Locating and identifying theme is crucial to understanding dominant ideas; theme is the poem's essence.
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Is the subject youth, loss, renewal, patriotism, nature, love? Are there several themes? How do these themes relate to each other?
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Is the poet merely teasing or entertaining or trying to teach a lesson, as do Robinson Jeffers' "Hurt Hawks" and Marianne Moore's "The Mind Is an Enchanted Thing"?
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Does the poet emphasize the theme by means of onomatopoeia, personification, or controlling images?
