How do I approach analysing an unseen poem in an exam?

Approaching an unseen poem is not as scary as it seems; all you need is a system for ensuring that you’ve really used your time to squeeze as much out of the poem as you can. It’s always important to start off by reading the poem thoroughly and calmly, making sure you’ve made as much sense of it as possible. Then, I would recommend going through each of the following points, applying it to the poem and making notes as you go:1)     SUBJECT: What is the poem about? What is the general mood or main event of the poem?2)     SPEAKER: Who is speaking? Are they a person, an animal, an inanimate object? And who are they speaking to? (Remember: never assume the poet and the speaker are the same person).3)     FORM, BEAT & METRE: What is the structure and rhyme scheme (if any) of the poem? Is it recognisable? And how does it read? Is it fast or slow or does it have a distinct pattern? Think about the use of devices such as enjambment, caesura, alliteration etc.4)     IMAGERY, SYMBOLISM & EMOTION: What images are painted in the poem? Does the speaker play with symbolism at any points or in the poem as a whole? And how does the speaker’s language change or develop to reflect their emotions or attitudes?5)     YOUR RESPONSE: How does the poem make you feel and what do you take away from it? Are there any alternative interpretations? (Remember: always refer to your own thoughts and opinions as those of ‘the reader’, rather than using ‘I’).Once you’ve gone through all of these, this will help you form an initial plan, and you will hopefully be able to connect observations under each bullet point and link them to form a more developed argument. Remember that it isn’t enough to point out the poem’s characteristics; you must also explain what they mean and what impact they have. A simple structure to follow is PEED – Point, Evidence, Explain, Develop. For example, in ‘Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening’, Robert Frost employs strict iambic tetrameter and a simple ‘abaa’ rhyme scheme (POINT) from the outset: ‘whose woods these are I think I know’ (EVIDENCE). This is conducive to the calm nature of the poem and reflective of the speaker’s isolation and the stillness of his surroundings (EXPLAIN). The iambic tetrameter could also be mimicking the horses gentle gallop, explaining why this smooth rhythm is broken in the final stanza by the word ‘lovely’, when the speaker turns away from the tranquil scene (DEVELOP).