry. His poetry, essays, and translations have appeared in publications including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Tin House, and The Believer.An associate professor in the Saint Mary's College of California MFA program and English department, he is also editor at large at Wave Books and, from 2016-17, was the editor of the poetry ...
Five of the Best Books about Studying Poetry
Padel considers 52 different poems and offers a close reading of them, beautifully bringing out the subtle meanings of the poetry and the ways in which the poet generates such meanings. Christopher Ricks, The Force of Poetry. This 1984 volume is a collection of essays written during the 1960s-1980s, by one of the greatest living critics of poetry.
The Study of Poetry
The best poetry is what we want; the best poetry will be found to have a power of forming, sustaining, and delighting us, as nothing else can. A clearer, deeper sense of the best in poetry, and of the strength and joy to be drawn from it, is the most precious benefit which we can gather from a poetical collection such as the present.
Writing About Poetry
It is useful to follow some standard conventions when writing about poetry. First, when you analyze a poem, it is best to use present tense rather than past tense for your verbs. Second, you will want to make use of numerous quotations from the poem and explain their meaning and their significance to your argument.
Essays
The Society. May 1, 2024. Essays, Poetry. The Society of Classical Poets Journal XII has been published! It features poetry, translations, and essays selected from those published on the SCP website between February 1, 2023 and January 31, 2024....
Best Words, Best Order: Essays on Poetry
About this book. In this new edition of Best Words, Best Order, Stephen Dobyns further explains the mystery of the poet's work. Through essays on memory and metaphor, pacing, and the intricacies of voice and tone, and thoughtful appreciations of Chekhov, Ritsos, Mandelstam, and Rilke, Dobyns guides readers and writers through poetry's ...
Proofs and Theories: Essays on Poetry
Louise Gluck. Winner of the 1993 PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction, Proofs and Theories is a compilation of essays on the work of other poets, as well as reflections on the art. Author Louise Gluck is a former U.S. poet laureate who has written numerous poetry collections, including the The Wild Iris, which received the Pulitzer Prize.
30 Poets You Should Be Reading
Cathy Park Hong's poetry and essays have had a great impact on communities of poets seeking visibility in their experimentation. ... Available this month, Olio is the very best of what American poetry still has in store for us. Listen: Claudia Rankine talks to Paul Holdengräber about objectifying the moment, investigating a subject, and ...
10 of the Best (and Easiest) Poems to Analyze
Best/Easiest Poems to Analyze. 1 Fire and Ice by Robert Frost. 2 Mother to Son by Langston Hughes. 3 A Dream Within a Dream by Edgar Allan Poe. 4 Still I Rise by Maya Angelou. 5 Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas. 6 The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus. 7 If You Forget Me by Pablo Neruda.
Learning Image and Description
BY Rachel Richardson. Originally Published: March 26, 2015. In order to imagine, we begin with an image. The imagination gets triggered by images and descriptions when we read, making us feel as though we are in the scene. You can think of imagery as an entryway into a poem: a physical realm allowing us to explore the mind of the poet.
Best Words, Best Order: Essays on Poetry, 2nd Edition
Paperback - May 30, 2003. In this new edition of Best Words, Best Order, Stephen Dobyns further explains the mystery of the poet's work. Through essays on memory and metaphor, pacing, and the intricacies of voice and tone, and thoughtful appreciations of Chekhov, Ritsos, Mandelstam, and Rilke, Dobyns guides readers and writers through poetry ...
5 Writers Who Blur the Boundary Between Poetry and Essay
Bernadette Mayer Claudia Rankine David Rattray Dodie Bellamy essayists experimental writing form Fred Moten Jenny Boully Maggie Nelson poets Roby Brunton. Ruby Brunton is a nomadic writer, poet and performer. See more @RubyBrunton. 12 Famous Authors at Work With Their Dogs. Confessions of the Fox.
The 10 Best Essay Collections of the Decade
Hilton Als, White Girls (2013) In a world where we are so often reduced to one essential self, Hilton Als' breathtaking book of critical essays, White Girls, which meditates on the ways he and other subjects read, project and absorb parts of white femininity, is a radically liberating book.
Tips for Crafting a Poem Analysis Essay
Identify Key Themes and Symbols. One important aspect of crafting a poem analysis essay is identifying the key themes and symbols within the poem. Themes are recurring ideas or messages that the poet conveys through the poem, while symbols are objects, characters, or elements that represent deeper meanings. When analyzing a poem, pay attention ...
Essay: What Is Poetry?
The essay encourages an oddly suspicious, even paranoid reading of most free verse as phony poetry, as prose in costume. The line, in Perloff's view, in these ersatz poems, is a "surface ...
Tips for Crafting an Effective Poetry Essay
Key Strategies for Writing a Successful Poetry Essay. 1. Close Reading: Begin by closely reading the poem multiple times to understand its structure, themes, and language use. 2. Analysis: Analyze the poem's meaning, symbolism, and poetic devices such as metaphors, similes, and imagery. 3.
13.4: Sample essay on a poem
Example: Sample essay written on a Langston Hughes' poem. The following essay is a student's analysis of Langston Hughes' poem "I, Too" (poem published in 1926) I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen. When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong.
Best Words, Best Order: Essays on Poetry
In Best Words, Best Order, Stephen Dobyns explains the mystery of the poet's work and the ability of poetry to communicate thoughts and feelings between the writer and the reader. Through essays on memory and metaphor, pacing and the intricacies of voice and tone, and thoughtful appreciations of Chekhov, Ritsos, Mandelstam, and Rilke, Dobyns guides readers and writers through poetry's ...
Best Words, Best Order: Essays on Poetry
Best Words, Best Order: Essays on Poetry. Paperback - January 1, 1997. A poet and mystery writer explores the art and craft of poetry. Stephen Dobyns explains the ability of poetry to communicate thoughts and feeling between the writer and the reader. Through essays on memory and metaphor, pacing, the intricacies of voice and tone, and ...
Altoona English professor's poems and essay featured in 'Just YA
"Just YA: Short Poems, Stories, and Essays," edited by Sarah Donovan, is designed for teachers of grades 7 through 12. The book includes a teacher's guide and is organized around the themes of identity, love, place, justice, and the future. ... with two additional books forthcoming from Salmon Poetry and Wesleyan University Press. She is ...