Beginnings--The Idea Since poets go over their poems many times during composing--maybe dozens of times across years--before considering each poem fit to publish, you should also reread a poem several times before considering that you understand it. But each time you will probably notice different things about the poem. At first, people read a poem to see what it says and maybe what mood it creates. Then people try to see what images come to mind while reading the poem--and if each mental picture fits with their first impression of what the poem means. This may take a deliberate effort to translate images ("metaphor," "simile ," "personification," for instance) into plain English--notic