Close Reading Poetry Analysis of "The Death of the Old Year" by Alfred Lord Tennyson. This is a great poem to start off the new semester in January. What good habits can we instill in our students? A New Year in the calendar, a fresh start in the school year, or getting rid of old habits and starting new, good ones are all part of the focus in the test prep oriented analysis on the poem. Analyzing poetry is an art. How do you get better at it? Practice. Here is an easy way to teach close readi