Modified from Laurie Coleman and resources at The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 1 ?
Essay #1: Poetry Explication
A poetry explication is a relatively short analysis that describes the possible meanings and relationships of the words, images, and other small units that make up a poem. It is a line-by-line unfolding or revealing of the meaning(s) of a poem as the poem develops that meaning from beginning to end. Writing an explication is an effective way for a reader to connect a poem 's plot and conflicts with its structural and literary features. Assignment:
Write a poetry explication of a poem you choose from the selection of poems found in our textbook. These poems should be no less than 14 lines and not more than 35. You pick. Do not research or go to other sources to learn about your poem. It is just between you and the poem.
Trust your own brain, and don?t let others think for you. Requirements:
This Poetry Explication should be 1000-1250 words. You are expected to display ?reflective thinking? in your explication, use the language of poetic analysis, and use quotes from the poem as you explicate it. It is due in MLA Manuscript Format and Documentation Style. Essays that show clear signs of the writer accessing outside research on their poem will lose at least -10 points.
MW Classes Due Dates for Drafts:
Draft 1 = 9/12 Draft 2 = 9/14 Draft 3 (Final) = 9/19
Late drafts for draft 1 or 2 lose -5 points.
This is the second required general core course in collegelevel writing. Observing the conventions of
Bullock, Richard, and Goggin, Maureen D, and Weinberg, Francine, editors. The Norton Field Guide to writing with readings and handbook. W.W. Norton & Company, 2016.
1. What do you notice about this poem? (where is the repetition...remember this from Module 2 on speeches). What is different about the free verse of this poem and the rhymed poems you studied in Module 4 with Edgar Allen Poe? When you write your own poems, do you use rhyme or free verse? What I have noticed about this poem is that Whitman continuously repeats the word “singing” as he introduces all of the people, based on their occupation, from all over “America”. Whitman and Poe write about completely different things. I think that choosing between writing in free verse and rhymed depends on the subject that you are writing about. I like writing in both.
describing the characters and objects throughout the poem and in creating the atmosphere of the
Secondly, diction is a key aspect in this poem and is highly important due to its
symbolic richness, but at the same time the poem supplies the reader with a wide
In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by
felt that of the poems that I was given to choose from these two told
INTRODUCTION – (1 paragraph) STRUCTURE 1. Opening sentences which introduce the poem, its author and its form.Explain why the poem is of a particular form (either a ballad or lyric poem). 2. Thesis statement: A general statement about what the poem communicates about life and life experience. 3. Signpost: briefly outline the more specific reasons for how/why the poem conveys this life experience and / or message. (Introduce the main features which will be explored in more detail in the body of your essay).
poem is not merely a static, decorative creation, but that it is an act of communication between the poet and
The reader must participate in the making of the poem or story by digging the structure out and create coherence out of the seeming incoherence. Therefore, the search for meaning, even if it does not succeed, becomes meaningful itself.
Prompt: Write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how the poem's organization, diction, and figurative language prepare the reader for the speaker's concluding response.
The use of visual imagery in each poem immensely contributed to conveying the theme. In the poem
If one is aiming to write a poem it is useful to know by detail the basic elements of poetry to understand and control better what and how to say things, they are: voice, stanza, sound patterns, figures of speech and the poetic forms.
Q: In some poems what is described is given a meaning beyond the immediately obvious. Explore any one of the poems where this feature is most memorable.