Essay Assignment: Explication
To prepare for this assignment, re-read Chapter 16: of Thinking and Writing about Poetry on the Reading and the Writing Process, and focus specifically on “Explication” (362-366).
As you will discover, an explication “is a detailed explanation” of a poem that “pays careful attention to language: the connotations of words, allusion, figurative language, irony, symbol, rhythm, sound, and so on” (362). In other words, unlike an analysis essay that usually focuses on a single poetic element, an explication should consider all relevant poetic elements that contribute to the overall experience of the poem.
For a model, read “A Reading of Emily Dickinson’s ‘There’s a Certain Slant of light’” (364-366).
Now that we have come to the end of the semester, this assignment will provide an opportunity for you to not only demonstrate your awareness of specific poetic elements, but also your understanding of how they contribute “to the work’s overall effect and meaning” (362).
Topic
You must choose a single poem to explicate. The only condition is that it must be a poem that can be found in Thinking and Writing about Poetry but not assigned for class discussion or a poem that does not appear in the textbook but is written by a poet whose work does appear in it. You may, for example, choose a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks or Robert Frost from another source. To simplify your search for a well-known poem, explore the following sources:
Academy of American Poets (Links to an external site.)
The Poetry Foundation (Links to an external site.)
Developing a Thesis
As with the analysis essay, a thesis for an Explication may articulate the poem’s theme in a simple, single sentence. It may also focus on the overall mood of the poem that the speaker conveys through various means (figures of speech, irony, rhythm, etc.) What matters is that the claim you make as a thesis is an interpretive one—not a matter-of-fact statement—but an idea that can be shown to be valid by a close and careful reading of the poem’s language.
Analysis
As the word “explication” denotes, the goal of this assignment is to explicate or make implicit meanings explicit in your own words. This is what you have done this entire semester by noting what a word, image, or figure of speech, etc. suggests or seems to say. By now you should be comfortable with such phrases to demonstrate your understanding of a poem. What makes an explication unique is that its goal is to explain how you make meaning as the poem “unfolds,” typically from one line to the next.
Organization
Although an explication requires a line by line “unfolding” of the meaning in a poem, do not simply use “an assembly-line approach that begins each sentence with ‘In line…’ Instead organize your paper in whatever way best serves your thesis” (363). This may be as simple as acknowledging and articulating the impression you get from a particular stanza in a poem or a certain number of lines. Such an impression can, therefore, be presented as a claim that defines the focus of each body paragraph in support of your thesis.
Textual Support
To create a reference point for your readers, transcribe the entire poem before the introductory paragraph. When making specific references to the poem in your essay, however, do not simply indicate line numbers. It is important to use direct quotations from the text of the poem to support your claims.
Remember the following guidelines:
When you quote poetry, never eliminate punctuation or change capitalization, and always retain line breaks. If you are quoting fewer than four lines, quote it within your sentence like this:
Stevens shows just how powerful the effect of placing a jar in Tennessee is by saying, “It made the slovenly wilderness/Surround that hill.” (3-4). Though it seems at first that the “wilderness” is bending to the will of the jar, what’s really happening is that the jar has become the focus of our attention upon its hill while the untamed landscape becomes secondary or mere background.
The line break in this quotation is signified by a slash, and the line numbers quoted are included in parentheses.
If you need to quote four or more lines (think carefully about whether you really need such a long quotation), indent 10 spaces and start each line on a new line, like this:
In the last stanza of “This Is Just To Say” the speaker presents an apology of sorts:
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold (9-12)
It’s difficult to see this as a genuine apology; however, due to the speaker’s use of the word “so” twice in “so sweet” and so cold” (my emphasis) in lines 11 and 12 that suggest just how tempting the plumbs were. And by stressing the enjoyment of tasting the plums as “delicious” the speaker seems to be rubbing it in more than a little bit.
Note: quotation marks are not necessary when quoting four or more lines. But some form of follow-up analysis is (as shown above). Never quote words or lines from a poem without interpreting their significance for your readers; otherwise you are asking readers to come up with their own understanding.
Essay Requirements
The essay should be approximately 750 words (3 pages) long. It must be computer-generated and printed with a standard font (Times, Palatino, Arial, etc.) no larger than 12 pt. You should also double-space the text; use 1-inch margins starting at the top of page one, and number each page. No cover sheet is necessary.
You should not use any outside sources for this assignment. Any insight, analysis, criticism, or interpretation used to support or inform your essay that comes from an unacknowledged source violates course policy on academic dishonesty. Please read and understand the plagiarism policy noted on the course syllabus. If you have any questions about what is and what isn’t plagiarism, contact me.
Though no outside sources should be used, a works cited page must be included with a bibliographic reference for the poem itself and any dictionary entry, if applicable. See “A Reading of Emily Dickinson’s ‘There’s a Certain Slant of light’” (364-366) for a model.
Annotation (20 points)
As with Essay #1, your will post an annotation of the poem on the discussion board to get feedback from me and your peers. To earn up to 20 points, you must complete the following:
Annotation Exercise (10 points)
Although you would ordinarily annotate a text directly on the page of a book, for this exercise, you will first need to make a copy of the poem you have chosen to analyze. You may either photocopy the poem, re-type it, or copy it from an internet source and paste it into a Word document. With the example annotation of Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “Manners” (48) as a model, hand-write notes in response to the title, key images, figures of speech, and denotations and connotations of words that contribute to your understanding of the poem.
After making notes, you will need to scan the document (or take a picture if necessary) and save it as a PDF that can be posted on the discussion board. The text of the poem and your annotations must be clear enough to read.
Along with posting your annotation as an attachment, present the interpretative claim you intend to be your essay’s thesis statement.
Your annotation must be posted to the discussion board by 8:00 a.m. Wednesday, April 27th.
Discussion (10 points)
To earn an additional 10 points, post two replies to two annotations by 8:00 a.m. Friday, April 29th.
Peer Review (20 points)
To participate in peer review, you must post a draft of your essay by 8:00 a.m. Sunday, May 1st. To earn up to 20 process points, you must not only post your draft, but also evaluate three drafts written by your peers by 8:00 a.m. Wednesday, May 4th.
Each draft should be at least 2 double-spaced pages); there must be an introduction paragraph with a tentative thesis and at least three body paragraphs working in support of it.
Not posting a draft will exclude you from the peer review process and result in the loss of all 20 process points.
Help With Writing
Obviously, the most direct and immediate help should come from your peers during the peer-review process. A discussion board forum will also be available for you to ask me (and your classmates) any questions about the assignment or the process to follow.
You may also wish to work with a writing center consultant. To make an appointment, contact the writing center at 786-2341 or take this link to the Writing Center (Links to an external site.) homepage.
Last, but not least, I will set aside time to meet with you as you prepare a draft.
Conference (10 points)
A conference with me is required, but you may choose to meet with me before your draft is due for peer review, Wednesday, April 27th through Friday, April 29th or after peer review, Wednesday, May 4th through Friday, May 6th.
This essay will be due by 8:00 a.m. Sunday, May 8th.
