ENG11 Reading and Analysing Poetry
A Quick Reference Guide of Literary Terms and Poetry
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Meaning and Theme
There are often two types of meaning:
literal and figurative. The literal meaning of a poem is what actually happens
in the poem, on a purely superficial level. What is the story or observation
found in the poem? Is it simply telling you a story about the death of a king?
Is it just describing a Grecian urn with the figures painted upon it?
The figurative meaning is generally associated with the theme, and is usually more abstract (i.e., a concept, rather than a concrete physical description). It is the meaning behind the action. Almost every piece of literature, whether poem or story or song, has a theme. This is the main idea, or main meaning, behind the piece. You can usually discover this by asking yourself the question, "What did the author expect me to learn from this piece?" For example, is the poem a lament on the short duration of beauty ("pluck ye rosebuds while ye may"), or might it be a celebration of a past that shall never be again ("The Passing of Arthur")?
A common term that surfaces again and again
in the discussion of theme is the human condition. Simply put, this is a general
statement on what it means to be human. Are we basically good or evil, saved or
damned, honorific or cowardly, godlike beings of limitless possibility or simply
small beasts stirring in our cages? A great number of poems make some sort of
comment on the human condition, so it helps if you are aware of this term and
use it sparingly.
Symbolism
One chief way of conveying theme is through
the use of symbolism, the concrete representation of an abstract concept. These
objects or persons are so universal that they have a meaning in themselves, and
so when they are used within a poem or piece of prose, they bring that meaning
to the piece. For example, one commonly used symbol for peace is the dove, and
so when one flies over a battlefield we may take this as a symbol of a
ceasefire, that peace is on its way. If the dove is shot down, we may take this
as a symbol of the shattering of hope for peace.
Sometimes it is more difficult to find the meaning behind certain symbols. The mention of a unicorn, an Irish freedom fighter or a mythological figure might take a little more specialized knowledge or research to discover the full significance of the poem.
Imagery and Figurative Language
Imagery is the use of language to represent
objects, actions, feelings, thoughts, ideas, states of mind and any sensory or
extra-sensory experience. An image may be visual (sight), olfactory (smell),
tactile (touch), auditory (hearing), gustatory (taste), abstract (appealing to
the intellect) and kinaesthetic (related to movement or bodily effort). Imagery
is often tightly linked to the symbolic.
Many images are conveyed by figurative language, such as simile, metaphor and personification.
A simile is a comparison of one unlike thing to another, whereby the comparison is explicit (i.e., directly stated) using a comparative such as "like" or "as". Examples: "The clouds drifted past as lazily as swans on a summer night," "The evening smothered us like the heavy down quilt on my grandmother's bed."
A metaphor is a comparison of one unlike thing to another, whereby the comparison is implicit (i.e., not directly stated), and there is no use of a comparative. Examples: "The clouds drifted past, lazy as swans on a summer night," "The suffocating quilt of the evening descended upon us, stealing our breath and weighing us down."
Personification is the attribution of anthropomorphic (human) qualities to something which is not human. An example might be, "The wind climbed into the tree, curling up on a hidden branch and crying out a long and mournful lament of loneliness." Note that the attribution of animal qualities ("The river slid serpentine down its accustomed path") is usually not considered personification, but metaphor or simile.
Onomatopoeia is the formation and use of words to imitate sounds. The sound of the word reflects the sense, as in crack, whiz, whoosh and sputter.
Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds, often close together, to produce euphony (a pleasing sound). Note the drowsy sonority in Tennyson's "Lotus-Eaters":
Alliteration is the repetition of consonants, especially at the beginning of words or stressed syllables. This may be to produce a particular effect concerning its subject (“the slippery snake slithered” forming the hiss of a snake), a sort of unity within the line or verse, or simply a melodic or lyrical sound.
The Lotos blooms below the barren peak:
The Lotos blows by every winding creek:
All day the wind breathes low with mellower tone
Thro' every hollow cave and alley lone,
Round and round the spicy downs the yellow Lotos-dust
is blown.
Alliteration is the repetition of consonants,
especially at the beginnings of words or stressed syllables. This may be to
produce a particular effect concerning its subject (e.g., "the slippery snake
slithered" forming the hiss of a snake), a sort of unity within the line or
verse, or simply a melodic or lyrical rhythm.
