A new method for the kinetic analysis of ponderomotive effects in collisionless plasma is presented. This method involves the application of the Lie‐transform perturbation technique to the Hamiltonian formulation of the Vlasov equation. Basically, a new system, in which the high frequency oscillations are absent, is found. In this system the distribution function evolves according to a ponderomotive Hamiltonian, which is the kinetic generalization of the ponderomotive potential. It is shown that the ponderomotive Hamiltonian can easily be determined from the well‐known linear susceptibility. This formalism is used to calculate several new results. Among these results are the general formula for the quasi‐static density perturbation produced by a hot magnetoplasma wave, a generalization of previous formulas for the laser‐generated quasi‐static magnetic field, and the general formula for the ponderomotive gyrofrequency shift produced by an electromagnetic wave propagating at an arbitrary angle.