It is very likely that on the AP exam you will be required to carefully scrutinize a poem for not just its meaning, but also for the methods by which the poet constructs meaning. Preparing for this type of analysis requires regular exposure to challenging poems and practice. Then more practice. 

The basics of a poetic response includes 2 parts
The dominant feature of the poem. This is often a thematic component (significance of [feature]… relationships between ideas/characters/images...connections to society…).
The physical components of the poem and their function. This is how the literary devices, metrical features, and other details contribute to meaning. This part of the prompt often expects you to consider where (and how) a poem shifts - this is not always mentioned in the prompt, but should be assumed to have prominence!

For this poem, I want you to write a thoughtful response that considers how the structure of the poem and its use of concrete imagery creates literal and metaphorical meanings. How does the title reinforce each of these meanings?

Storm Warnings
By Adrienne Rich

The glass has been falling all the afternoon, 
And knowing better than the instrument
What winds are walking overhead, what zone
Of grey unrest is moving across the land, 
I leave the book upon a pillowed chair
And walk from window to closed window, watching
Boughs strain against the sky

And think again, as often when the air
Moves inward toward a silent core of waiting, 
How with a single purpose time has traveled
By secret currents of the undiscerned
Into this polar realm. Weather abroad
And weather in the heart alike come on
Regardless of prediction.

Between foreseeing and averting change
Lies all the mastery of elements
Which clocks and weatherglasses cannot alter. 
Time in the hand is not control of time, 
Nor shattered fragments of an instrument
A proof against the wind; the wind will rise, 
We can only close the shutters.

I draw the curtains as the sky goes black
And set a match to candles sheathed in glass
Against the keyhole draught, the insistent whine
Of weather through the unsealed aperture. 
This is our sole defense against the season; 
These are the things we have learned to do
Who live in troubled regions.