Practical criticism

What is practical criticism?

“One of the things you will almost certainly have to do as a student of literature is ‘practical criticism’. Practical criticism is that exercise in which you are given a poem, or a passage of prose, or sometimes an extract from a play, that you have not seen before and are asked to write a critical analysis of it. Usually you are not told who wrote the poem or passage, and usually, too, you are not given any indication of what you might look for or say. We can sum it up, then, as criticism based on close analysis of a text in isolation.”

This content has been taken from by John Peck & Martin Coyle

Finding a way into a poem by finding a theme

The process of studying a poem can be divided into three main steps. Once you are familar with these steps, try the

1. Think about the text
When you have finished reading a text, think about it and ask yourself what common experiences it is dealing with: is it about love, war, marriage or revenge? By thinking logically and positively, use this step to help you overcome the first problem, I have read the text, now I should study it: how do I start? This step helps you find a way into understanding the text.

2. Analyse the text
First, identify words and phrases which led you to choose your theme. Now look at these closely, analysing in detail to see exactly how they portray the theme you are studying. In this step your ideas become more precise and detailed because you concentrate on finding the complexity of different elements which make up the major theme you are interested in.

3. Relate the part you have studied to the text as a whole
Finally, work out how the part you have studied in detail fits into the text as a whole. This step should confirm that the detailed ideas you have found are an important part of the whole work; and because you broaden your outlook again, you develop an understanding of how the complexity of the theme lives and develops through the whole extent of the text.

Exercise: Now try out a study-trail

You can practise these three steps for yourself using the study-trail below. As you work, you can compare your developing analysis with Nicholas Marsh's, author of at each stage. Your ideas will probably be different because you are developing your own train of thought. This does not matter - the individuality and variety of approaches in studying poetry is part of the excitement. Keep following the trail, developing ideas others have not thought of, or suddenly finding that you are on the same track.

This study-trail is about a short poem, so you can try it straight away by clicking on the following:

• Step 1: Think about the poem

What is a theme of this poem? Think of a big subject which is an important issue in every person’s life, which is a subject of this poem. (Remember, there can be more than one answer to this question).

If you want to see the theme the author, Nicholas Marsh chose, otherwise carry on to Step 2.

• Step 2: Analyse the poem

There will have been a phrase, or phrases, or some words, which led you to realise that the subject you have chosen as a theme is a theme of this poem. What are they?

If you want to see the words and phrases which led the author to choose his theme at this stageOtherwise, carry on.

Now look in detail at each of the phrases or words you have written in the box above, and make notes on each one. For each one, ask:

• What is the meaning (what does it say about the theme)?
• What is the ‘tone of voice’ (or the speaker’s ‘attitude’)? What kind of language is it (it may be legal language, or colloquial slang; it may be soft-sounding or clipped and harsh: try todescribe the kind of language)?
• Is there an which expresses or develops the meaning?