Poetry Questions in Review

The idea

Poetry is forty-five percent of the exam, and most poetry questions ask you to read. First, read the whole poem once for its situation: who speaks, to whom, about what. Second, find the turn, in a sonnet's volta, an ode's return or a monologue's revelation. Third, name the tone from the diction. Fourth, identify the key figure, conceit, symbol or allusion, and ask what it argues. Fifth, check the form, because form often answers a period or author question. Then answer the question asked, using the line it points to, and eliminate options that are true of poetry in general but not of this poem.