I bet you’ve once stopped by an art gallery or a museum, looked at a particular painting and noticed the brush strokes, color, perspective. Or perhaps you picked up a CD of classical music, and you sat still, listening closely to the swelling of the orchestra, the cadence. You walked away from that painting or that song haunted.

The same thing goes with reading and enjoying a poem. Instead of paint or sounds, poems are made of words. To unlock the poem, you need three keys. For the sake of explaining, I’ll use Frank O’Hara’s “Song (Is it Dirty)”

Is it dirty

does it look dirty

that’s what you think of in the city

does it just seem dirty

that’s what you think of in the city

you don’t refuse to breathe do you

someone comes along with a very bad character

he seems attractive. is he really. yes. very

he’s attractive as his character is bad. is it. yes

that’s what you think of in the city

run your finger along your no-moss mind

that’s not a thought that’s soot

and you take a lot of dirt off someone

is the character less bad. no. it improves constantly

you don’t refuse to breathe do you

Step 1: Ask: What is happening in this poem? Where is it taking place? Who are the characters? Who is talking?

The setting is a no-brainer: the poem places us in the city. In particular, we are taken to the parts of the city that are “dirty,” where soot clings, people may be of “a very bad character.” Also, the poem hints at the smell by the line “you don’t refuse to breathe…” as if you ought to hold your breath.

The poem uses simple words and a few punctuation marks, like being in a hurry. We are in the city and somewhere dangerous that we have to move out of it quickly.

The narrator seems to speak to you. In the middle of the poem, you reply.

The third stanza introduces us to some one bad but attractive. No doubt, you can somehow relate with having to justify someone who’s bad but strangely attractive. The poem pulls us to this with the clipped “yes”.

Step 2: Take a closer look. What are the figures of speech or metaphors used? What else do you see in the poem now that you are looking at it line by line?

The poem starts with a question but it doesn’t have question mark. It is as if it was a statement, or a certainty, because it is. At the third line, we find that this is what is in the poet’s mind when he’s in the city.

The last two stanzas repeat two lines: “that’s what you think of in the city” and “you don’t refuse to breathe do you”. Repetition is a poetic device used to drive a point. Think of why O’Hara repeats them and why these lines are placed where they are. Think of the words between them.

Unlike the dirty city, your mind has no moss. You keep thinking but somehow, the soot sticks. The city and the dirt of other people are getting to you. And yet, you don’t block yourself from them: “you don’t refuse to breathe.”

Step 3: Take another step back. Look at the form, the rhyme scheme. Read it aloud in your head. What kind of “music” does the poem create? How does it contribute to the over-all feeling of the poem?

While this poem does not have rhyme, its repetitive nature provides some kind of song. Think of the repetitive lines as a chorus and the lines in between as verses. There is a bit of randomness but this is expected of a poem about the dark side of the city.

Soon, we realize that this hurried but heavy-stepped march, the images of dirt and bad characters is a metaphor for how dangerous and dark life has become. Somehow, we have something to do with the way it is too and how we’re all used to it.

What goes into the mind of a poet? Read THIS for Rainer Maria Rilke’s address to young creative writers.