Tips on an Honest Critique

I think it would be helpful to have a thread on some techniques that would aid people to write better critiques on poems. Often comments read like guestbook signings or facebook wall messages:

"great poem 5/5 ~smooches"

There are many great critiquers out there, but for every one of you, there are many others who either don't have the time, don't care, or are unable to critique poems. Do any honest critiquers have any tips that can be shared to the critiquing impaired?

Some of my tips (these are not guarenteed to work for everyone, or even be good ideas..) are as follows:

1. Read the poem more than once.
2. Try to read the poem out loud once. Not all poems are meant to be read out loud, but many poets utilize rhythm as one of their poetic tools, and rhythm is easier to recognize/correct when the poem is read out loud.
3. Pay attention to the rhyme scheme or lack thereof. Suggest changes to simplistic rhymes or ineffective rhyme schemes.
4. Offer corrections to common spelling errors.

When I do a full critique on a poem, I use this outline:

Critique:
1. Overall - This should be a general appraisal of the whole poem. What was your first impression of the poem? Did you like the theme?

2. Title - Was it eye-catching? Did it fit the poem? Do you have suggestions for something better?

3. Rhyme Scheme/rhythm - Tell what you thought about the rhyme scheme/flow of the poem.

4. Errors (typos, spelling, grammar, etc) - This is self-explanatory.

5. Content - This is where you can go line-by-line and pick apart the poem. Make suggestions for word changes or line rearrangement. Try to give reasons for the changes you'd make.

I don't do #5 in comments, but I will if someone asks me to.

I always try to critique honestly. What I mean is I look at everything in the poem (you know what sort of things I mean), point out strengths and of course any weaknesses with improvement suggestions if possible. However, over half of the time I get rude comments in return from the "poets" telling me not to judge, and only to read it and give nice feedback, and nothing else.
Does everyone get this, is it just a normal thing, or am I doing something wrong?
I always try to be a nice as possible, after all someone has worked on what I'm reading, feelings and egos may be at stake. I never want to offend, just give me opinion.
Oh yes, I agree for every helpful critique I get, I also get ten "WOW good poem 5/5!"

Silver

Excellent. This will truly help many of us do better critiques which help the poets develop their skills.

I usually look at spelling, grammar, content and flow and go by that.

But this will really help, I do read them once in my head and once out loud, but I will mix in a bit of other ideas here for the next time I critique a poem.

=D

Why don't you just write an article on the subject, or compile all the information on this thread (with the postee's permission, of course) and submit it as an article.

=]

Yes, I was thinking of doing an article on the subject :)

I say the overall- did i like it, catchy etc.

then grammar/spelling mistakes

then small problems(a word missing etc)

big major problems (BAD RHYMING!)

and the good.(language, metaphors)

then i give an overall rating now, and when they fix it. =]

I start with spelling and grammar, to get it out of the way. Then I go to rhyming, type of poem, and flow. Then I do the actual content of the poem, like whether they used good vocabulary or comparisons. then I give an overall rating, usually 4 or 5/5. :)

Sometimes i like mall responses it make me happy t see there are different types of poets on here

First I'm alway Honest. I get spelling and Grammer out of the way first but I'm not to harsh there because everyone makes a few mistakes every now and then. Then I get down to the ryhming which it doesn't always have to ryhme. Free stlye is good to. Then I get down to the content of the poem.