If you have your main points already, then I assume you
have a good understanding of the poem as a whole. I think the best way to start your
essay is to talk about the general theme of the poem, and then to talk specifically
about the exact point the poet is making in the poem. This is a traditional "funnel"
introduction -- going from broad to more pointed. By doing this, you are conveying to
your audience that you know exactly what the poem is about, and then your body
paragraphs can go into more specific analysis and commentary on the meaning and literary
devices used in specific lines or sections of the poem. Make sure that each of your
body paragraphs comes back to a connection to the meaning of the poem as a whole that
you established in your introduction.
Conclusions are hard
because the temptation is to recap what you just wrote, but my advice to go back to that
introduction and say something MORE about the theme of the poem. For example, is the
point of the poem still relevent today? Is it a universal experience? Is there a
lesson to be learned? Is there something you realized about the theme of the poem
through YOUR analysis of it?
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