Synechdoche is when the whole is replaced by the part, or the part by the whole. (ex: "bread" in "Give us this day our daily bread" replaces all sorts of food)
Metonymy
is when something is named that replaces something closely related to it. (ex:
"Scepter and Crown" and "Scythe and Spade" replaces social classes of powerful
people and poor people)
Characterization
Although characterization often takes a much
less important role in poetry than in prose, it may nevertheless be an integral
component in the analysis of a poem dealing with a story (a ballad, for example)
or a particular person whose needs and motivations should be understood in order
to gain a full appreciation of the poem.
Title
One of the most important parts of any piece
of literature is the title. It often forms a cohesive "banner" under which the
main idea of the piece is conveyed. Is the title indicative of a struggle, or of
the human condition, or is it symbolic of something else? Is it sarcastic or
satiric or humorous, or is it fully serious? Is it simply a descriptive title
(one that simply states the object or person described in the poem)? Why did the
author choose this particular title?
Poetic Genres and Forms
Although "genre" in prose usually refers to
a vague subject area such as science fiction or comedy, in poetry it often
refers to the technical form of the poem, such as sonnet, free verse or ballad.
There have been literally hundreds, if not thousands, of forms defined by
literary critics, but most poems fall into the following general categories.
Ballad
A ballad is fundamentally a song that
tells a story. The folk ballad is traditionally an anonymous poem that has been
passed on through oral tradition (spoken aloud or sung) from generation to
generation or by travelling entertainers like bards or minstrels. A literary
ballad is one that is not anonymous, but is written down by a poet as he
composes it, and is not necessarily meant to be sung. Most ballads tend to
follow these elements:
the beginning is often abrupt;
the language is usually simple;
the story is told through dialogue and action;
and
there is often a refrain, or chorus.
Although there are exceptions, most ballads have
four-line stanzas (not counting musical refrains) and follow an ABAB or ABCB
rhyme scheme. A ballad with six lines per stanza is not uncommon.
Epic
An epic poem is usually a very long poem
of several thousand lines relating the story of a hero and his struggle against
impossible odds. This is one of the oldest forms of poetry, and was usually
recited orally by professional storytellers or singers over several nights,
often at a court or feasting table. In fact, the oldest poem in any modern
European language is the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) epic Beowulf.
Lyric
A lyric is traditionally fairly short,
between four and sixty lines, and usually expresses the feelings and thoughts or
a single speaker in a personal and subjective fashion. The range and variety of
lyric verse is immense, and lyric poetry composes the bulk of all poetry. If the
poem is not narrative or dramatic (which usually follow the other genres given
here), it is probably a lyric poem. Most poems fall into the general categories
of love, lamentation (sadness) and the pastoral (dealing with the natural
world).
Sonnet
A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines in
iambic pentameter (see Meter). For high school purposes, they are usually
divided into two main types:
Petrarchan, or Italian Sonnet
This sonnet consists of an octave (eight lines)
rhyming ABBAABBA and a sestet (six lines) rhyming CDECDE or CDCDCD. This octave
develops a thought, and the sestet is a comment on it, a completion of it, or a
volta ('turn') on the idea. This is the most common type of sonnet.
Shakespearean, or Elizabethan Sonnet
This type of sonnet derives its name from the
many sonnets composed by William Shakespeare in this form. It is composed of
three quatrains (four lines each) rhyming ABAB CDCD EFEF, each one with a
different idea building upon the one before it, and of a couplet (two lines)
rhyming GG, with the conclusion.
Check these sonnet forms: http://www.sonnets.org/basicforms.htm
Blank Verse
Blank verse consists of unrhymed
five-stress lines, properly iambic pentameter (see Meter). Much of the poetry of
Milton, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and the Romantics were composed in blank verse.
For example:
For you I'll hazard all: why, what care I?
For you I'll live, and in your love I'll die.
Free Verse
Free verse has no regular meter, line
length or rhyme, and often depends on natural speech rhythms. Although a poem
can be both a lyric and free verse, this latter term is usually more apt for
longer pieces, especially when elements of the narrative or the dramatic are
present.
Technical Structure
Technical structure, or simply just form, is
conveyed through an analysis of several things, including rhyme, rhythm, meter
and poetic genre (sometimes -- confusingly -- also referred to as form).
