This podcast is for Year 7 and Year 8 students who are developing their skills in annotating poetry for reflection and analysis. It takes you through the analysis of William Blake’s poem A Poison Tree. It might be good to have a copy of the poem in front of you and annotate along either in hand writing, comments, or footnotes and pausing the podcast along the way.
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
If you found this useful and want to listen to a similar podcast using a harder poem then you can also listen to How to annotate poetry like my teacher.
Image from page 22 of “The year’s at the spring; an anthology of recent poetry” (1920)
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