In “How To Read A Poem” one of the biggest instructions that helped me read and understand poems clearly are “Talking Back to a Poem” talking back to a poem is something I noticed I did unconsciously, I would faintly question what the author or poet is trying to say and represent. After reading this article, I made sure to be intentional with my questions so that I can understand the poem in its entirety, after asking myself “what does this line mean?” “what is this poet trying to say?” it makes me further read the poem deeply over and over.
The poem “My Last Duchess” at first was a very hard poem to understand at first, I had to ask myself over and over what each paragraph was trying to convey, and I had no choice but to understand fully so that I could answer the questions through each paragraph on Commonlit. This poem is about The Duke feeling betrayed and belittled by his first wife, The Duchess. He described her as “trifling” simply because she was pleasant to most that she had laid her eyes upon, and The Duke’s ego was not going for that so he killed The Duchess. Later on in this poem he reveals that he wants to marry a Count’s daughter.
