Poetry

Question 1

How does one analyse poetry?

Answer 1

Using the SILT method.

Question 2

What does the ‘S’ in SILT stand for?

Answer 2

Structure:
a. Form - sonnet/free verse/ode/elegy
b. number of stanza & lines per stanza
c. Line length
d. Punctuation
e. Rhyme scheme
f. Metre

Question 3

What does the ‘I’ in SILT stand for?

Answer 3

Intention:
a. Main theme
b.Social / political /global / geopolitical commentary

Question 4

What does the ‘L’ in SILT stand for?

Answer 4

Language:
a. Poetic devices (repetition, anaphora, rhetorical questions)
b. Sound devices (alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia)
c. Comparative devices (metaphors, similes, personification, metonymy, synecdoche)

Question 5

What does the ‘T’ in SILT stand for?

Answer 5

Tone:
a. The attitude of the speaker towards the subject matter

Question 6

Who is the author of the poem/song ‘Unforgivable Youth?’

Answer 6

‘Lupe Fiasco.’

Question 7

Who or what is being referred to in ‘Unforgivable youth?’

Answer 7

American history.

Question 8

How is a Shakespearean sonnet structured?

Answer 8

3 Quatrains & a concluding couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg

Question 9

How is a Petrarchan sonnet structured?

Answer 9

14 lines in two sections:
-6 line stanza (sestet), with rhyming scheme ABBAABBA
-8 line stanza (octave) with rhyming scheme CDCDCD or CDECDE