Poetry Explication
1. What is an explication of a poem? It is an explanation or interpretation or analysis. It
discusses the poem’s form. Is it a sonnet? Free verse? Rhymed verse? Lyric poem?
Ballade?
If rhyme is used, it mentions this fact (abab? abbacc?). It says something about the
poem’s tone and theme (serious or humorous? subject and message or “meaning”?).
It analyzes important figures of speech or other techniques (metaphor? simile?
alliteration?) which contribute to the overall effect of the poem. .
2.
What is NOT an explication of a poem? It is NOT a personal statement of how
the poem makes you feel, unless that statement is supported by analysis of specific
lines in the poem. Your personal reaction must be based on an accurate analysis of
what the poem actually says, not on your background or the mood you happen to be
in when you read it.
3.
How long is an explication of a poem? Long enough to cover the subject, which
means it will sometimes be longer than the poem. Think W.C. Williams’s “Red
Wheel Barrow” or Emily Dickinson’s “The Fly.” Figure on writing a page to
analyze a sonnet or similar-length poem. Naturally, with long, narrative poems you
will have to be more selective about the details you choose to discuss.
4.
Here is a very short poem by Robert Frost, called “Nothing Gold Can Stay.”
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower,
But only so an hour.
So leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
Here is a brief explication of “Nothing Gold Can Stay.”
This eight-line poem, written in iambic trimeter couplets, says that real beauty is
temporary. It always changes into something less. We cherish most the things we
have for the shortest time. The color gold stands for what we cherish. The first
four lines say that plants are at their most beautiful stage in early spring, when
buds and flowers are young. They become less attractive as they mature (“only so
an hour”). In the last four lines, Frost applies this observation to human history.
First he notes that the gorgeous first blossom changes for the worse as it ages
(“subsides”). Then, he reminds us that Eden was a place of perfect beauty until
sin corrupted the world. The beauty of dawn turns into a day like any other. The
anaphora, or repetition of “So” at the beginning of lines 5, 6, and 7, reinforces the
inescapability of time’s progress, and the final line sums up the idea that change is
always happening, that we cannot hold onto the things we cherish.
Taken from: faculty.shawu.edu/eweil/PoemExplication.htm
Poetry Explication
Now here a several poems; pick one to explicate:
Poem One: No Loser, No Weeper
By Maya Angelou
"I hate to lose something,"
then she bent her head
"even a dime, I wish I was dead.
I can't explain it. No more to be said.
Cept I hate to lose something."
"I lost a doll once and cried for a week.
She could open her eyes, and do all but speak.
I believe she was took, by some doll-snatching-sneak
I tell you, I hate to lose something."
"A watch of mine once, got up and walked alway.
It had twelve numbers on it and for the time of day.
I'll never forget it and all I can say
Is I really hate to lose something."
"Now if I felt that way bout a watch and a toy,
What you think I feel bout my lover-boy?
I ain't threatening you madam, but he is my
evening's joy.
And I mean I really hate to lose something."
Poem Two: Flander’s Field
By Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Poetry Explication
Poem Three: Do Not Go Gentle Into That good Night
By Dylan Thomas
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.