Before you begin to read a poem, it is important to study its physical aspects and visual cues--for example, the title, the length of verses and/or stanzas, the punctuation (or lack thereof). These often will give you an idea of what the poem is about. Your goal in this stage is to use your ability to observe, relate, and elaborate. Generate as many ideas as you can; you can determine the relevance of the ideas later. Here quantity, not quality, is the goal.

Note: Always keep your cultural/historical framework at hand. All of the poets in Aproximaciones were selected for a reason, and part of your job is to determine that reason. Where does the poet being studied fit into the cultural/historical framework and the literary trends of the age? What did his/her style contribute to the genre?

Strategy 1. Make Working Copy of Poem

It is important for three reasons to have a working copy of the poem you are analyzing. First, some poems have been divided into parts in order to accommodate the space in the text. It is critical to see the poem in its original format so that you can see how the verses and stanzas fit together. Second, you can enlarge your working copy to make the words easier to see. Third, you still have a clean copy of the poem in the text.

Task 1. Create Working Copy.

1.			Make a copy of the poem you are studying, in this case Trinos on page 232. Cut and paste the copy so that the poem appears as one continuous text, rather than divided. Enlarge the copy as necessary for ease of reading and analysis.

Strategy 2. Brainstorm About Title

Task 1. Decode Title.

2.			Make sure you know exactly what the title means. Look up any words you do not understand. What does the word trinos mean?

Task 2. Brainstorm.

3.			Review everything you have learned about the poetic style and characteristics of the poet, and brainstorm on all possible meanings of the title. Remember, the title is part of el lenguaje lite-rario of the poem. Document your ideas on a word wheel (see Appendix).

Strategy 3. Skim Text for Main Idea

Task 1. Skim Text.

4.			Skim the poem for the gist and write it down. Does the poem focus on a person, a place, an action, an emotion? Think about "who does what to whom or what."

NOTE: If you have difficulty determining the main idea, do the following three tasks.

Task 2. Scan for Nouns. Scan the poem for nouns and determine if they fall into general categories (for instance, people, places, nature, emotions, colors, war, geography, family). Make note of the categories and provide examples of each.

5.			Categories of Nouns and Examples

Task 3. Scan for Verbs. Scan the poem for verbs. Separate them into action and state-of-being verbs and write them down. Make note of the subject of each verb you list.

6.			State-of-Being Verbs and Subject
7.			Action Verbs and Subject

Task 4. Elaborate.

8.			Based on the information from Tasks 2 and 3, can you elaborate on your first guess at the main idea of the poem?

Strategy 4. Brainstorm and Speculate

Task 1. Brainstorm Connections.

9.			Arrange in front of you the results of all of the tasks you have done in Stages I and II. Brainstorm possible connections between what you know about the poet and the poem.

Task 2. Speculate.

10.			Speculate about the purpose of this poem. Why did the poet write it and what did he/she want the reader to learn, feel, or think? The goal here is not to obtain a correct answer, but rather to think of as many possibilities as you can. You will determine the plausibility later; for now, go ahead and guess.

Task 3. Challenge Yourself. Several passages from the description of Fagundo's style on page 231 of the text are listed here. Find words, expressions, or lines in the poem Trinos that might be examples of her style. Add the connections you made in Task 1.

11.			"tratar de una manera muy personal la condición humana y los más graves problemas inherentes a ella":
12.			"funciona como una ventana al mundo":
13.			"la poesía representa un universo autónomo":
14.			"la palabra [representa] una fuente de revelación y conocimiento":