This document provides strategies for understanding difficult passages in poetry. It discusses using context clues and dictionaries to determine the meaning of unknown words. It also recommends selectively rereading poems, answering and generating questions about the themes, images, and literary devices, and visualizing what is described to aid comprehension. The strategies are then applied to the poem "Deer Hit" by Jon Loomis to help readers analyze and understand the work.

1. Reading Poetry:
Getting Through
Difficult Passages

2. Poetry is an
interesting and
exciting genre
of writing; it
allows poets to
use language in
new and
unusual ways.

3. This, however,
may cause
challenges and
frustrations for
the reader.

4. The good news is that there are strategies that
we can use to help us understand poetry. These
include:
Using a dictionary
Finding word
to find definitions
meaning through
of unknown words
context clues
Selective rereading
Answering and
generating Visualizing
questions

5. Now, let’s read the poem “Deer Hit” by
Jon Loomis.
Click on the image to read the poem.

6. Finding Word Meaning Through
Context Clues
Sometimes
we can figure
out unknown
words by
looking at the
words
around them.

7. “You're seventeen and tunnel-vision drunk,
swerving your father's Fairlane wagon home”
You might not know what a Fairlane wagon
is, but you can guess that is must be kind of car
when you see the words tunnel-
vision, swerving, and home.
Also, you see the phrase, two-lane road in the
following verse.

8. Using a Dictionary to Find Definitions of
Unknown Words
Sometimes, when
we cannot
determine the
meaning of a word
using context
clues, you may find
it necessary to look
it up in the
dictionary.

9. Some words in this poem that you
might need to look up:
•teazle
•obscured
•bleat
•frantic
Do you see any others?

10. Selective
Rereading
Rereading may be the most
important strategy. You will
need to reread most poems
several times before you
understand them.
After you have looked up
unknown words in a
dictionary, and discussed the
poem with a partner or
group, it might be necessary to
carefully reread difficult
passages word by word, and

11. Answering and Generating Questions
Good readers always ask
a lot of questions as they
read.
With poetry, there are
lots of useful general
questions that we have
been asking all along.
Can you think of any of
them?

12. •Who is the speaker?
•Who is the audience?
•Who are the characters?
•What is the setting?
•What are the themes?
•What are the notable
images in the poem?
•What are some examples
of
similes, metaphors, perso
nification or symbols in
the poem?

13. You should also ask questions that are specific
to the poem. Such as:
•Why is the poem written in second person, using “you” instead of “I” or “he?”
•Where has the teen-age driver been? Why is he out so late?
•How do you think the driver feels when the deer bites him?
•When his father swears at him, is he angry that the car is wrecked, or worried
about his son?
•Is the boy most worried about the car or the deer?
•What does the father do with the concrete block? Why doesn’t the poet tell us?
•Is the driver male or female? How do we know?

14. Visualizing
Good readers also
visualize what they read.
This means that they see
pictures or movies of the
images in the poem, all
in their mind’s eye.
Good readers of poetry
know how to use their
imagination.

15. The poem “Deer Hit” is rich in imagery. Try using
your imagination to visualize some of the examples
below.