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A recent question got me thinking about how to criticize poetry well and I realized I am not very good at it. I can do themes, and that's about it. And I'm not even sure that should be covered unle...
#3: Attribution notice added
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/42695 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
A [recent question](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/42573/critique-vs-nitpicking/42574#42574) got me thinking about how to criticize poetry well and I realized I am not very good at it. I can do themes, and that's about it. And I'm not even sure that should be covered unless explicitly asked for as was part of the issue in the linked question. So what do you look for? Do you talk about meter and rhyme schemes? Do you mention their use of slant rhyme isn't as successful as they intended it to be? How do you make it a scholarly activity that leaves personal preference for things like uplifting tone completely out of the equation?