Title: Study the title. What do you think the poem might be about just by looking at the title?
Paraphrase: Paraphrase the entire poem line by line. This will help you to determine its literal meaning.

Connotation: What is the poem’s figurative meaning? What is implied by the author in his or her writing? How do you know this?

Attitude: What is the tone or mood of the poem? What words in the poem highlight this mood? Provide examples.
Shifts: Are there any changes in the attitude, speaker, focus, rhyme scheme, or perspective of the poem? Provide an example or explanation of where this can be found.
Title: Revisit the title. Now that you have completed an analysis of the poem, what do you think the title means?
Theme: What phrase describes the message or lesson the author wants the reader to take away from the poem?
ou can pick any of these poems and make sure to answer all questions above
“ I Wish I Could Remember,” by Christina Rossetti
“ Rain,” by Claribel Alegria
“ Briefly It Enters, and Briefly Speaks,” by Jane Kenyon
“ Possum Crossing,” by Nikki Giovanni
“ A Boy Juggling a Soccer Ball,” by Christopher Merrill
“ Still I Rise,” by Maya Angelou

Title: I think the poem is about Rossetti's memories of when she was a child. She might have wished to go back in time and relive those memories where this was no work, no school, and no trouble in life. Perhaps just a happy life where you are completely oblivious of horrible things such as death and disease.

Paraphrase:

I wish I could recall that first day

That first hour, that first moment of your meeting me

Whether bright or dim the season, it might be

Summer or Winter for aught I know

It slipped away so unrecorded

So blind was I to see and foresee

So dull to mark the budding of my tree

That would not blossom for many a May.

If only I could remember it, such

Such a day of days, I let it pass by

As if it were a thaw of bygone snow

It seemed to mean so little, yet it seemed to mean so much;

If only I could recall that touch,

That first touch of hand in hand – Did one but know!

Connotation: The poem's figurative meaning is the poet wishes to recall the day she first met the man she would later fall in love with. She then shifts to the season in which that first meeting took place. She has no idea whether the season was pleasant or not. It can be implied that the author misses the day she first met the man she would fall in love with. She misses him dearly and would do many things to get the man back. I know this because of the figurative details the author puts into her poem. For example, "That first hour, that first moment of your meeting me". As well as, "Whether bright or dim the season, it might be summer or Winter for aught I know. It slipped away so unrecorded"

Attitude: The tone of the story is discouraged. A very busy mind is at work. Some words in the poem that highlight this mood are, "slipped away", "bygone snow", "recall" and "if only".

Shifts: Changes in the poem include, "That first touch of hand in hand – Did one but know!" This sentence walks us through the narrator's eyes and pictures the first day rather than the rest of the story which is trying to recall the first day.

Title: After I have read the poem, the title means hoping to remember a time where the narrator met a man that she would fall in love with.

Theme: A phrase that describes the message is, "It seemed to mean so little, yet it seemed to mean so much;". This sentence can grab the reader and let them know that every moment you have to spend with someone no matter how little it may seem, it may really mean the world one day.