Poetry Explication Essay

Your first major writing project for English 110 will give the opportunity to read and write about poetry using close reading. Students should analyze the development of an author’s ideas throughout a poem. Which is to say the essay should not read as a summary, but as an analysis of literary technique.

In the last few weeks of class, we’ve discussed annotating, terminology, close reading, and writing about poetry. We’ve read poems and discussed how some poets might employ special tools (the elements of poetry) to explore different subjects and themes, in short, to ‘say’ something.

For this assignment, you will choose a poem and focus on the specific poetic elements in the poem. Strictly focus your analysis of the meaning of the words, ideas, and themes as they are on the page to produce your explication essay.

Choose one of the following prompts:

• Poetic Analysis: Choose 1-2 poems and apply the methods of poetic analysis we have discussed in class to determine what the poem/poet is saying about a subject. Break down the mechanics of the poem and talk about the elements the author is using to get their point across.
• Narrative Connection: Choose a poem. What do you and the poem have to say on a common topic? In what way do you and the poem relate to a subject mentioned in the poem. What does the poem evoke in you as a reader? What elements is the author using to do that?
• Compare and Contrast: Choose 2 poems. Compare and contrast the main idea, theme, or tone of each chosen poem on a common topic. What similarities do the poems share? How do they differ? Examine thematic, stylistic, and structural elements the poems utilize.

Your essay should include the following:

A 4 page explication of 1-2 poems from the poetry packet (or, if you and I talk about it first, one poem of your choosing). The explication will use the poem as a primary source. You may choose to analyze things such as lines, metaphors, symbolism, lyrics, rhythm, or other elements we have covered in class.

Essay Requirements:

The first few paragraphs of your essay should introduce the poem: (very briefly) its author and context, its mode (lyric, narrative, dramatic lyric, elegy, ars poetica, etc), and some of its major subjects (love, war, growing up, aging, etc.). At the conclusion of your introduction, make a central claim as to how the poet uses literary techniques to advance what you understand to be the poems theme (what it has to say about one of its major subjects).

• Your body paragraphs should ideally address each particular element of the poem youre focusing on. Each paragraph should offer a close analysis of how the poet uses these means to achieve their ends as you understand them. Quote and analyze, relating to what you observe in the poem to what you understand to be the poems meaning.
• Unless youre writing on the personal narrative connection, avoid using the first-person for this piece; instead, focus your sentences with the author and/or the speaker of the poem as your subject as in, Here, Dickinson uses metaphor, describing hope in terms of a bird, that thing with feathers and that perches in the soul. Or, Wrights speaker, snug in his hammock, watching the sun go down, reflects on his life. Avoid: I find Whitmans repetition, or anaphora, to be moving and inspiring.
• Your essay should include brief quotations and specific evidence from the poem you are exploring. To avoid merely summarizing the poem, work hard to demonstrate how whatever you choose to quote illustrates what you perceive to be the theme of the poem. Allow that theme to develop/become more complex based on your analysis. In other words, derive what you feel the poem is saying from your close reading, apart from any meaning you might be tempted to apply to the poem or from broad generalizations, eg. war is horrible, or new love is exciting, or depression sucks.
• Your explication should be at least 4 full pages long, proofread, and formatted in MLA Style where need be.

Assignment Tips and Things to Avoid:

Essay’s main focus should be on the poem as opposed to the author of the poem. By this, I mean that you should avoid expanding on the poets biography or the historical context of the poem unless it is relevant to your claim.

Avoid looking for answers to poems on the Internet. This is a subjective analysis of your reading of a poem.

I strongly recommend that you come to see me during your writing process so we can discuss your essay.

The poem you write about should be from the poetry packet (unless otherwise agreed upon).

Essay Requirements:

Minimum 4 pages long

12-Point Standard, Times New Roman Font

Formatted in MLA Style, where need be

Double Spaced

Include a Thesis.