How to Read a Poem — Poetry is not a puzzle with one hidden answer that only experts can decode. Begin by noticing what a poem actually does: read it, hear it, question it, and return to it.

How to Compare Poems — Comparing poems is not a matter of making two separate lists. It is a way of seeing how poems ask related questions in distinct voices, shapes and sounds—and of discovering what each poem makes newly visible in the other.

Ode — An ode is not one rigid pattern but a flexible lyric genre in which a speaker gives sustained, heightened attention to a person, object, place, idea or experience. It can praise, question, remember, mourn and think aloud.

Metaphysical Poetry — Metaphysical poetry brings love, faith, science, death and the body into unusually close contact. Its poets—especially John Donne, George Herbert and Andrew Marvell—make poems that think aloud, argue fiercely and discover emotional force in surprising comparisons.

Stanzas in Poetry — A stanza is more than a block of lines on a page. Learn how stanza patterns, breaks and repetitions organise a poem—and how those structures can change when the words are spoken or sung.