If it is a poem, reading aloud is a "must do." Poetry is music. You can't judge music very well by looking at the notes on a page -- unless you're another Beethoven. You need to hear it played. Without hearing it, you can't fully judge, or internalize, poetry.
If your roommate looks at you with an eyebrow raised, ask him/her to read it to you!
1. Read the poem rapidly, aloud.*
This should bring some notion of the sense of the whole poem. Do not worry about details. Write down in two or three sentences the gist of the poem. (Remember, this is not a paraphrase; it is certainly not what the poem means.)
Bring the dictionary and other minimum reference materials into play. Make notes; preferably mark up the poem. If in a library book, mark up a photocopy of the poem, or print out a copy on the Web, or from the Literature Online database, or LitFinder. (Search by author and/or title.)
