Using quotes and textual references to analyse a poem

In a nutshell

Whenever you discuss a poem, it's important to closely reference the text in order to support your point. You must be able to explain why you believe what you believe when you offer your interpretation. The most convincing way to do this is by using quotes.

How to use quotes

Your quotations should be brief and carefully chosen.
What is the effect of the quote?
Make sure your writing flows with the quotation. It should fit well into a sentence.
Explain your quotations! There is no point in just putting a quote in your writing alone; explain what the quote is suggesting.

When using quotes in your writing, it is important that your quote backs up your idea. A useful idea to remember is "PEEL."

Point out the idea you are writing about.
Use evidence, such as quotes, to support your point.
Explain how your quote backs up your idea and what it suggests.
Link back to your point.

Choosing the best quote

When choosing quotes from a poem, there are some best practices:

Read through the poem. What has jumped out? This will likely be important to the poem, and as such, will be useful to use in your argument.
Short sections that demonstrate poetic devices are effective.
Choose a section that highlights a key theme.
Is there a repeated metaphor used? Find a quote that demonstrates this.
Make sure the quote links clearly to your idea. Is there a quote that supports it more clearly?

Writing with quotes

Like PEEL, it can also be useful to structure your sentence like this when using quotes:

Part of the sentence	Explanation
Intention	First, you write your idea. What do you believe the poet is doing?
Quote	Next, you use a quote to evidence the intention of the poet.
Effect of quote	Then, you explain how the quote shows this. What is the effect of the quote?

Textual reference

Sometimes you may want to talk about related ideas in different parts of the text. Instead of quoting a large section of the poem, you can reference it. This is when you summarise the lines and add your comments and ideas to them. This is useful if you don't want to quote 3 lines of the poem but wish to discuss the device being used in them. If you are making a textual reference, your paragraph structure would look like this:

Your idea.
Textual reference: a summary of the lines of poetry.
What do these lines achieve and what are the effects of these lines on the poem?
Link back to your idea.

Tips

Here are some tips on using quotes when examining poetry.

Explain your quote.
Weave quotes into your writing smoothly. A sentence could start with "The poet shows this idea when they state...".
Choose quotes that highlight your idea clearly.
If your quote is long, you can cut your quote down and use ellipses in place of what you've removed.