Although the technical structure of most poems is usually less important than
the discussion of theme, it is nonetheless an integral part of analysis, as well
as often being more difficult, due to the confusion of terms and endless jargon
of literary critics. Don't be surprised if different books label a poem to be
different forms, or to see one critic use a term with a completely different
meaning than that of another critic. However, play it safe... the terms and
examples that follow are well-defined even within the circle of critics. Not
every poem has every element; this would be improbable, if not impossible. If
you cannot reasonably find an element, don't go chasing ghosts: it probably
isn't there.
Remember that:
verse has many meanings, and is often best reserved as meaning "poetry in
general";
use line to mean a particular line of the poem,
as in "we see in line 43 that...";
use stanza to mean a collection of lines
separated by a blank line, as in "the third stanza discusses the representation
of the Holy Grail as the modern ideal." It is often much the same as a paragraph
in prose, and usually concentrates on one main idea.
Rhyme
Although most people are familiar with
rhyme, it may be formally defined as the use of words in which there are
similarities in an accentuated vowel and the consonants that accompany it. It is
said to have two chief functions:
it echoes sounds and is thus a source of
artistic satisfaction. There is pleasure in the sound itself and in the
coincidence of sounds, and this is associated with music, rhythm and beat;
it assists in the actual structure of verse,
organizing it and opening and concluding the sense. It is thus used to 'bind'
the verse together.
Although rhyme is often thought of as being at the end of a line, it may be anywhere, such as in the middle of a line, e.g., "For this very jest among all of the rest." In this case, this is called an internal rhyme.
When analyzing rhyme, mention the rhyme scheme by labelling the end of each line with a letter, using a new one every time that you come across a new rhyming sound. For example:
As Robin Hood in the forest stood,
...............A
All under the greenwood tree,
.......................B
There he was ware of a brave young man, .....C
As fine as fine might be.
................................B
The youngster was clothed in scarlet red,
......D
In scarlet fine and gay,
..................................E
And he did frisk it over the plain
...................F
And chanted a roundelay.
............................E
If you were pressed for time, and did not have the opportunity to either label the poem on the page, or write out the lines, you could say that this poem follows an ABCB rhyme scheme which varies in every stanza.
Keep in mind that not everybody who speaks
(or spoke) English uses the same pronunciation. In Scottish poetry for example,
as in medieval poetry, vowels are often pronounced quite differently, and if we
were to read the poem aloud, we would not actually rhyme the words (e.g.,
"Little John" and "my son", "is taken" and "is slain"). Whenever you analyze a
poem not from our time and area, look carefully for evidence that words rhyme,
such as the fact that most of lines do contain a particular pattern of rhyme.
Rhythm
Rhythm is defined as the movement or
sense of movement communicated by the arrangement of stressed syllables and by
the duration of the syllables. It usually depends on the metrical pattern (see
the following section). This is rather a broad definition, and it is often very
difficult to analyze rhythm in a poem. You can sometimes think of it in terms of
music, and how the words fall in 'beats'.
Figurative Language
(http://www.frostfriends.org/figurative.html)
Figurative language uses "figures of speech" - a way of saying something other than the literal meaning of the words. For example, "All the world's a stage" Frost often referred to them simply as "figures." Frost said, "Every poem I write is figurative in two senses. It will have figures in it, of course; but it's also a figure in itself - a figure for something, and it's made so that you can get more than one figure out of it." Cook Voices p235
Metaphor A figure of speech in which a comparison is made between two things essentially unalike. To Frost, metaphor is really what poetry is all about. He is notably a poet of metaphors more than anything else. This is so important, we should hear directly from the poet. Frost said," Poetry begins in trivial metaphors, pretty metaphors, 'grace metaphors,' and goes on to the profoundest thinking that we have. Poetry provides the one permissible way of saying one thing and meaning another. People say, 'Why don't you say what you mean?' We never do that, do we, being all of us too much poets. We like to talk in parables and in hints and in indirections - whether from diffidence or from some other instinct". ... Excerpt from an essay entitled "Education by Poetry" by Robert Frost.
Examples:
The Silken Tent. A woman is admired for her strength and beauty, like a silken tent. Note the strength of the silk and cedar.
Putting in the Seed. The planting of seed in the garden, in springtime is like making love.
Devotion. The passive but ever-changing shore and the persistent energetic ocean are like a devoted couple.
To Earthward. The stages of love are like stepping stones to death.
