How do I approach paper 1 unseen poetry?

The poem can be scary and hard to understand as the beauty of poetry lies in its meanings. Here are the steps you should take to write a stellar commentary for paper 1:read the poem and use highlighters to mark the words and group them into categories such as musical sounds, animals, foreign languages... this will give you a big picture of the poem and force you to read carefully.Consider the mood and tone.What is the structure? How many stanzas and lines per stanza? What is the form? Is it a sonnet, ballad...?Re-read the poem and pay attention to sounds and rhythmic devices- is there a pattern?Now identify poetic techniques like alliteration, simile, personification...Now, it is the hard part. Identifying devices will mean nothing if you don't explain WHY the poet chose to employ them. Doing steps 1-4 will hopefully allow you to understand the poem and allow you to find the key themes.Consider the significance of the title too- don't forget!Now, plan your essay. I recommend stanza by stanza essay plans to make sure you don't miss anything and save some time.When in doubt, read it out (in your mind)! Again and again- remember that there are no wrong answers :)