Explicating a Poem

MAIN

Welcome to Section 6.

In this section you will study poetry.  However, rather than writing poems, or analyzing them, you will be writing an explication of a lyric poem.   The readings below explain how to do an explication.  The readings also give examples of poems and address the tools poets use to create poetry.   The slide presentations explain some of these tools in depth, and show how to explicate a poem for Web 1213.

1213 Home

1. Formal Outline for Paper 5
2. Paper 5

Paper 5 is a five hundred (500) word explication of a lyric poem.  A sample explication is contained in the second presentation.  Paper 5 must be accepted before you move on to Section 7.

Before you do the readings and view the presentation below, please be advised of the following:

1. In this section you will complete and submit your fifth written assignment.  Remember to follow the Submission Procedure outlined on the Web 1213 Home Page.

2. Your Paper 4 must be submitted and returned marked "Accepted" before you can submit Paper 5.

3. The written assignment for Section 6 (Paper 5) is an informal essay.   It should be written in an informal style.  However, you should use good basic sentence and paragraph structure.  There should be an introduction, a conclusion, and a separate body paragraph for each stanza of the lyric poem you are explicating (see the sample in the second presentation for details).  You will not do a Works Cited page for Paper 5.

Note 1: You will choose your target poem from Part 5 of the Course Packet (below).  You must explicate one of the poems contained there.

Note 2: As with Part 3 and Part 4 of the Course Packet, there are no page numbers in Part 5.  However, since you will not be doing a Work Cited page for Paper 5, and since parenthetical citations for poetry are done by line (see the sample explication in the second PowerPoint presentation below), you will not need page numbers for this assignment.

Note 3: To best complete Section 6, and to get the most out of the Poetry section of the course, you should should view both the presentations before doing the readings. 

Note 4: Please see the ASSIGNMENT section below, and the sample explication in the second presentation, for details on how to format and document Paper 5 for Web 1213.

Again: You should view both the presentations before doing the readings in Section 6.

PACK5

For information on poetry and on explicating poems necessary for the successful completion of Paper 5, please click on the hyperlinks below and view the presentations.

Paper 5

Write an informal essay of approximately five hundred (500) words that explicates a lyric poem of between two and four stanzas from the assigned readings in Part 5 of the Course Packet (above).

You may explicate any of the lyric poems to be found in the assigned readings that fits the assignment.   Do not use "The Colorado Trail."  Do not use "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."  Do not use "Eleanor Rigby."

Remember: do not evaluate the poem as a whole until your conclusion.  In the introduction and body paragraphs you should merely report on the content, organization, and style of the poem.

Once you have selected a lyric poem of between two and four stanzas - and studied it carefully - you should follow these steps to complete the assignment:

1. Write a Formal Outline of your explication.  Use complete sentences, follow the steps in the SAMPLE presentation, and use the sample Formal Outline for Paper 5 contained in the second PowerPoint presentation above as a guide.  Remember: you must type the entire poem that you are explicating in at the top of the first page of your outline and essay.  Again, this is required.

2. Submit your Formal Outline.

3. Rewrite/Revise/Edit your Formal Outline until it is returned marked ACCEPTED.

4. Explicate the poem by expanding your Formal Outline into Paper 5.  

5. You must print the poem you are explicating at the top of Page 1 of your essay.  You should not do a Work Cited page for Paper 5.

6. Remember: talk about the poem in general in your introduction, and focus each body paragraph on a different stanza of the poem (e.g., talk about stanza 1 in body 1, stanza 2 in body 2, etc.).  

7. You must address the stanza structure and rhyme scheme of each stanza in the body paragraph dedicated to it in your paper.  This is required.  You must list all of the rhyming words, and talk about why they are being emphasized.  This is required.

8. Submit Paper 5.

9. Rewrite/Revise/Edit Paper 5 until it is returned marked ACCEPTED.

Note: Your Formal Outline must be submitted and returned marked ACCEPTED before you submit Paper 5.