All Revelation. A view of a geode crystal is like the mind probing the universe. (Go back to Table)
Simile A figure of speech in which a comparison is expressed by the specific use of a word or phrase such as: like, as, than, seems or Frost's favorite "as if,"
Examples:
Mending Wall: like an old-stone savage armed
Stars: like some snow-white/ Minerva's snow-white marble eyes
Going for Water: We ran as if to meet the moon ---- we paused / like gnomes
Birches: Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair
Hyla Brook: Like ghost of sleigh bells
Symbol A thing (could be an object, person, situation or action) which stands for something else more abstract. For example our flag is the symbol of our country. The use of symbols in Frost's poetry is less obvious. Frost was not known as a Symbolist. Actually, the Symbolists were a late 19th century movement reacting against realism. Frost rebelled against this movement and preferred to use metaphors. There are certain signature images that become symbols when we look at Frost's complete work. Flowers, stars, dark woods and spring (the water kind) are consistent symbols in Frost's poetry and should be noted here. As with many other poetic devices, Frost had his own way of keeping the rule and breaking the rule. Cook Dimensions p197
Examples:
The Road Not Taken: the forked road represents choices in life. The road in this poem is a text book example of a symbol.
Rose Pogonias: Early in Frost's poetry, flowers become a symbol for the beloved, his wife Elinor.
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening: even though there is no one overt symbol in the poem, the entire journey can represent life's journey. "Dark woods" also become a powerful recurring symbol in Frost.
The Pasture and Directive. Spring (as in water spring) is very meaningful in Frost's poetry. Spring represents origin or source, almost in a Proustian sense. Other variations include "brook" Hyla Brook and West-Running Brook. Water often deals with an emotional state.
Come In: "But no, I was out for stars." The star is one of the chief symbolic images in Frost's poetry.
Personification A type of metaphor in which distinct human qualities, e.g., honesty, emotion, volition, etc., are attributed to an animal, object or idea.
Examples:
My November Guest: the guest is Sorrow, personified as a woman dearly loved who walks with him.
Mowing: the scythe whispers
Range-Finding: the spider sullenly withdraws
Tree at my Window: the tree watches him sleep; it has tongues talking aloud
Storm Fear: the wind works and whispers, the cold creeps, the whole storm is personified.
Apostrophe A figure of speech in which someone absent or dead OR something nonhuman is addressed as if it were alive and present.
Examples:
Take Something Like a Star: the poem begins, "O Star," He addresses the star throughout the poem.
Tree at my Window: He addresses the tree throughout: "Tree at my window, window tree."
Mending Wall: speaking to the stones that make up the barrier, he says, "Stay where you are until our backs are turned!"
Synecdoche A figure of speech which mentions a part of something to suggest the whole. As in, "All hands on deck," meaning all sailors to report for duty. Hands = sailors. Frost said, "I started calling myself a Synecdochist when other called themselves Imagists or Vorticists."
Examples:
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening: The little journey in the poem represents life's journey.
The Gift Outright: The gift represents the history of the United States.
I Will Sing You One-O: Two clock towers striking One o'clock represent extensions of earthly and heavenly time.
Kitty Hawk: Man's first flight represents man's yearning for God or heaven.
Fire and Ice: The heat of love and the cold of hate are seen as having cataclysmic power.
Metonymy A figure of speech that uses a concept closely related to the thing actually meant. The substitution makes the analogy more vivid and meaningful.
Examples:
Out, Out: the injured boy holds up his hand "as if to keep / the life from spilling." The literal meaning is to keep the blood from spilling. Frost's line tells us that the hand is bleeding and the boy's life is in danger.
Allegory or Parable A poem in the form of a narrative or story that has a second meaning beneath the surface one. Frost is notable for his use of the parable using the description to evoke an idea. Some critics call him a "Parablist."
Examples:
After Apple-Picking: the apple harvest suggests accomplishment
The Grindstone: the grinding of the blade suggests the idea of judging and recognizing limits
The Lockless Door: a story of self escape
Birches: the climbing suggests the value of learning and experience
Design: the incident suggests a universal design
Paradox A statement or situation containing apparently contradictory or incompatible elements, but on closer inspection may be true.
Examples:
Nothing Gold Can Stay: green is gold
The Gift Outright: "And forthwith found salvation in surrender."
