After the Poetry Multiple-Choice

Second Entry 

Poetry Goals and Explanation

1.  Become familiar with all kinds of poetry
2.  Become familiar with "old" language 
3.  Read the poems sentence by sentence first, then line-to-line
4.  Become familiar with the kinds of questions asked on the test
5.  Focusing on the poem itself

My favorite poetry is straight forward, crisp, and sounds awesome when you read it aloud.  But not all poems are like that, and it would help to get more comfortable with different styles of poetry.  With that comes becoming more familiar with old language, like "thou" and "mayst", etc.  Reading poems (4 times if you can, which I was surprised at) first by sentences before line-by-line was a really helpful piece of advice mentioned at the beginning of the section.  I usually just read it line-by-line, but stretching it out creates a clearer picture.  The questions about the poem's tone/theme were the most difficult for me, and learning how to answer those types would be very helpful.  And lastly, I need to work on staying focused on the poem, and not letting my mind wander.  The poems were very good, and my first reaction to them was my opinion, not on analyzing it or preparing to answer questions on it.