Topic: Poetry Explication and Analysis Essay
Length Requirement: 750-1000 words
Your Process:
Choose a poem from the readings for Unit 4 and write a poetry explication essay. This is an essay that provides us an analysis of a poem. You are to move through the poem carefully and help us to see the poetic devices and literary elements that you find along the way. You will also be paraphrasing at times so that your reader will understand what it is that the speaker of the poem is saying. From this close reading you are seeking to provide what you believe is the meaning embedded in the poem. Try to find as many interesting elements in the poem as you are able to find so that the meaning you provide is supported by a thorough close reading of the poem.
o In the first part you should explicate the poem: Move through the poem line by line and stanza by stanza, pointing out any literary devices or elements of interest. In the first part of the essay, you are helping your reader gain an understanding of the poem in terms of its narrative---what's going on in the poem---and in terms of the poet's use of poetic devices to convey meaning.
o In the second part, which should be labeled with the heading, Part II: Scansion and Analysis, you are discussing whatever you can about the structural elements of the poem---its meter, its rhyme scheme, the punctuation, capitalization, and whatever else adds to the structural aspect of the poem.
NOTE: If the poem is written in free verse, you will state this as such, and you will not have to discuss anything about the meter; however, you might still have a rhyme scheme to discuss. (See the attached examples for a look at Part II.) Towards the end of Part II you should mention what you believe is the overall meaning of the poem in terms of what you discovered while explicating the poem and while looking at the structural elements. It is also here that you should mention the theme found in the work if you haven't mentioned it in the explication. In other words, at some point in your essay, the reader should gain a clear understanding of what you see as the overall message of the poem. This is important to point out to you because sometimes poetry explication and analysis papers deliver so much in terms of literary and structural elements, that a discussion of the meaning can get lost. Do not let this happen. The two attached examples bring us a clear summation of the interpretation towards the end of Part II. In fact, you might want to use the term central message to denote your finding of the poem's meaning. The two examples contain a few other aspects that are optional for you. See Optional below.
Helpful Resources:
Working Through An Analysis course content section
University of North Carolina Writing Center, "Poetry Explications "
o http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/poetry-explications/
"MLA: Formatting Quotations"
o https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/03/
o Review this resource closely
"Writing About Poetry"
o https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/615/1/
"Image in Poetry"
o https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/617/1/
"Poetry: Close Reading"
o https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/751/1/
"Pattern and Variation in Poetry"
o https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/568/1/
"Ear Training: Sound and Meter"
o https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/570/1/
"Eye Training: Visual Patterning"
o https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/569/1/
Optional:
You may include secondary sources in your essay if you would like to do so; just be sure to cite these sources properly in your text and on the works cited page. You may also include biographical information for the poet but only if you are trying to make the case that the speaker is indeed the poet. Otherwise, we do not need biographical information for the poet. You may also want to include a brief paragraph that brings in a critical approach from a literary critic or one that relies on a reader-response approach. Adding this critical review portion is entirely optional. I mention it only because you might come across an analysis of your poem that you find so fascinating that you want to include the critic's work in your essay. Just be sure to cite the critic in your text and on your works cited page.
Attached are two well-written poetry explication essays. Your title page should look like the title page of the example. Notice the page number, the MLA header, the bipartite title, and the placement of the poem---with line numbers in 5-line increments---on the title page. The examples are much longer than yours needs to be but they illustrate how much one can invest in a poetry explication essay.
o Reading - http://bartleby.com/70/50116.html
o YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4KYpisw560
• Edna St. Vincent Millay, "Love Is Not All: It Is Not Meat or Drink"
o Reading - http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/23297
o YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtoActIqH0M
• Robert Frost, "The Silken Tent"
o Reading - http://www.vqronline.org/articles/1939/winter/frost-silken-tent/
• Robert Hayden, "Those Winter Sundays"
o Reading - http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19217
o Video - http://www.poetryfoundation.org/features/video/36
• Gabriela Mistral, "Tiny Feet"
o Reading - http://www.poetseers.org/nobel-prize-for-literature/gabriela-mistral-1945/gabriela-mistral-poems/1-2-2/
• Langston Hughes, "Theme for English B"
o Reading - http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177397
• Frank O'Hara, "Homosexuality"
o Reading - http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse/116/2#!/20594727
• Marge Piercy, "Barbie Doll"
o Reading - http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/barbie-doll/
• Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken"
o Reading - http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15717
o Audio Clip - http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15717
You must choose one of these poems.
Things to discuss might be one of these four modes of analysis and whether it is, 1.aural
2.visual
3.symbolic
4.thematic
Along with elements you would associate with that are involved in a poem.
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