Ghost House: I dwell in a house that vanished.
Fire and Ice:" But if it had to perish twice"
The Tuft of Flowers: men work together whether they work together or apart.
Hyperbole A bold, deliberate overstatement not intended to be taken literally, it is used as a means of emphasizing the truth of a statement. This is relatively rare in Frost. He has a penchant for fact and truth.
Example:
A
Star in a Stoneboat:
A meteorite is found in a field and supposed to be a star which has fallen to
earth
Etherealizing: The idea of reducing ourselves simply to a brain.
After Apple-Picking: Ten thousand thousand fruit to touch.
Stopping by Woods: The woods filling up with snow.
The Milky Way is a Cowpath (title)
Understatement The presentation of a thing with under-emphasis in order to achieve a greater effect. Frost uses this device extensively, often as a means of irony. His love poems are especially understated. He cautions, "Never larrup an emotion."
Examples:
Fire and Ice: Ice, which for destruction is great, "will suffice."
Mowing: "Anything more than the truth would have seemed to weak" This is almost Frost's definition of understatement
Hyla Brook: the last line "We love the things we love for what they are."
My November Guest: The speaker appreciates the November landscape, but leaves it to his "guest" to praise.
Brown's Descent: After falling down an ice crusted slope, Farmer Brown still clutching his lantern says, "Ile's (oil's) 'bout out!"
Irony Verbal irony is a figure of speech when an expression used is the opposite of the thought in the speaker's mind, thus conveying a meaning that contradicts the literal definition. Dramatic irony is a literary or theatrical device of having a character utter words which the the reader or audience understands to have a different meaning, but of which the character himself is unaware. Irony of situation is when a situation occurs which is quite the reverse of what one might have expected. Often, Frost's use of irony convey's one meaning by word and syntax, and another by the tone of voice it indicates. The tone contradicts the words. Frost's irony is usually tricky because it is so subtle.
Examples:
Birches: Dramatic irony the wish to get away from earth may not be granted too soon
Range-Finding: Irony of situation when the spider is disturbed by a bullet but finds it unimportant.
The Road Not Taken: Verbal irony - the speaker knows he will tell the old story "with a sigh" of a choice that "made all the difference."
Ghost
House: Irony of
situation when daylight falls (usually night falls) into a place that was
supposed to be dark in order too keep things for survival. The cellar was a
storeroom filled with things to get you through the winter. In this case,
daylight is dissolution of the proper and good use of the place. Wild
raspberries now grow where fruit used to be stored. This poem is full of irony.
Stars: Minerva, the goddess of wisdom but her eyes are without the
gift of sight.
The 11 basic steps to reading a poem ((http://garts.latech.edu/owl/literature/poetryguide.htm)
Step 1: Read through the poem to get a sense of it.
Step 2: Identify the sentences and independent clauses (circle the periods, exclamation points, question marks, and semicolons). For some reason, people always forget that poetry is made up of complete sentences.
Step 3: Read a few lines to figure out the meter (figure out how many stresses there are in a typical line).
Step 4: Note the rhyme scheme (look for a pattern).
Step 5: Read the poem out loud. Try to follow the rhythm. If you do this you'll hear where the poet plays with the rhythm. And you'll hear the rhyme scheme.
Step 6: Look up any words you don't understand.
Step 7: Re-read the poem out loud.
Step 8: Mark off any sections in the poem. These sections may be speeches given by a character, discussions of a particular topic, changes in mood, or a new stage of an argument.
Step 9: Re-read the poem.
Step 10: Figure out the tone -- the emotion -- of the poem.
Step 11: Re-read the poem.
So far you haven't done any analysis. But you've got a rich understanding of the poem. You know how it works as verse, and you've probably read the poem the way the poet meant it to be read.
Now you can start on the analysis -- if you like. If you do choose to analyze the poem (or if you are forced into it by your power-mad professor) you will do a better job because you are alert to what the poem says, and where it changes meaning, tone, sound, or rhythm. This will help you zero in on the important moments in the poem.
A poetry explication is a relatively short analysis which describes the possible meanings and relationships of the words, images, and other small units that make up a poem. Writing an explication is an effective way for a reader to connect a poem's plot and conflicts with its structural features. This handout reviews some of the important techniques of approaching and writing a poetry explication, and includes parts of two sample explications.
