The English Staff Room Podcast

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)