How do I compare two poems that I have never seen before?

I like to approach this by first analysing one poem at a time. Just read through one of the poems several times to draw a general understanding of the literal meaning of the text. As you read through, feel free to annotate or underline anything that seems important to you. Once you feel that you have an understanding of the text's literal meaning, you can now try to identify the poem's themes. We can approach this by asking ourselves what point the poet is trying to make. If this isn't immediately apparent, we can ask ourselves what ideas the poet is focusing on in the poem as this is usually a good sign post to the poem's themes. Once we feel that these themes have been identified, we need to substantiate them with some textual evidence. We can do this by simply identifying the literary devices being used by the poet. Metaphor, simile, imagery, alliteration, assonance, enjambment, rhyme, metre: these are all devices we can discuss. I find it helpful to annotate these devices onto the text but feel free to use whatever method works for you. Now repeat this process for the other poem. Now that we've looked at both texts, we can begin to structure our response. Is there any intersection in the themes or ideas discussed in the two poems? If so, these intersections are where we can draw the points for our answer. If not, we can try looking for intersection in the literary devices used within the two poems. Are these devices being used to the same effect or are they being used differently? To ensure that our response encompasses all the right areas, it might be helpful to use the PEEL format. First, we make our POINT comparing the two poems (using the areas of intersection we have just identified). Secondly, we substantiate our claim with some EVIDENCE (i.e. the literary devices we noted earlier). Next, we further EXPLAIN our point and how our evidence proves it so that our response is as clear as possible. Finally, we LINK to our next point so that our response as a whole feels fluid. Using this structure ensures that our points incorporate both poems meaningfully and that our answer is as strong as possible.