Getting Started
Every poem has a voice, but that voice, known as the speaker, is not always the poet. Understanding who is speaking, who they are speaking to, and what their attitude is unlocks the central drama and meaning of a poem. In your literary analysis, you will examine the speaker's identity and tone to build convincing arguments about a poem's purpose and complexity.
What You Should Be Able to Do
Analyze how a poet uses specific language to create a distinct speaker or persona.
Explain how a speaker's word choice and sentence structure create a particular tone.
Interpret the relationship between the speaker and the person or thing they are addressing.
Connect the speaker's perspective, their relationship with the addressee, and their tone to the overall meaning of the poem.
Close Reading and Interpretation
Dominant Lens: Narration
The narrative situation—who speaks, to whom, and how—is the foundation of a poem's meaning. By analyzing the elements of this situation, we can understand the perspective that shapes the entire work.
What It Is:
The speaker is the voice that narrates the poem. This voice has its own perspective, background, and values that are separate from those of the actual poet.
A persona is a character created by the poet to serve as the speaker. Adopting a persona allows a poet to explore a viewpoint, experience, or identity that is not their own.
The addressee is the person, object, or abstract concept the speaker is addressing within the poem. The addressee is not always the reader.
Tone is the speaker’s attitude toward their subject or their addressee. Tone is conveyed through language and can be described with adjectives like "reverent," "sarcastic," "mournful," or "joyful."
What to Notice:
Pronouns: Look for first-person ("I," "we"), second-person ("you"), and third-person ("he," "she," "they") pronouns to understand the speaker's perspective and relationship to others.
Diction: Pay close attention to the speaker's word choice. Are the words formal or informal, simple or complex, emotional or clinical?
Syntax: Observe the speaker's sentence structure. Are the sentences long and flowing, or short and abrupt? Does the speaker use questions, commands, or declarations?
Direct Address: Identify moments when the speaker explicitly names or refers to an addressee, such as "Oh, cruel world!" or "My dearest friend, listen."
Figurative Language: Note the metaphors, similes, and imagery the speaker uses. These choices reveal the speaker's unique way of seeing and understanding the world.
Shifts in Tone: Be alert for changes in the speaker's attitude. A poem might begin with a tone of anger and shift to one of resignation, signaling a development in the speaker's perspective.
How It Builds Meaning:
The identity of the speaker or persona (e.g., a soldier, a child, a mythological figure) frames the entire poem, determining what is said and how it is said.
The speaker's tone directs the reader's emotional response. A sarcastic tone toward a serious subject prompts the reader to see irony and critique, while a somber tone encourages reflection and empathy.
The relationship between the speaker and the addressee creates the poem's central tension or purpose. A poem addressed to a former lover will have a different emotional core than one addressed to a god or to the sea.
Diction and syntax are the primary tools for creating tone. A speaker using complex, formal words and long, intricate sentences might have a scholarly or detached tone. A speaker using simple words and short, choppy sentences might have an urgent or childlike tone.
By creating a persona, a poet can introduce irony, where there is a gap between what the persona understands and what the reader is led to understand. This gap is often where the poem's deepest meaning resides.
Interaction Note: The structure of a poem, such as its stanza breaks or rhyme scheme, can reinforce or contrast with the speaker's tone, creating effects like harmony or tension.
Data and Organization Tools
Use a narration grid to systematically break down the speaker's role in a poem. This tool helps you move from specific textual details to broader claims about the poem's meaning.
Narration Grid
| Narrative Feature | Textual Evidence Cues | How it Shapes Reader's View | How it Supports a Claim about... |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speaker/Persona | First-person pronouns ("I," "my"); specific vocabulary (e.g., legal, medical); biographical hints. | Establishes a specific viewpoint; makes the experience feel personal or authoritative. | ...the poem's exploration of personal memory. |
| Addressee | Second-person pronoun ("you"); direct address by name; rhetorical questions aimed at someone. | Creates a sense of intimacy, confrontation, or instruction; defines the poem's social context. | ...the poem's argument about social responsibility. |
| Tone | Connotative diction (words with emotional weight); syntax (e.g., short, exclamatory sentences); imagery. | Guides the reader's emotional response; reveals the speaker's bias or emotional state. | ...the poem's complex and ambivalent attitude toward nature. |
| Shift in Tone | Words like "but," "yet," "however"; a change in verb tense; a different stanza structure. | Signals a moment of insight, doubt, or change in the speaker; creates a dynamic narrative arc. | ...the speaker's journey from grief to acceptance. |
Textual Evidence and Device Bank
Speaker: The narrative voice of the poem. Identifying the speaker's potential age, gender, or profession based on their language is a crucial first step in understanding the poem's perspective.
