The Instant Poetry Critic

The goal of poetry analysis is to identify "theme" and "meaning" in a poem. This meaning is often called the Generated Subject, the emotional focus developed or discovered during the writing of the poem by the poet through creative or imaginative leaps away from the Triggering Subject (the topic that "triggers" the thought process of the poet).

To explain it another way, a poem is a metaphor. For example, think of the sentence: "My job is a nightmare."

In a metaphor, there are two ideas compared. The first is called the tenor, the thing actually being described. In this example, it is "my job." My "job" is what I am truly referring to. The second idea is called the vehicle, the thing that is carrying the meaning to you, the reader. In this example, the vehicle is "nightmare." You understand what my job is like by understanding the meaning of "nightmare," something unsettling, horrifying, etc.

A poem is like a backward metaphor. The poet uses a metaphorical vehicle (the triggering subject) to carry the tenor (the generated subject). In a poem, though, you see the vehicle first. Using the above example, a poet would begin describing a "nightmare" and only toward the end of the poem would you begin to see the "job" theme. The trick is to recognize the "job" theme and not think the whole poem is about nightmares.

Here's an example of a poem using that same example:

Lost in a maze of hallways
Disoriented. Horrors change
When I look away, then back;
I awake, shaking in a cold sweat.
Another day at work.

The process below is intended to help you recognize the developing theme of a poem.