Determine the basic design of the poem by considering the who, what, when, where, and why of the dramatic situation.
· What is being dramatized? What conflicts or themes does the poem present, address, or question?
· Who is the speaker? Define and describe the speaker and his/her voice. What does the speaker say? Who is the audience? Are other characters involved?
· What happens in the poem? Consider the plot or basic design of the action. How are the dramatized conflicts or themes introduced, sustained, resolved, etc.?
· When does the action occur? What is the date and/or time of day?
· Where is the speaker? Describe the physical location of the dramatic moment.
· Why does the speaker feel compelled to speak at this moment? What is his/her motivation?
To analyze the design of the poem, we must focus on the poems' parts, namely how the poem dramatizes conflicts or ideas in language. By concentrating on the parts, we develop our understanding of the poem's structure, and we gather support and evidence for our interpretations. Some of the details we should consider include the following:
· Form: Does the poem represent a particular form (sonnet, sestina, etc.)? Does the poem present any unique variations from the traditional structure of that form?
· Rhetoric: How does the speaker make particular statements? Does the rhetoric seem odd in any way? Why? Consider the predicates and what they reveal about the speaker.
· Syntax: Consider the subjects, verbs, and objects of each statement and what these elements reveal about the speaker. Do any statements have convoluted or vague syntax?
· Vocabulary: Why does the poet choose one word over another in each line? Do any of the words have multiple or archaic meanings that add other meanings to the line? Use the Oxford English Dictionary as a resource.
As you analyze the design line by line, look for certain patterns to develop which provide insight into the dramatic situation, the speaker's state of mind, or the poet's use of details. Some of the most common patterns include the following:
· Rhetorical Patterns: Look for statements that follow the same format.
· Rhyme: Consider the significance of the end words joined by sound; in a poem with no rhymes, consider the importance of the end words.
· Patterns of Sound: Alliteration and assonance create sound effects and often cluster significant words.
· Visual Patterns: How does the poem look on the page?
· Rhythm and Meter: Consider how rhythm and meter influence our perception of the speaker and his/her language.
Meter (from the Greek metron, meaning measure) refers principally to the recurrence of regular beats in a poetic line. In this way, meter pertains to the structure of the poem as it is written.
The most common form of meter in English verse since the 14th century is accentual-syllabic meter, in which the basic unit is the foot. A foot is a combination of two or three stressed and/or unstressed syllables. The following are the four most common metrical feet in English poetry:
(1) IAMBIC (the noun is "iamb"): an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, a pattern which comes closest to approximating the natural rhythm of speech. Note line 23 from Shelley's "Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples":
(2) TROCHAIC (the noun is "trochee"): a stressed followed by an
unstressed syllable, as in the first line of Blake's "Introduction" to Songs
of Innocence:
(3) ANAPESTIC (the noun is "anapest"): two unstressed syllables followed
by a stressed syllable, as in the opening to Byron's "The Destruction of
Sennacherib":
(4) DACTYLIC (the noun is "dactyl"): a stressed syllable followed by two
unstressed syllables, as in Thomas Hardy's "The Voice":
Meter also refers to the number of feet in a line:
|
Monometer |
one |
Any number above six (hexameter) is heard as a combination of smaller parts; for example, what we might call heptameter (seven feet in a line) is indistinguishable (aurally) from successive lines of tetrameter and trimeter (4-3).
To scan a line is to determine its metrical pattern. Perhaps the best way to begin scanning a line is to mark the natural stresses on the polysyllabic words. Take Shelley's line:
Then mark the monosyllabic nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs that are
normally stressed:
Then fill in the rest:
Then divide the line into feet:
Then note the sequence:
The line consists of four iambs; therefore, we identify the line as iambic tetrameter.
Rhythm refers particularly to the way a line is voiced, i.e., how one speaks the line. Often, when a reader reads a line of verse, choices of stress and unstress may need to be made. For example, the first line of Keats' "Ode on Melancholy" presents the reader with a problem:
No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist
If we determine the regular pattern of beats (the meter) of this line, we will most likely identify the line as iambic pentameter. If we read the line this way, the statement takes on a musing, somewhat disinterested tone. However, because the first five words are monosyllabic, we may choose to read the line differently. In fact, we may be tempted, especially when reading aloud, to stress the first two syllables equally, making the opening an emphatic, directive statement. Note that monosyllabic words allow the meaning of the line to vary according to which words we choose to stress when reading (i.e., the choice of rhythm we make).
