K. Edwards AP Literature and Composition POETRY EXPLICATION

Example 1  The poem begins with diction when the poet uses the word “sad.” The little boy is begging his father to tell him a new story, not the same one he always tells. The father feels upset that he is unable to come up with a story as the boy begs, “Baba. A new one.” So the man scratches his face and just sits in silence. Example 2  Written in free verse, the poem begins with an unrhymed couplet utilizing the word “sad.” The use of the word sad to represent the father’s feeling as a result of his inability to provide an original story for this son illuminates the simplicity of the request and the innocence of the child. Stories for him are like fairy tales with basic happy endings or sad endings. SAMPLE ANALYSIS PARAGRAPHS FOR “THE STORY”

 When explicating a poem your focus should be to show how the poem’s central plot and conflict connects with its structure.  The intro should not only present the big picture and identify prevailing conflicts within the poem, but also describe the dramatic situation of the speaker.  All explications will begin the same way: TAG  Sylvia Plath’s “Blackberrying” dramatizes the conflict between…  This poem by Sylvia Plath dramatizes the conflict between…  Sylvia Plath’s “Blackberrying” characterizes… INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH

 In contrast to prose, with poetry the narrator becomes the Speaker.  DO NOT CONFUSE THE SPEAKER WITH THE POET.  When you refer to the plot and/or conflict within the poem, you reference the speaker.  Ex. “When the speaker says “blind,” he does not mean a person whose eyes are inoperable.”  When you refer to the structure and use of meter, rhythm, diction, imagery, syntax, etc. you reference the poet.  Ex. “Sydney uses an unconventional sonnet form that follows the ababbababccbcc rhyme scheme. The poet’s sophisticated structure mirrors the complexity the speaker experiences with desire.” INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH

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.

 Li Young Lee’s “A Story” dramatizes the conflict between the father’s desire to provide for his son and his inability to do so. The 3 rd person omniscient speaker describes the boy sitting on his father’s lap pleading to not hear “the same story” but a “new one” while the father is only left to “scratch his ear” and rub “his chin” because he can not accomplish this simple task, which evokes a fear in him for the future.

 Body paragraphs should expand the discussion of the conflict by focusing on details of form, rhetoric, syntax, and vocabulary.  Depending on the length and form of the poem, the student should explain the poem line by line or stanza by stanza, incorporating elements of rhyme, rhythm, and meter. You should use poetic terminology to the best of your ability.  If the poem is a sonnet, your essay structure should follow the form of the sonnet, whether it is Shakespearean, Petrarchan, Spenserian, or Sidney.  The first body paragraph always starts with the phrase, “The poem begins with…” BODY PARAGRAPHS

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...

ITALIAN/PETRARCHAN  OCTAVEabba abba +  SESTETcdcdcd or cdecde The shift or Volta occurs in the sestet. ENGLISH/SHAKESPEAREAN  Quatrain 1 abab  Quatrain 2 cdcd  Quatrain 3 efef +  Rhyming Couplet gg The shift (Volta) occurs after line 8 and the final conclusion is presented in the couplet. SONNETS TRAITS REVIEW SONNETS= LYRICS---THEY CONVEY INTENSE EMOTION 14 LINES; IAMBIC PENTAMETER TWO RHETORICAL PARTS: QUESTION/ANSWER OR PROBLEM/SOLUTION

SPENSERIAN  Quatrain 1 abab  Quatrain 2 bcbc  Quatrain 3 cdcd +  Couplet ee  The shift (Volta) occurs after line 8 and the final conclusion is presented in the couplet SIDNEY (QUATORZAIN)  Quatrain 1 abab  Quatrain 2 baba +  Tercet 1 bcc  Tercet 2bcc  A tercet is a stanza of 3lines always ending in a couplet.  The shift (Volta) occurs after line 8 and the final conclusion is presented in the couplet SONNETS TRAITS REVIEW SONNETS= LYRICS---THEY CONVEY INTENSE EMOTION 14 LINES; IAMBIC PENTAMETER TWO RHETORICAL PARTS: QUESTION/ANSWER OR PROBLEM/SOLUTION

 Form  Closed Form  Open Form  Fixed Form  Octave  Sestet  Couplet  Heroic couplet  Blank Verse  Tercet  Terza Rima  Sestina  Villanelle  Ballad/ballad stanza  Oxymoron  Paradox  Pun  Sarcasm  Syntax  Alliteration  Apostrophe  Assonance  Bathos  Caesura  Conceits  Consonance  Diction  Enjambment  Hyperbole  Irony  Metonymy  Onomatopoeia  Tone  Imagery  Figurative Language  Quatrain  Doggerel  Personification POETIC TERMINOLOGY

 Circle- Diction  Underline-Sound Devices/Syntax  Brackets- Imagery  Parentheses- Figurative Language LEGEND FOR ANNOTATING POETRY