The English Staff Room Podcast

Hi everyone, today’s podcast is a little different in that it has matching images.  A lot of students have been saying that they are struggling with annotating poetry, so this is a step by step guide on how to do that using Gerard Manly Hopkins’ poem God’s Grandeur as a sample. We would love to see a few more positive comments if you are listening to these podcasts and finding them useful – they are nice to read and encourage us to continue going.

STEP 1: Read the poem

STEP 2: Understanding purpose and audience

STEP 3: Understanding form and structure

STEP 4: Understanding voice and persona

STEP 5: Understanding mood and tone

STEP 6: Understanding key thematic concerns

STEP 7: Understanding the language

Hopkins’ Context 

Image from page 22 of “The year’s at the spring; an anthology of recent poetry” (1920)