Margaret Atwood's poem “Woman Skating” is a meditation on beauty in a practical setting and on the desire to somehow hold onto that beauty. Let's look at this in more detail to help you get started on your analysis.

An analysis of any poem will discuss how its form and content combine to help it fulfill its purpose. We have already noted Atwood's purpose—what she wants to do—in the poem. Now we can look at how she delivers her message. We will start with her content. Notice first the vivid sensory descriptions Atwood uses to describe the skater. We can easily picture her. The poet also uses the metaphors of water, diving, and needles as she describes the scene. All of this brings the skater to life for us.

Note, though, the aside just after the third stanza. After describing the skating woman in such beautiful language, the poet steps back. The scene is not as ideal as it seems. This woman is not on some vast lake in the wilderness but on an outdoor rink over by the cemetery, surrounded by brick houses and gray snow. Yet there is beauty even in the midst of ugliness, even in the midst of practical, everyday life.

The speaker wants to hold onto that beauty somehow. If she could, she would put the whole scene under a glass bell to preserve it and keep it safe. It is fragile and easily lost. Yet memory may be that glass bell that captures the beauty.

Let's take a look at the poem's form as well. The poet chooses free verse without rhyme or a regular rhythm. Yet there is a rhythm to the poem, and it seems to actually reflect the rhythm of skating in places. Most of the stanzas and lines are very short and simple yet the poet packs much meaning into them. The aside is nearly prose, representing the practical breaking into the poetic. The poem ends with a short, two-line stanza that reflects the great longing of the speaker to preserve the scene.