i am not very good at analyzing/interpreting poems and figuring out their meaning. what are some tips/strategies/methods that i could use to better my poetry understandings? and please help me to interpret this here poem:

Question

Starlight
Philip Levine

My father stands in the warm evening
on the porch of my first house.
I am four years old and growing tired.
I see his head among the stars,
the glow of his cigarette, redder
than the summer moon riding
low over the old neighborhood. We
are alone, and he asks me if I am happy.
``Are you happy?'' I cannot answer.
I do not really understand the word,
and the voice, my father's voice, is not
his voice, but somehow thick and choked,
a voice I have not heard before, but
heard often since. He bends and passes
a thumb beneath each of my eyes.
The cigarette is gone, but I can smell
the tiredness than hangs on his breath.
He has found nothing, and he smiles
and holds my head with both his hands.
Then he lifts me to his shoulder,
and now I too am among the stars,
as tall as he. Are you happy? I say.
He nods in answer, Yes! oh yes! oh yes!
And in that new voice he says nothing,
holding my head tight against his head,
his eyes clsoed up against the starlight,
as though those tiny blinking eyes
of light might find a tall, gaunt child
holding his child against the promises
of autumn, until the boy slept
never to waken in that world again.

Answer 1

Here are some really excellent websites to help you with analyzing poems, as well as writing about them:

http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/ReadingPoetry.html#top

http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/poetry-explication.html

http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/markport/best/study/poetry.htm

I've used all of these at various times with my students, whether in a writing class or a literature class.

=)