The first line of Milton's Paradise Lost presents a different type of problem.
Of Man's First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Again, this line is predominantly iambic, but a problem occurs with the word Disobedience. If we read strictly by the meter, then we must fuse the last two syllables of the word. However, if we read the word normally, we have a breakage in the line's metrical structure. In this way, the poet forges a tension between meter and rhythm: does the word remain contained by the structure, or do we choose to stretch the word out of the normal foot, thereby disobeying the structure in which it was made? Such tension adds meaning to the poem by using meter and rhythm to dramatize certain conflicts. In this example, Milton forges such a tension to present immediately the essential conflicts that lead to the fall of Adam and Eve.
The explication should follow the same format as the preparation: begin with the large issues and basic design of the poem and work through each line to the more specific details and patterns.
The first paragraph should present the large issues; it should inform the reader which conflicts are dramatized and should describe the dramatic situation of the speaker. The explication does not require a formal introductory paragraph; the writer should simply start explicating immediately. According to UNC 's Professor William Harmon, the foolproof way to begin any explication is with the following sentence: "This poem dramatizes the conflict between …" Such a beginning ensures that you will introduce the major conflict or theme in the poem and organize your explication accordingly.
An undergraduate recently began an explication of Wordsworth's "Composed upon Westminster Bridge" in the following way:
This poem dramatizes the conflict between appearance and reality, particularly as this conflict relates to what the speaker seems to say and what he really says. From Westminster Bridge, the speaker looks at London at sunrise, and he explains that all people should be struck by such a beautiful scene. The speaker notes that the city is silent, and he points to several specific objects, naming them only in general terms: "Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples" (6). After describing the "glittering" aspect of these objects, he asserts that these city places are just as beautiful in the morning as country places like "valley, rock, or hill" (8,10). Finally, after describing his deep feeling of calmness, the speaker notes how the "houses seem asleep" and that "all that mighty heart is lying still" (13, 14). In this way, the speaker seems to say simply that London looks beautiful in the morning.
The next paragraphs should expand the discussion of the conflict by focusing on details of form, rhetoric, syntax, and vocabulary. In these paragraphs, the writer should explain the poem line by line in terms of these details, and he or she should incorporate important elements of rhyme, rhythm, and meter during this discussion.
The undergraduate continues with a topic sentence that directs the discussion of the first five lines:
However, the poem begins with several oddities that suggest the speaker is saying more than what he seems to say initially. For example, the poem is an Italian sonnet and follows the abbaabbacdcdcd rhyme scheme. The fact that the poet chooses to write a sonnet about London in an Italian form suggests that what he says may not be actually praising the city. Also, the rhetoric of the first two lines seems awkward compared to a normal speaking voice: "Earth has not anything to show more fair. / Dull would he be of soul who could pass by" (1-2). The odd syntax continues when the poet personifies the city: "This City now doth, like a garment, wear / The beauty of the morning" (4-5). Here, the city wears the morning's beauty, so it is not the city but the morning that is beautiful ...
The explication has no formal concluding paragraph; do not simply restate the main points of the introduction! The end of the explication should focus on sound effects or visual patterns as the final element of asserting an explanation. Or, as does the undergraduate here, the writer may choose simply to stop writing when he or she reaches the end of the poem:
The poem ends with a vague statement: "And all that mighty heart is lying still!" In this line, the city's heart could be dead, or it could be simply deceiving the one observing the scene. In this way, the poet reinforces the conflict between the appearance of the city in the morning and what such a scene and his words actually reveal.
1. Refer to the speaking voice in the poem as "the speaker" or "the poet." For example, do not write, "In this poem, Wordsworth says that London is beautiful in the morning." However, you can write, "In this poem, Wordsworth presents a speaker who…" We cannot absolutely identify Wordsworth with the speaker of the poem, so it is more accurate to talk about "the speaker" or "the poet" in an explication.
2. Use the present tense when writing the explication. The poem, as a work of literature, continues to exist!
3. To avoid unnecessary uses of the verb 'to be' in your compositions, the following list suggests some verbs you can use when writing the explication:
|
dramatizes presents illustrates characterizes underlines |
asserts posits enacts connects portrays |
contrasts juxtaposes suggests implies shows |
addresses emphasizes stresses accentuates enables |
The Fountain
Fountain, fountain, what do you say
Singing at night alone?
