Example: In the poem, "The Man who finds His Son has Become a Thief," Raymond Souster investigates (discusses) the difficulty a father feels when he finds out his son has stolen something. At first the father in the poem wants to believe his son who says, " I didn't steal anything, honest." Like most parents he wants to believe his son, and believe he has raised his son properly.
The author effectively creates images which support the theme of this poem. In the line," choose a line to discuss)".
The following are other phrases that can be used when discussing poetry.
In the line,"" the author is trying to say......
In the line,"" the author is trying to get across the idea that...
In the line,""the author is suggesting
This idea is supported when the author says, .....
The use of (imagery, symbolism, personification etc.) is used effectively to communicate the idea that,
I thought the line"" was effective because.....
In stanza one.....
Souster implies
SAMPLE RESPONSE
Harlem by Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred?Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
In Langston Hughes’ poem, “Harlem”, the theme of the poem is stated in the first line, “What happens to a dream deferred?” Immediately the poem strikes a universal chord because the vast majority of human experience throughout the ages has encountered a “dream deferred”. Some people let the dream die (“dry up”), while others agonize (“fester like a sore”) about the loss for a lifetime. Still others hold the dream close and use it for comfort (“crust and sugar over”). The didactic nature of the poem reflects the didactic nature of human emotion when faced with loss. The lines “Maybe it just sags, like a heavy load.” are separated from the previous stanza, creating the feeling of ‘sagging’. The images that Hughes invokes are vivid descriptions of the various ways that people handle the loss of a dream. The title, ‘Harlem’, further invokes a specific image of a specific class of people who are constantly barraged with dreams broken.
