Organize your essay around a central point about the poem–your thesis. If, for example, all of your ideas about the poem came from the metaphoric language, and you felt that the metaphors were hinting at something not explicitly stated, you might phrase your thesis this way: “Through use of death-focused metaphoric language in ‘Poem,’ Author suggests that life is not only short but meaningless.”

The body of your essay would go on to explicate the poem, piece by piece. Choose some sort of organizational structure: most important details to least important details, or metaphors to similes to rhyme scheme, or strongest example to weakest example. Then pick apart those examples. Introduce the actual words from the poem and explain how they match your thesis, how they fit your main idea.

In your conclusion, come back to your thesis and bring the reader back into the more general world of the poem. If Author is suggesting that life is meaningless, how can that be interpreted within the explicit message of “Poem?” What might that have meant for contemporary readers? How do your views fit into the general tapestry of response to the poem?

Great question! Why not use the SCS framework to critique the poem?

STRUCTURAL, CULTURAL, SUBJECTIVE

Here are the definitions:

STRUCTURAL evaluation refers to textual organization: the relationships between the elements of the poem, formal type (if any) and techniques.

CULTURAL evaluation investigates how the poem is reflective of social or moral issues: issues that are consequences of political, economic, and social occurrences.

SUBJECTIVE evaluation can be employed to determine the ability of the writer to communicate emotions vividly, without respect to formal organization.

1 S: The poem is written in rhyming couplets of the form abab… The use of ethnic slang could be considered insulting, but its use here is important for it shows Sandburg’s knowledge of the people he is writing about.

2 C: Sandburg wrote about the everyday workers of America, and about its greatest leaders and achievements. Yet in this poem, we see the world from the point of view of the lowest class, the street people scrounging against poverty to achieve a better life.

3 S: In “The Night Pool” Sandburg creates an emotional response of unfairness at the cruelty and indifference of the upper classes as they celebrate while their very garbage means the difference between life and death for the neediest.

Try it and see how it works for your critique!!!

Best of luck,
Percarivo