SIFT Poetry Analysis

Catherine HillmanEDUR 6961

BEST PRACTICE:

SIFT Method:The SIFT Method is designed to help students learn to

analyze poetry by focusing on specific poetic devices that appear within all poems. Students read a poem multiple times, with each reading focused on a diff erent element, to gain a better understanding of a poem’s overall meaning and purpose. Through the analysis, students will annotate the text to identify elements and display their knowledge of the poem, which will ultimately prepare them to write a literary analysis paper.

BEST PRACTICE DESCRIPTION

How it Works: Before using the SIFT Method, students wil l know and understand poetic devices including: Rhyme Scheme Imagery Figurative Language (Simile/Metaphor/Personifi cation, etc.) Tone Theme

This strategy aids students in their l iterary analysis and helps them write sustained arguments about l iterature, ski l ls that are both relevant to the Common Core in terms of Reading and Writing standards.

Target Population:This practice is best used in English classes as it is working primarily with poetry. It is ideal for grades 9-12.

HOW IT WORKS

We will read the sample poem, “Fire and Ice”, and go through the SIFT method together, annotating the text to identify each element at each stage of the reading.

We will discuss each element and determine the dominant one in the text and how it aff ects the poem’s overall meaning.

We will discuss strategies to approach writing about

the poem and look at a sample literary analysis paper.

DEMONSTRATION

Have students work in groups and assign each student to be an “expert” on a particular element.

Allow visual learners to create visual representations of the elements in the poem. Allow kinesthetic learners to act out their interpretation of the poem.

Write a “class” literary analysis paper that all students contribute to in order to model analysis and lower aff ective fi lters.

Pair two companion poems together and have students work in pairs to compare and contrast the poems as they complete their analysis.

For gifted students, assign more challenging elements to identify and write about (ex. consonance, allusion, rhythm, etc.).

ADAPTATIONS

You will need:Copy of the poem (lit book or handout)Four different color pens (blue, red, green, black)

Each pen will be used for a different step:S tructure = BLUE I magery = REDF igurative Language = GREENT one / Theme = BLACK

SIFT METHOD

1. Read through poem2. Structure

Identify rhyme scheme Find breaks in rhyme scheme Read through again and summarize each

stanza Identify why rhyme scheme is broken in

certain stanzas Determine if physicality (layout) of poem

reflects anything in it

STEPS TO ANALYZING POETRY: STRUCTURE

3. Imagery Read poem stanzas again Identify the imagery

4. Figurative Language Read poem stanzas again Identify the various types of figurative

language Ex: metaphor, simile, allusion,

personification, alliteration, assonance, consonance, anaphora, hyperbole, irony, onomatopoeia, parallelism, repetition

STEPS TO ANALYZING POETRY: IMAGERY AND FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

5. Theme and Tone Read the poem again Read the summaries you wrote for the

stanzas Identify the theme Identify the tome

6. Look back over the page and whichever color is dominant at the end, focus on that area in your short-write (tone, figurative language, etc.)

STEPS TO ANALYZING POETRY: THEME AND TONE

“Fire and Ice”by Robert Frost

1. Some say the world will end in fire,2. Some say in ice.3. From what I’ve tasted of desire4. I hold with those who favor fire.5. But if it had to perish twice,6. I think I know enough of hate7. To say that for destruction ice8. Is also great9. And would suffi ce.

SAMPLE: POEM

Structure: Rhyme Scheme1. A2. B3. A4. A5. B6. C7. B8. C9. B

Imagery1. Taste

desire

2. Know enough of hate

Fig. Lang.1. Alliteratio

n: “some say,” “world will,” “favor fire”

2. Assonance: “hold with those,” “if it”

Theme/Tone1. Theme:

Destruction of the world might be fire or ice and both will work but the speaker prefers ice.

2. Tone : matter-of-fact rather than emotional

Structure: Summary1. World can end in fire or ice2. Poet seems to prefer fire3. Both ends would work

In the poem, “Fire and Ice,” Robert Frost uses a specifi c rhyme scheme to write about the destruction of the world in a single stanza lyric poem. At fi rst, there does not seem to be a rhyme scheme, but when examined closer, a pattern emerges at the end of the lines: “fi re,” “desire,” and “fi re” (Frost 1-4). The main theme of the poem is that the world will end, but how it will end is unsure. These words form the specifi c A pattern in the rhyme scheme, showing that fi re is important to this main theme since it may be how the world ends. Next, the rhyme scheme moves to the next idea with lines ending in a diff erent rhyme: “ice,” “twice,” “ice,” and “suffi ce” (2, 5, 7, 9). The words in rhyme scheme pattern B emphasize the other half of the main theme. The poem now states that the world may end in ice instead of fi re. Finally, a comparison of the two patterns shows the speaker’s view of the destruction of the world: “I hold with those who favor fi re” (4). Despite this statement, the B rhyme scheme for ice has four rhymes, while the A rhyme scheme for fi re only has three. Although the speaker states a preference for fi re, the poem’s rhyme scheme shows the preference is really for ice, since ice is emphasized by more lines. Analyzing the rhyme scheme of Frost’s poem reveals the speaker’s true opinion how the world should be destroyed—by ice instead of fi re.

SAMPLE: THEME ANALYSIS