Persona: A character created by the poet to be the speaker. A persona allows the poet to explore a specific mindset, often to critique it or generate empathy for a viewpoint different from their own.
Addressee: The person, place, thing, or idea to whom the poem is directed. Analyzing the addressee helps clarify the poem's purpose, whether it is a private confession, a public declaration, or a philosophical meditation.
Tone: The speaker's attitude toward the subject and/or addressee. A precise analysis of tone is essential for arguing a poem's theme, as it reveals the values and judgments shaping the speaker's message.
Diction: The speaker's word choice. Analyzing diction for its connotations (emotional associations) and denotations (literal meanings) is the most direct way to identify and support a claim about tone.
Syntax: The arrangement of words into phrases, clauses, and sentences. A speaker's syntax can make them sound calm and reasoned (long, balanced sentences) or agitated and breathless (short, fragmented phrases).
Apostrophe: A form of direct address where the speaker talks to an absent person, an inanimate object, or an abstract concept (e.g., "O Death, where is thy sting?"). Apostrophe often signals a moment of high emotion and reveals the speaker's deepest concerns.
Rhetorical Question: A question asked not to receive an answer but to make a point or create a dramatic effect. These questions reveal the speaker's assumptions and are used to persuade the addressee (and the reader) to agree with their perspective.
Skill Snapshots
Close Reading
Feature: The speaker uses simple, one-syllable words and repeats key phrases.
Inference: The persona may be that of a child, or the speaker may be adopting a deceptively simple tone to convey a profound or difficult truth.
Feature: The poem is filled with questions directed at "you."
Inference: The speaker is in a dynamic, possibly confrontational or inquisitive, relationship with the addressee.
Feature: The speaker describes a storm with words like "majestic," "glorious," and "powerful."
Inference: The speaker's tone is one of awe and reverence toward nature, not fear.
Literary Argument
Claim about meaning: The speaker's shift from a nostalgic to a bitter tone suggests that memory is an unreliable and ultimately painful refuge.
Evidence: The poem begins with soft, warm imagery of "golden light" but ends by describing memories as "sharp-edged ghosts."
Commentary: This transition from positive to negative diction demonstrates the speaker's evolving understanding; while the past initially seems comforting, deeper reflection reveals its power to wound, complicating any simple, positive view of nostalgia.
Claim about meaning: Through the persona of a city planner, the poem critiques the cold logic of urban development at the expense of human community.
Evidence: The speaker uses technical jargon and geometric language, referring to homes as "dwelling-units" and parks as "green-space allocations."
Commentary: This clinical diction strips the subjects of their human and emotional significance, revealing a detached perspective. By adopting this persona, the poet highlights how bureaucratic language can obscure the real, human consequences of policy decisions.
Claim about meaning: The poem's pleading tone, established through repeated questions to an absent addressee, conveys a profound sense of abandonment.
Evidence: The speaker continually asks, "Where did you go?" and "Will you not answer?"
Commentary: These unanswered rhetorical questions create a one-sided conversation, emphasizing the addressee's silence and the speaker's resulting desperation. This dynamic transforms the poem into a poignant expression of loss and unresolved longing.
Common Misconceptions and Clarifications
Misconception: The speaker of the poem is always the poet.
Clarification: The speaker is a literary creation. Poets often invent a speaker or adopt a persona to explore ideas and emotions from a specific perspective, which may be very different from their own. Always refer to "the speaker," not "the poet," when analyzing the voice in a poem.
Misconception: Tone is the same as the poem's subject.
Clarification: Tone is the speaker's attitude toward the subject. A poem about death could have a mournful, angry, accepting, or even humorous tone, and each would result in a completely different meaning.
Misconception: The addressee of the poem is always the reader.
Clarification: While you are the reader, the speaker is often addressing a specific character or entity within the world of the poem. Identifying this internal addressee (e.g., a lover, a child, a god, the wind) is crucial for understanding the poem's context and purpose.
Misconception: A poem only has one tone.
Clarification: Many complex poems feature shifts in tone. A speaker might move from confusion to clarity, or from joy to sorrow. Identifying these shifts is key to analyzing the development of the speaker's perspective.
Summary
To interpret a poem fully, we must analyze its narrative situation: the speaker, the addressee, and the tone. The speaker is the voice that tells the poem, often a carefully constructed persona designed by the poet to explore a particular viewpoint. This speaker directs their words to an addressee, who can be a person, an object, or an idea within the poem. The speaker's attitude toward their subject and addressee is the poem's tone, which is revealed through specific word choices (diction) and sentence structures (syntax). By examining how these narrative elements work together, you can move beyond a surface-level reading and construct a powerful argument about the poem's complex message and emotional impact.