Essay on "Explication of Poetry"

Quoted Instructions for "Explication of Poetry" Assignment:

Write a 500 *****“ 750 word (2 *****“ 3 Pages) explication of any poem from Chapter 21 *****Poems for Further Reading***** of Backpack Literature. *****Explication is the patient unfolding of meanings in a work of literature. An explication proceeds carefully through a . . . poem, usually interpreting it line by line*****”perhaps even word by word, dwelling on details a casual reader might miss and illustrating how a work*****s smaller parts contribute to a whole***** (Kennedy and Gioia 1118). When you explicate, you essentially explain a poem line-by-line.

Please note that it may be tempting to choose a poem that you easily understand, but remember that you need a poem complex enough for you to provide 2 *****“ 3 pages of explanation. Also take care not to choose a poem that is too long because you will then not be able to go into enough detail in a short 2 *****“ 3 page essay.

Elements to consider when explicating:

· Type of poem

o Lyric, Narrative, or Dramatic

· Connotation and Denotations

o Denotations: Dictionary definitions of words

o Connotations: Additional meanings words often gain

· The Speaker

· Tone (including irony)

· Figures of Speech

o Metaphor, simile, personification, overstatement, etc.

· Sound

· Images

· Meter

· Form

o Closed (blank verse, quatrain, sonnet, etc.) or Open

· Symbols

· Your interpretation

Your explication should include the following:

· A title. Probably *****An Explication of *****˜Poem*****s Title*****

· The text of the poem, single spaced with every fifth line numbered (Look at examples in your text). This is so I don*****t need to flip around the book while correcting your essay. The text of the poem does not count towards the 500 *****“ 750 word (2 -3 page) length of the essay.

· While some instructors will have students skip formal introductions in an explication, I do want to see an introduction which introduces the poet, the poem, and gives an overall interpretation of the poem in the thesis statement.

· An essay body which explains the poem line-by-line. Be sure to continue to follow the claim-support style (topic sentence *****“ support) style of paragraphs common in academic writing. You will need to decide where to begin new paragraphs depending on divisions you can find within the poem. Sometimes the poet will do this for you by dividing the poem into stanzas, but at other times you will need to determine shifts within the poem to determine where to begin the next paragraph.

· Parenthetical Citations of quoted lines of poetry in MLA style.

The poem is by Elizabeth Bishop.

It's called "One Art"

The ar of losing isn't hard to master;

so many things seem to filled with the intent

to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster

of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.

The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:

places, and names, and where it was you meant

to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or

next-to-last, of three loved houses went.

The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,

some realms I owned, tow rivers, a continent.

I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

-Even losing you (the joking voice, the gesture

I love)I shan't have lied. It's evident

the art of losing's not too hard to master

though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.