Close Reading Poetry Analysis of "Christmas Day in the Workhouse" by George R. Sims. Analyzing poetry is an art. How do you get better at it? Practice. Here is an easy way to teach close reading with self-guided questions that help the student gain understanding of breaking down lines of poetry. This poem covers figurative language, word choice, suspense, setting, drawing conclusions, citing text evidence, summary, theme, and tone. This poem pairs well with a using short stories such as "The B