"It is enough to rise and fall
Here in my basin of stone."
But are you content as you seem to be
So near the freedom and rush of the sea?
"I have listened all night to its laboring sound,
It heaves and sags, as the moon runs round;
Ocean and fountain, shadow and tree,
Nothing escapes, nothing is free."
-- Sara Teasdale (American, l884-1933)
As a direct address to an inanimate object "The Fountain" presents three main conflicts concerning the appearance to the observer and the reality in the poem. First, since the speaker addresses an object usually considered voiceless, the reader may abandon his/her normal perception of the fountain and enter the poet's imaginative address. Secondly, the speaker not only addresses the fountain but asserts that it speaks and sings, personifying the object with vocal abilities. These acts imply that, not only can the fountain speak in a musical form, but the fountain also has the ability to present some particular meaning ("what do you say" (1)). Finally, the poet gives the fountain a voice to say that its perpetual motion (rising and falling) is "enough" to maintain its sense of existence. This final personification fully dramatizes the conflict between the fountain's appearance and the poem's statement of reality by giving the object intelligence and voice.
The first strophe, four lines of alternating 4- and 3-foot lines, takes the form of a ballad stanza. In this way, the poem begins by suggesting that it will be story that will perhaps teach a certain lesson. The opening trochees and repetition stress the address to the fountain, and the iamb which ends line 1 and the trochee that begins line 2 stress the actions of the fountain itself. The response of the fountain illustrates its own rise and fall in the iambic line 3, and the rhyme of "alone" and "stone" emphasizes that the fountain is really a physical object, even though it can speak in this poem.
The second strophe expands the conflicts as the speaker questions the fountain. The first couplet connects the rhyming words "be" and "sea" these connections stress the question, "Is the fountain content when it exists so close to a large, open body of water like the ocean?" The fountain responds to the tempting "rush of the sea" with much wisdom (6). The fountain's reply posits the sea as "laboring" versus the speaker's assertion of its freedom; the sea becomes characterized by heavily accented "heaves and sags" and not open rushing (7, 8). In this way, the fountain suggests that the sea's waters may be described in images of labor, work, and fatigue; governed by the moon, these waters are not free at all. The "as" of line 8 becomes a key word, illustrating that the sea's waters are not free but commanded by the moon, which is itself governed by gravity in its orbit around Earth. Since the moon, an object far away in the heavens, controls the ocean, the sea cannot be free as the speaker asserts.
The poet reveals the fountain's intelligence in rhyming couplets which present closed-in, epigrammatic statements. These couplets draw attention to the contained nature of the all objects in the poem, and they draw attention to the final line's lesson. This last line works on several levels to address the poem's conflicts. First, the line refers to the fountain itself; in this final rhymed couplet is the illustration of the water's perpetual motion in the fountain, its continually recycled movement rising and falling. Second, the line refers to the ocean; in this respect the water cannot escape its boundary or control its own motions. The ocean itself is trapped between landmasses and is controlled by a distant object's gravitational pull. Finally, the line addresses the speaker, leaving him/her with an overriding sense of fate and fallacy. The fallacy here is that the fountain presents this wisdom of reality to defy the speaker's original idea that the fountain and the ocean appear to be trapped and free. Also, the direct statement of the last line certainly addresses the human speaker as well as the human reader. This statement implies that we are all trapped or controlled by some remote object or entity. At the same time, the assertion that "Nothing escapes" reflects the limitations of life in the world and the death that no person can escape. Our own thoughts are restricted by our mortality as well as by our limits of relying on appearances. By personifying a voiceless object, the poem presents a different perception of reality, placing the reader in the same position of the speaker and inviting the reader to question the conflict between appearance and reality, between what we see and what we can know.
SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT:
The writer observes and presents many of the most salient points of the short poem, but he could indeed organize the explication more coherently. To improve this explication, the writer could focus more on the speaker's state of mind. In this way, the writer could explore the implications of the dramatic situation even further: why does the speaker ask a question of a mute object? With this line of thought, the writer could also examine more closely the speaker's movement from perplexity (I am trapped but the waters are free) to a kind of resolution (the fountain and the sea are as trapped as I am). Finally, the writer could include a more detailed consideration of rhythm, meter, and rhyme.