Questions to ask a Poem

When you have to think about a poem, interview it. Ask it these questions. If you have to write about the poem afterwards, you can use the answers to the questions.

1. Who wrote you?
2. What is your subject?
3. What kinds of comparisons (metaphors or similes) do you use?
4. Do you rhyme?
5. Do you have rhythm? Could you be set to a beat?
6. What kinds of words do you contain? Are they hard words? Easy ones? Weird ones?.
7. What kind of sound do you make when you are read aloud?
8. Who is talking?
9. What's your shape? Do you have groups of lines (stanzas) with spaces in between?
10. Do you belong to a family of poems like sonnets, haikus, ballads, limericks, or villanelles?
11. How do you change from beginning to end?
12. What is your story?
13. Why were you written?
14. Have we met before? Who do you remind me of?

Poems are often doing many things at once, just as a tight-rope walker might juggle, ride a unicycle, wear a blindfold, balance on a ball, or do flips while walking on a tight-rope strung between high buildings. Sometimes, though, a poem is just walking down the street.