The critical appreciation of a poem is defined as the critical reading of a poem. The meaning of his words, his rhyme, scheme, the speaker, rhetorical figures, the references to other works (intertextuality), the style of the language, the general writing style of the poet (if mentioned), the genre, the context, the tone of the speaker and such other elements make up the critical reading or appreciation. It does not mean to criticize the poem. A critical appreciation helps a better understanding of the verse.
- Meaning: Read the poem more than once to get a clear idea of what the speaker is trying to say. Look up the meanings of difficult or unusual words in a thesaurus. The title of the poem is a clue to the overall meaning and summary of the thought presented. A poem could be about a lost love, ‘Lucy’ (Wordsworth).
- Rhyme Scheme – Find the words that rhyme. These appear at the end of each line. Rhyming words can also be present in the middle of the line. Mark the rhyme scheme. For example, if rhyming words appear at the end of each line alternately in a 4 line poem, the rhyme scheme would be ‘aba b’. In the poem ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ by Robert Frost, the second stanza goes like this:
“My little horse must think it’s weird
Stop without a farmhouse nearby
Between the forest and the frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year…”
In these lines, the rhyme scheme is ‘aabb’
In several poems, there are no rhymes. Such a poem is called a blank verse.
- Speaker – Identify the speaker of the poem. It can be a child, an old man, a shepherd, a swordsman, a student, a milkmaid, a sailor, an animal, or even an object like a chair or a place like a house or a mountain. Each speaker will speak differently.
- Setting- Each poem has a specific setting. It can be a boat or a modern condo. The setting is the background of the poem and contributes to its meaning. For example, a grazing setting is most likely to be grazing ground for a flock of boats. The setting of Eliot’s ‘Preludes’ is a modern city with people leading mechanical lives. The words also convey the same meaning.
“And short square fingers filling pies,
and evening papers, and eyes,
Sure of certain certainties…”
- Context- The context tells us the time and place of the poem. It is what motivated the poem. The context could be an event of great political significance such as the French Revolution. It prompted the famous “Ode to the West Wind” by PB Shelley. The poem beautifully upholds the spirit of the revolution and heralds the dawn of a new era.
- Language- The language of a poem is the very vehicle of its thoughts and ideas. Study the language in terms of the use of rhetorical figures, its tone, use of borrowed words or archaic words, length of sentences, rhythm (meters-iambic, trochaic or any other), number of lines, etc. Note the introduction of new ideas and mark where it occurs. For example, in the poem ‘The Lamb’ by William Blake, the lamb refers to both the baby sheep, the little talking child, and the Lamb of God. Here the word “lamb” is a metaphor.
- Intertextuality: while writing a critical appreciation of a poem, we notice that another poem is alluded to or recalled. This is called intertextuality or reference. For example, Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’ alludes to Boccaccio’s ‘Decameron’ in its structure of people narrating stories on a journey.
- Genre- Genre roughly means the category of the poem. Each genre has established rules and characteristics. For example, a very long narrative poem, several thousand lines long, dealing with divine figures or demigods or great generals of the past and describing a terrible war or an incredible journey on which the fate of humanity rests can be termed as epic. For example, the ‘Iliad’ (Homer), ‘Paradise Lost’ (J. Milton) and similar poems. A short poem of 14 lines that expresses intimate emotions is a ‘sonnet’. For example, ‘Let me not marry true minds’ (Shakespeare) is a sonnet extolling true love and devotion. There are several genres: satire, epic mockery, ballad, lyric, ode, parody, etc.