Guidelines for Critiquing poetry...

[Ozymanithrax]

In MCW 645 Seminar on poetry, I received the following guidelines for use in criticizing and improving poetry. You might consider some of these when reading works and commenting on them.

A Good Critique Contains Three Elements.
Description:
• What is the subject matter of the poem?
• What are the poems themes and how are they built?
• What is the purpose of the poem?
• How does the poem use language--tone, diction, and figurative language?
Global Comments:
Content Concerns: Most of your comments should be Global.
• Is the poem doing what you think poetry should do?
• Describe how the poem and its devices are working.
• Is the poem doing things that are fresh and inventive? Is the poem innovative or is it re-treading well-worn ground?
• Whose work does the poem remind you of? It is important to direct our peers to poetry that may influence them and help them mature.
• Do you understand the subject matter of the poem?
• Do you feel "let in" to the poem? All poems are meaningful to the poet, but is it translating to the reader?
• If you can not feel a reason (as a reader) for why the poem was written, suggest ways the poet could tell you more.
• Suggest new directions for the poem. Think about what happens if the poem starts in its middle, if we cut the ending, if we rearrange stanzas. If you have some good ideas of new and interesting directions the poem can take, please share them with the poet.
• Some common content problems in poems are melodrama, cliché, and abstraction. Can the poet be more specific and evocative with her language?
• Where do you feel "the emotional heart" of the poem lies? What are the interesting themes? Tell the poet why; they might be surprised.
• Does the form of the poem add to the content/subject matter? Do you see a reason for the form? Would you suggest other forms?
• Does the poem use poetic device or figurative language? How could the poet use more?
• Are there places where you think the poet needs to rewrite, find better language?
• Are there images in the poem? Are they vivid? What senses are used?
Specific Concerns:
These comments are important, but they should be mixed in with global concerns.
• Stanza breaks and line breaks.
• Punctuation and capitalization.
• Word choice: Can you suggest a more effective word here or there? Has the poet avoided archaic words and artificial poetic diction? Has the poet used strong nouns and verbs rather than adjectives and adverbs?
• Compression. Is the poem appropriately compressed? What excess words might be cut?
• Consider the flow of the poem as it is read aloud. Does anything interrupt your experience of the poem while you are reading it?