When finding the ‘meaning’ of a poem, there are different levels in which you need to consider:

• High level – what is the theme and what is the commentary about.
• Individual level – what is being expressed in the lines.

To find the meaning of something in poetry means that your brain has to work harder – or do what people call more cognitive processing. There’s really no way around this and there is no short cut formula, unlike mathematics.

Here’s what I mean.

Imagine someone says:

“My hand is cold”

When you read this is tells you exactly what it is – their hand is cold. This is literal language. It tells you exactly what is there. There’s very little work required by the brain to understand this.

But how about this sentence:

“My hand is an ice block”

On first instance, many people would understand that this means my hand is cold because this is a common expression.

However, imagine that you’ve never heard of it before and assume that this is a stanza in a poem.

Your brain has to work harder to understand the meaning of this. Instead of a straight out understanding (as in literal language), with figurative language (which is common in poetry), there are many links to be made.

1. You have to first consider the hand.
   
2. Secondly, you’d consider the ice block.
3. We know that an ice block is frozen cold that it cannot move.
   
4. Then we associate the hand being like the ice block.

There were 4 steps to go through in finding the meaning in figurative language (poetry) rather than just the 1 step in literal language.

So that means from this stanza, you have the meaning. That meaning is that the hand is cold, not just any type of cold, but frozen cold!

Can you see that with figurative language, i.e. the language used by poetry, writing has a bigger impact compared to literal language?

With literal language we know it’s cold straight away, but don’t feel the cold. Poetry is powerful because it uses a lot of figurative language, which, using the above example helps us really feel how cold a person’s hand is.

Another important part in meaning in poetry is mood.

Mood comes from words that together create an atmosphere.

See the below fictional example:

Stella sat alone in her house in the woods, shivering for there was no electricity let alone a fire. Small gaps in the walls enabled the scaly creatures from outside to creep in and settled down uninvited. Cobwebs were strewn in every corner of the room and at night, she heard the scurries of the water rats as they rummaged for food. (By Vi Nguyen, 62 words)
Let’s now highlight some words that create an impact.

Stella sat alone in her house in the woods, shivering for there was no electricity let alone a fire. Small gaps in the walls enabled the scaly creatures from outside to creep in and settled down uninvited. Cobwebs were strewn in every corner of the room and at night, she heard the scurries of the water rats as they rummaged for food. (By Vi Nguyen, 62 words)

You can see that the highlighted words together create the feeling of fear.

To get to this point, especially in poetry you need to:

First, understand the meaning of words. If you don’t understand the meaning of a word, please look it up in the dictionary. Unlike mathematics, it’s not just a clear-cut answer - you need to think about it.

Secondly, you need to consider all the words combined and what mood that leans towards.

For example, the following words combined add to the feeling of fear:

Alone, shivering, scaly, creep, uninvited, cobwebs, scurries, water rat, rummage.

However, the following words alone or with another word, may lead to another mood or tone.

• Shivering => cold
• Rummaged => hunger

The key with finding the correct mood to give meaning to a poem is in first understanding what words mean and secondly, then selecting all the available adjectives / adverbs and key nouns that combined lean to a particular mood over another mood.

Let's look at these types of questions in the examples below. We'll also put into practice the approach to answering questions too learnt in previous checkpoints.

Example Question/s

Watch video for a discussion about the meaning of this poem. In particular, we’ll cover the following questions:

1. What is the overall structure? (As that should be considered first)
2. “How” is the meaning conveyed through words?

The Tyger

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!

When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

~ by William Blake

Key Rules to remember:

• Poetry is mainly about figurative language – less lines but big impact in terms of feelings. Think about a starburst lolly – small but with heaps of flavour.
• Most questions will test the figurative language used in poems – remember that figurative language features heavily in poems and 'what it says does not means exactly what it means'.
• The meaning of a poem requires thinking – as to the overall theme of the poem and then more deeply into the individual lines.

Practice time!

Now, it's your turn to practice.

Click on the button below and start your practice questions. We recommend doing untimed mode first, and then, when you're ready, do timed mode.

Every question has two solutions videos after you complete the question. The first is a quick 60 second video that shows you how our expert answers the question quickly. The second video is a more in-depth 5-steps or less explainer video that shows you the steps to take to answer the question. It's really important that you review the second video because that's where you'll learn additional tips and tricks.

Once you're done with the practice questions, move on to the next checkpoint.

Now, let’s get started on your practice questions.

---