Poem Literary Analysis

Literary Analysis: Poetry
Your literary analysis of poetry can go in one of two larger directions.
1) Explication. A poetry explication is an analysis focused on explaining or “translating” a poem, making sense of it for a reader who might not yet comprehend all its meanings and complexities.
How should you proceed?
– Consider the “bigger picture” 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.?
– Then, the details:
To analyze the design of the poem, you must focus on the poem’s 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 you should consider include the following:
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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?
– The patterns
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.
At the end of this analysis, you should have a full sense of the poem’s meaning and how it works,
and your essay might take the following path:
•  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 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 explication does not need a 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.
2) Extended Analysis of an Element. Instead of analyzing the “whole” sense of a poem in an explication, you can focus your study on how a particular literary element or particular literary elements function in the poem of your choice.
In other words, if you think one of the most compelling and engaging parts of a poem is its word choice, focus on those word choices, singling out those that are most notable and explaining why and how they are notable—how they add to the meaning of the poem, how/why they influence our reading of lines and other words, and so on. What tone do they set? Who talks like this? Can you see interesting connections / relationships between words—patterns of repetition? Look up key or difficult words in the dictionary to find their etymology or history.
Other elements you might consider include the following:
• Syntax: Examine the sentence structure of the poem; identify the parts of speech or word classes: nouns, verbs, adjectives and so on. Are words used strangely, against the normal rules of syntax?
• Speaker or Persona: That speaker talks to someone, an implied hearer. Who are they, and what do they wish to communicate, and how? And there may be other characters there as well, explicit or implied. As with real drama, poems have settings; where does it take place and what does that mean?
• Figurative language: Look for similes, metaphors, images or other figures. Where do they appear? Why? What effect do they have on the poem’s meaning? How do they “add up” over the course of the poem?
• Prosody: If the poem is metrical or rhymed, examine how the formal, musical patterns relate to the meanings. Unsure what an iamb is? Check out the good prosody glossary at the back of The Norton Anthology….
• Visual rhetoric: Most poetry in our tradition is written to be read, so the arrangement of the words on the page form a visual pattern that works with the meaning.
Any other literary elements that we dealt with in our readings and Db posts are also, of course, fair game for study.
This essay should, as with most successful essays, contain the following:
•  An introduction that offers concise background and context about the author and the story AND an argument spelled out in a clear and specific thesis statement.
•  Body paragraphs that support the paper’s argument in an organized and comprehensive manner that include a topic sentence and supporting evidence from the text.
Either essay you write must also contain the following:
Proper use of quoted text (which involves introduction of and explanation of quoted material
and correct use of MLA parenthetical referencing (covered on pages 2309-2320 in the Norton).
You are not expected to draw from any but the primary source. In other words, you do not need to do research and incorporate secondary sources in your analysis, though you may, if you wish.
Last, but not least, your essays should strive to meet the highest expectations for good writing as spelled out in the grading rubric in the syllabus.
For a model of what you might write, please look to the sample student assignment on pages 870-873 of the Norton Anthology.
Examples/Options for Essays:
1. 1) Explicate Adrienne Rich’s “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers.” As you do so, consider all the parts of the poem. What meaning does each character bring to the poem? What are the poem’s various symbols, and what do they represent? What’s the “story” of the poem? What words have impact in the poem, and how do they add up to create sounds and rhythms?
2. 2) Consider the symbolic importance of persimmons in Li-Young Lee’s poem of the same name. What many things might persimmons in that poem “mean?” How do they focus our attention on the narrator’s situation and understanding of the world?
3. 3) Compare and contrast two poems that we studied together in analysis of a particular poetic element. For example, in consideration of form, how are the formal constructions in poems by cummings and Swenson similar? How are they different? Why, and to what similar/different effects in each?
You may, of course, develop any topic of your own choosing. Please be sure to clear your essay idea with me, though, before you begin writing.
This assignment gratefully draws on the work of the following websites:
http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/poetry-explications/
http://spanport.umn.edu/assets/pdf/LiteraryAssign.pdf