Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). Poetry: Close reading. Purdue University College of Liberal Arts.
By closely reading a poem, students increase their enjoyment understanding, and ability to competently write about a poem. Using Shakespeare’s Sonnet #116 as an example, the Purdue OWL demonstrates how to do a close reading of a poem. It discusses form, repetition, and metaphor, which are necessary to fully understand different poetry types.
Florida’s B.E.S.T. Standards – English Language Arts
- ELA.9.R.1.1 Reading Prose or Poetry – Literary Elements – Explain how key elements enhance or add layers of meaning and/or style in a literary text.
- ELA.9.R.1.2 Reading Prose or Poetry – Theme – Analyze universal themes and their development through a literary text.
- ELA.9.R.2.1 Reading Informational Text – Structure – Analyze how multiple text structures and/or features convey a purpose and/or meaning in texts.
- ELA.9.R.2.3 Reading Informational Text – Purpose and Perspective – Analyze how an author establishes and achieves purpose(s) through rhetorical appeals and/or figurative language.
Language Arts Florida Standards (LAFS)
- Strand: Reading Standards for Literature, Cluster 1: Key Ideas and Details – LAFS.910.RL.1.1 – Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
- Strand: Reading Standards for Literature, Cluster 1: Key Ideas and Details – LAFS.910.RL.1.2 – Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
- Strand: Reading Standards for Literature, Cluster 2: Craft and Structure – LAFS.910.RL.2.4 – Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).