I've turned a few poems successfully into songs. Although I probably unconsciously followed most of your detailed steps, it was a more intuitive thing.

My first step is to read the poem over, aloud, a few times in order to get some idea of the internal rhythm. That usually determines the meter (4/4 or 3/4 or maybe 6/8).

Then I start a simple melodic vocalization of the words. Does a certain line start low and then rise, or high and then go lower? Where is the climax of the verse - that should be the melodic high point after which it should taper down. Often as I do this a melodic line will just come to me, or the words will suggest it. I can't tell you how that happens, it just comes from somewhere.

As a fiddle player I think of song melodies in terms of 8 bars of the "A part" and the same of the "B part," where the B part ends like the A part. The B part is sort of a turn between A parts. That makes the song less monotonous, rather than just repeating over and over the same 8-bar melodic line.

When a melody comes to me I like to have a recorder handy to capture it before it disappears. My best melodies seem to come quickly and seem to be dictated by the words. Where they come from, I have no idea.

Then I try to think if I've just stolen a pre-existing melody or if it's really original. Often I find little bits of other melodies sneaking in, but that's not surprising - there's only so many ways you can put 8 notes together.

That's just my own method.

Cheers, S. in Seattle