An analysis of a poem usually focuses on a single aspect
of the poem, for example, the visual imagery or the use of onomatopoeia
or the characterization of the speaker. Other possibilities include the
use of irony, the use of color, the use of a fixed form such as the sonnet,
social or political concepts, or the author's life or other work.
An explication of a poem is a comprehensive treatment that
attempts to deal with all major elements of the poem and the ways that
the various parts relate to one another and to the unified meaning of
the poem. Explication means "unfolding." An essay that explicates
a work or a passage shows how the meaning unfolds. A sequential approach
is typical, but a thematic approach sometimes works.
First Draft
Remember that your first draft is a discovery process to reveal what
you think. Don't be concerned about mechanics at this stage; instead concentrate
on getting down on paper some of your ideas about the poem. If you find
that an outline helps you organize your thoughts, prepare an informal
outline first.
Remember, too, that you should discuss and explain the elements as you
present them, not merely identify them. In other words, don't just say
that "like a thunderbolt" is a simile; explain that the comparison
of the eagle's movements to a thunderbolt suggests that the bird moves
with the intense energy, speed, and forcefulness of lightning and that
this movement contrasts the stillness of the eagle in the beginning of
the poem. Consider the ways the individual elements under discussion relate
to one another and to the overall themes of the poem.
Analysis
For an analysis, include a thesis that focuses on the single aspect you
will discuss.
Examples
In "Home Burial," many of the images suggest an ongoing
power struggle between the husband and wife.
The ironic tone of Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess"
reveals the Duke of Ferrara to be arrogant and cruel.
In analysis, you organize your essay thematically, categorizing the examples
and the way they are used to show how the images of power or the tone
is presented. An outline is helpful for planning the structure of an analysis.
Examples
The power struggle is dramatized through the up-and-down movement
on the staircase, through the husband's forceful language and gestures,
and through the woman's shrinking before him.
Irony is apparent in the duke's descriptions of his wife as well
as in his references to material possessions.
Explication
For an explication, a statement of theme might serve as your thesis.
In an explication, you move through the poem sequentially, discussing
each element as you come to it as an "unfolding" of the meaning.
Work with units of meaning, for example, line by line or image by image
or stanza by stanza.
With long poems, however, you may wish to classify the elements you plan
to discuss, treating all the visual images together, all the water imagery
in one paragraph, and the speaker's tone in another paragraph.
Introduction
In your introduction, identify the poem, the poet, the speaker, the situation,
and one or more major themes. Identify the source of the poem with a footnote,
endnote, or bibliography page, according to your teacher's instructions
(some teachers may not require such identification, especially if the
poem appears in your textbook or on a handout). Some teachers expect students
to include a copy of the poem (see format in the model attached here).
In your introduction, make some generalizations about the poem's meaning
and significance, identifying special features that you plan to discuss
in your paper.
Example
In the dramatic monologue "Dover Beach," by Matthew Arnold,
the speaker laments the loss of faith in an unstable world. Addressing
a loved one in the room with him at Dover, England, the speaker describes
similarities between the sea and the absence of faith in the world,
emphasizing the timelessness of human misery. Images of sight and
sound dominate the first part of the poem; more abstract images at
the end reinforce the speaker's despair.
Body
In the body of your paper, identify and explain clearly the poetic elements
that develop the themes and that provide unity for the poem. Introduce
each area clearly and support your points with selected quotations from
the poem, being sure to interpret and explain. Provide coherence with
reminders of your points, appropriate transition signals, and full explanations
of the meaning and significance of all quotations and paraphrases. Do
not overuse quotations; instead, concentrate on explaining and interpreting.
Quotations can never stand alone. Check with your teacher about the necessity
to include line numbers. Work short quotations smoothly into your own
sentences. Most quotations should be phrases rather than several lines.
When you quote an obvious phrase, ellipsis marks are unnecessary.
To quote one, two, or three lines, use a slash mark (/) to show line breaks.
To quote more than three lines, indent ten spaces (one inch) from the
left margin, keeping the capitalization and punctuation of lines as they
appeared in the original poem. Introduce long quotations and follow the
introduction with a colon.
Example
The allusion to Sophocles' tragedy Antigone, in which the plight
of the family of Oedipus is compared to the waves of the sea, dramatizes
the timelessness and universality of human misery. Both Antigone and
"Dover Beach" associate human misery with the sea; both
Sophocles and the "Dover Beach" speaker hear the sound of
the sea and reflect on the wretchedness of the human condition. In
"Dover Beach," this misery is reflected in the unending,
uncertain, undulating motion as well as the dismal sounds of the sea:
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world. (lines 25-28)
False perceptions of the world's wonders are contrasted in lines
30 and 31: "the world, which seems / To lie before us like a
land of dreams." Here, the simile comparing the view from the
room with a dream world suggests that the way people see the world
is an illusion. Instead of a dream there is a nightmare of war and
chaos. In addition, the couplet rhyming "seems" and "dreams"
reinforces the idea that the world's peace and beauty are not real.
Conclusion
In your conclusion, reinforce your original thesis and restate the poem's
themes and significance. You may wish to comment on the poem's relevance
to other poems of the same type or period or to other of the author's
poems. Or you may wish to mention how the poem applies to life today or
to your own life. Some kind of concluding or summarizing commentary is
a good idea. If you present your opinion about the poem at the end, relate
your opinion to the ideas in the body of the essay.
Editing and Revising
- After writing your first draft, read it and reread the poem to make
sure you have said what you wanted to say and that you have not omitted
anything.
- Allow some time to distance yourself from your draft so that you can
reread it more objectively. A period of at least several hours is helpful;
a good night's sleep is preferable.
- Revise your draft until you are satisfied with what you have said
and how you have said it.
- Edit carefully to ensure that you have followed the conventions of
style for literary analysis.
-
- Use present tense verbs for your discussion. Shift to other tenses
only when logical to do so.
- After the first reference, refer to the author by last name only.
Usually, you should not make references to the author in the discussion;
instead, refer to the speaker or to the poem itself.
- When the speaker of the poem is unknown or unnamed, refer to him
or her as "the speaker"; in other words, don't confuse
author and speaker. You may use either the masculine or feminine
pronoun in subsequent references unless the speaker's gender is
apparent.
- Avoid first and second person pronouns (I, me, we, us, you) and
references to readers; your paper will thus be more objective in
tone.
Format
- Use one side of good-quality white bond 8½-by-11-inch paper. Double
space. Use letter quality type if you use a computer printer.
- Include our name, course data, and due date ½ inch from the top and
aligned upper left (see model student paper).
- Center your title 1 inch below the course data. Make sure that your
title is a clear reflection of the content of your paper and that it
identifies the poem. Do not underline or place quotation marks around
your own title; do place quotation marks around the name of the poem.
- Examples
Loneliness in Robert Frost's "Desert Places"
The Sound of Human Misery: Sea Imagery in Matthew
Arnold's "Dover Beach"
- Left, right, and bottom margins should be one inch throughout. Ragged
right margins are preferable. Top margins should be ½ inch. Page numbers
with running heads should appear upper right (see student model). Text
should begin ½ inch below the page number.
- Present your bibliographic entry in correct format on a separate page
at the end unless your teacher prefers another method of documentation.
Note: use hanging indent and double space entries.
Example
Work Cited
Arnold, Matthew. "Dover Beach." Literature for Composition:
Essays, Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. Sylvan Barnet, Morton Berman,
and William Burto. 2nd ed. Glenview, Ill.: Scott, Foresman, 1988. 377-78.
Research Papers
If your poetry paper uses secondary source material or other outside
research, use the sources to add support and insight to your own well-developed discussion. |