Poetry Explication

Explicating Poetry What It Is and How to Do It

What is Explication? • Analysis of a poem • Describes meaning • Describes relationships of words, images, and other parts of a poem • Connects poem’s plot and conﬂicts with its structure

Preparing to Write • Read poem silently, then read it aloud • Think of it as a dramatic situation, audience address • Identify and describe the voice or voices • Identify and describe conﬂicts and ideas • Describe language used

The Design • Identify who, what, when, where, why, and how • Form (sonnet? sestina? free verse?) • Rhetoric • Syntax • Vocabulary

Patterns • Rhetorical patterns • Rhyme • Sound patterns • Visual patterns • Rhythm and meter

Metrical Terms to Know • Meter: recurrence of regular beats • Foot: basic unit of meter • Iambic (iamb): foot of poetry with unstressed syllable followed by stressed • Trochaic (trochee): foot of poetry with stressed syllable followed by unstressed • Anapestic (anapest): foot of poetry with two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed • Dactylic (dactyl): foot of poetry with one stressed syllable followed by two stressed

Types of Meter • Monometer: one beat • Dimeter: two beats • Trimeter: three beats • Tetrameter: four beats • Pentameter: ﬁve beats • Hexameter: six beats

Scansion • To “scan” a poem = to determine its metrical pattern

Rhythm • How a line is spoken, e.g. iambic pentameter

Writing the Explication • First paragraph: discuss large issues (who, what, when, where, why, how), conﬂicts, dramatic situation of speaker • Next paragraphs discuss details of form, rhetoric, syntax, vocabulary • The conclusion: sound effects and visual patterns to assert explanation

Tips • Refer to the speaker of the poem as “the speaker” or “the poet”; the speaker may not necessarily be the poet • Use present tense • Avoid uses of the verb “to be”

Good Verbs dramatizes asserts contrasts addresses presents posits juxtaposes emphasizes illustrates enacts suggests stresses characterizes connects implies accentuates underlines portrays shows enables

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Poetry Explication

by Dana Huff

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