In this post, I'm going to walk you through how to analyze a poem. Analyzing a poem is like analyzing a chemical compound -- you break it down to look at various components individually and figure out what they are, and how they work together as a whole. By examining the words and the structure apart from and then together with the overall meaning, we can learn a lot more from a poem than by simply reading over it once or twice. And it can help to restate a poem in your own words while analyzing it to help you figure out what the poet is trying to convey.
(Is reading over a poem without analyzing it a valid way to enjoy poetry? Yes! But analyzing a poem can also be fun, and it's not hard or time-consuming.)
"Abide with Me"
Abide with me; fast falls the eventide.
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me!
(The speaker here starts out talking about "eventide," or evening. Darkness is falling, and he's imploring God to stay with him even though everyone and everything else might run away. He feels helpless and is calling on God for help. By the way, I'm just referring to the narrator as 'he' because it's written by a man. Obviously, it could be a woman speaking too.
The stanzas have an aabb rhyme scheme, which helps the song feel very traditional. There is a lot of alliteration too -- fast falls and darkness deepens and fail... flee and help... helpless. Alliteration makes word pairs easier to remember, which is nice when you are learning a song like this.)
Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day;
Earth's joys grow dim; its glories pass away.
Change and decay in all around I see;
O thou who changest not, abide with me!
(Oh, here we learn that the speaker isn't just at the end of the day, he's at the end of his life! Life is leaving him quickly, "ebbing out," in fact. Could be a soldier on the battlefield? Could just be an old person feeling life slipping away. They see that everything on earth changes and decays, but they know God doesn't change, and that's who they want with them at the end.)
Come not in terrors, as the King of kings,
But kind and good, with healing in thy wings.
Tears for all woes, a heart for ev'ry plea;
Come, Friend of sinners, thus abide with me.
(God can be scary! The King of kings and Lord of lords is not someone you necessarily would be comforted by. But he also promises he's a friend to sinners, and that's what this person is asking him to be in these final moments. Someone who has enough tears for every woe, a heart big enough to respond to every request.)
Thou on my head in early youth didst smile,
And though rebellious and perverse meanwhile,
Thou has not left me oft as I left thee.
On to the close, O Lord, abide with me.
(The speaker felt God's blessing when he was younger, and although he has not lived a perfect life, God has stayed faithful even when the person has not. So now he asks that God would continue staying with him just a little longer.)
I need thy presence ev'ry passing hour.
What but thy grace can foil the tempter's pow'r?
Who like thyself my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, oh, abide with me!
(All through his life, he's needed God. Needed God to fend off Satan, to guide him, to be an anchor in bad and in good times.)
I fear no foe with thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight and tears no bitterness.
Where is death's sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still if thou abide with me.
(If God be for us, who can be against us? Nothing, not illness or sadness or even death, is scary if God is with you. Even if he dies, he will win because God is with him. Also, you'll notice he quotes Scripture here in the third line, but inverting the words from 1 Corinthians 15:55 a bit to make them fit the meter of the song.)
Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heav'n's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me!
(He clings to God's saving death on the cross as he feels the light of heaven touch him and push away the useless sadness of earth.)
-Henry F. Lyle
Okay, so that's a little sample of what analyzing a poem can be like. Working your way through it line by line or verse by verse to try to figure out what it means. It's really not hard; it's just about looking closely at the words and figuring out what they might mean, and looking at poetic devices used to help you see how the poet created the poem and what he might be trying to convey.
Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day;
Earth's joys grow dim; its glories pass away.
Change and decay in all around I see;
O thou who changest not, abide with me!
(Oh, here we learn that the speaker isn't just at the end of the day, he's at the end of his life! Life is leaving him quickly, "ebbing out," in fact. Could be a soldier on the battlefield? Could just be an old person feeling life slipping away. They see that everything on earth changes and decays, but they know God doesn't change, and that's who they want with them at the end.)
Come not in terrors, as the King of kings,
But kind and good, with healing in thy wings.
Tears for all woes, a heart for ev'ry plea;
Come, Friend of sinners, thus abide with me.
(God can be scary! The King of kings and Lord of lords is not someone you necessarily would be comforted by. But he also promises he's a friend to sinners, and that's what this person is asking him to be in these final moments. Someone who has enough tears for every woe, a heart big enough to respond to every request.)
Thou on my head in early youth didst smile,
And though rebellious and perverse meanwhile,
Thou has not left me oft as I left thee.
On to the close, O Lord, abide with me.
(The speaker felt God's blessing when he was younger, and although he has not lived a perfect life, God has stayed faithful even when the person has not. So now he asks that God would continue staying with him just a little longer.)
I need thy presence ev'ry passing hour.
What but thy grace can foil the tempter's pow'r?
Who like thyself my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, oh, abide with me!
(All through his life, he's needed God. Needed God to fend off Satan, to guide him, to be an anchor in bad and in good times.)
I fear no foe with thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight and tears no bitterness.
Where is death's sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still if thou abide with me.
(If God be for us, who can be against us? Nothing, not illness or sadness or even death, is scary if God is with you. Even if he dies, he will win because God is with him. Also, you'll notice he quotes Scripture here in the third line, but inverting the words from 1 Corinthians 15:55 a bit to make them fit the meter of the song.)
Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heav'n's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me!
(He clings to God's saving death on the cross as he feels the light of heaven touch him and push away the useless sadness of earth.)
-Henry F. Lyle
Okay, so that's a little sample of what analyzing a poem can be like. Working your way through it line by line or verse by verse to try to figure out what it means. It's really not hard; it's just about looking closely at the words and figuring out what they might mean, and looking at poetic devices used to help you see how the poet created the poem and what he might be trying to convey.
We'll do more of this together in the coming weeks! But I won't ask you to analyze every single poem we discuss.
Discussion Question:
1. Have you ever had to analyze poetry before? If so, is this similar to what you learned previously?
2. Do you have any questions for me?
1. Nope, not that I recall
ReplyDeleteWell, there's a first time for everything.
Delete1. Also no
ReplyDeleteOkeydokey.
Delete#1
ReplyDeleteI have! I have done it sporadically throughout my schooling since fifth grade, but mostly I have done it on my own time. Funnily enough, unless it's something treacherous, like one of Keats's "odes", I kinda like analyzing poetry! I think it's cause I hated not understanding the hymns in church, and so FINALLY knowing what on earth I was singing about all the time, was such a relief, that the actual act of figuring it out became enjoyable.
Nadia, aha! Yes! Figuring out what songs mean is a great way to work on analyzing poetry. You might not be paying attention to different poetic devices like alliteration or rhyme schemes, but you're definitely analyzing it when you figure out the message of a hymn.
DeleteSadie thinks she hasn't analyzed poetry, but she totally has because she is always obsessively reading song lyrics and figuring out what they mean.
#2
ReplyDeleteNope, it all is clear! Thanks :)
Great!
DeleteAlso, sorry my answers were late!
ReplyDeleteThat's okay. I said answer them by Friday, and you answered on Friday!
DeleteI often don't have a lot of time to use the computer during the week, so my responses will probably mostly be on the weekends. If you've got all your discussion questions done by the end of Friday, you're golden.