Close reading is a skill, not a feeling
'Analysing' a text isn't about having a vague reaction to it — it's a specific, learnable process: identify a technique (word choice, structure, imagery), name its effect, and connect that effect to the text's wider meaning or the writer's intention. Students often stall at just describing what happens in a passage rather than examining how the writer makes it happen. Practise picking short extracts and forcing yourself to write one PEE (point, evidence, explain) paragraph at a time until the pattern becomes automatic.