2.  What is it: it is an attempt to derive meaning from an analysis of the poems individual parts and then relating them back to the poem as a whole.  When you explicate a poem, you interpret the meaning of the poem and examine how the writer conveys that meaning. In other words, you look at what a poet says and how the poet says it.  Therefore, you must pay attention not only to theme but also to literary devices, tone, connotations of words, the form of the poem, and other elements.  How is this helpful? Explication is a type of critical thinking skill that helps students understand a work more deeply and fully.

3.  Read the poem silently, then out loud  Reading the poem multiple times helps you understand the sounds and patterns of the lines  Ask questions about the poem  Look at how it was written and what devices (rhyme and rhyme scheme, meter, and other auditory devices) contribute to the poems meaning.

4. . Briefly summarize the poem.  Looking at this summary, state the theme (or themes) of the poem.  What is the poet's apparent intent or purpose

5.  How does the title of the poem communicate the poem's central theme(s)?  What element(s) of the poem does the title accentuate?

6.  Look at the poem's structure. How many stanzas does it contain? How many lines per stanza? Do you notice a pattern? How does the pattern contribute to the overall effect of the poem?  Does the poem have a rhyme scheme? If so, what is it? What effects does it create? If not, what effects does the lack of rhyme create? How does the rhyme scheme (or the lack thereof) contribute to the poem's meaning?  Notice the line breaks. Where does the poet place these breaks? What effects do they create? What effects are created by pausing at the end of each line, even if a line has no end punctuation? How does the poet accentuate the meaning and/or tone of the poem using line breaks?  Identify sound devices (alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, internal rhyme, etc.). What effects do these devices create? What does the author gain by using them?

7. Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come: Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.  Form is the first thing to look at  Here it is easy to see that the poem is fourteen lines long and follows some sort of rhyme scheme (the final words).  Rhyme makes a connection between them.  Our first rhyme combination is “minds/finds.” What do you make of this pairing of words?  The first phrase of the poem flows into the next line of the poem. This is called enjambment-It serves to break up the reader’s expectations.  Here, “impediments” is placed directly before the bleak and confusing phrase “love is not love. How does this disconnection between phrase and line affect the reader? How does it emphasize or change the lines around it?

8. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove:  Notice all of the repetition or use of similar words in the last two and a half lines.  When close reading a poem, remember the economy of the poem: there’s only so much space at the poet’s disposal. This makes repetition very important, because it places even more emphasis on the repeated word than does prose.  What does the repetition in these lines suggest? Also, note that we’ve come to the end of our first quatrain (four-line stanza):  usually the first stanza of a sonnet proposes the problem for the poem. What is this problem?

9. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come: Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom.  The third and final quatrain uses all of its four lines to expand a single metaphor.  Consider how this metaphor relates to the previous ones, and why so much space in the poem is devoted to it, especially as it relates to the poem’s argument.  Also, look at similarity of phrasing between line 9’s “rosy lips and cheeks” and line 11’s “brief hours and weeks.” They certainly rhyme, but how does the similar construction affect the reading?

10.  If this be error and upon me proved,  I never writ, nor no man ever loved.  This is our closing couplet (two-line stanza), meant to “resolve” the problem addressed in the poem.  Look carefully at the way the couplet starts. Does it provide resolution or not?  Note that the first person (“me/I”) has returned (last seen in the first line of the poem). Consider also the denial in the final statement. Have we seen something similar in the poem before? Where and why are the connections made?

11. O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.  Our next quatrain gives a pair of metaphors. Look carefully at these images as they relate to the subject of the poem. What actual objects do they describe? Do they bear any similarity to each other? Is there a connection between the use of “ever-“ in line 5 and “every” in line seven?  The image in lines 5-6 is especially complex: What is the “mark” Shakespeare is talking about and how does it “look?” Answers to some of these questions may require some research into older definitions of words in the Oxford English Dictionary.

12.  Who is speaking?  To whom is he/she speaking?  Try to identify the age, gender, and values of the speaker  Under what circumstances is he/she speaking?  What is the speaker's (not necessarily the author's) intent or purpose?

13.  Diction refers to the poets choice of words. Often the poet will choose words with multiple meanings or words with specific connotations or emotional meanings.  Look up any words you aren't familiar with. Look up words you are familiar with but are used in unusual ways.  Are any words repeated in the poem? If so, what effects does this repetition create? Why would the author use such repetition?  Are words combined or arranged in unusual ways? If so, explain how and the effects they create.  Are the words mostly concrete or mostly abstract? Again, examine the effects of this language.  Are there any words that strike you as clichéd or inappropriate to the tone and/or subject matter of the poem? What effects do they create? Do they mar the poem? Why would the author use them?

14.  Consider the poems tone.  Think of tone as the writers attitude toward his subject, the work, or the audience.  Does the tone change during the course of the poem? If so, what effect does this change create? Why would the author have included such a change?  What particular words in the poem create, advance, or accentuate the tone?  What literary devices help create, advance, or accentuate the tone?

15.  Identify the specific setting of time and place.  Ask about the poems revealing of the events or actions in terms of setting (time and place)  Are any of these details delivered concretely or do we have to infer based on other details?

16.  When we think of ironies, we think about opposites in terms of meanings and language used in the poem  Does the surface level of the language oppose the implied meaning? How does this contribute to the poems meaning as a whole?

17.  What portions of the poem appeal to your sense of 1) sight, 2) hearing, 3) touch, 4) smell, 5) taste?  Describe the images in the poem.  How do these images advance the major themes or effects of this poem?  Do any of the images intensify particular ideas or emotions in the poem? Give examples.

18.  Identify the symbols in the poem.  What meanings do these symbols communicate? Identify as many as you can.  What does the author gain by employing these symbols?  Common symbols:  Nature  Numbers  Colors  Animals  Names

19.  Metaphors  Similes  Personification  Word plays such as puns  Hyperbole (overstatement)  Understatement  Irony  Oxymoron  Paradox This is a partial list  Locate and explain the effects of the following figures of speech. What does the poet gain by using them? How do these figures of speech fit the tone and/or subject matter of the poem? Homework: Write the definitions for the poetry terms on the handout. You will be quizzed on both the definition and the APPLICATION. What this means is I can ask you the definition of alliteration or I can give you a poem and have you identify examples… Remember, in TNReady, there is always a part B so be prepared to answer what effect the term has on the poem.

22. BY WALT WHITMANO Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,WALT WHITMAN The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.

23. O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills, For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a- crowding, For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; Here Captain! dear father! This arm beneath your head! It is some dream that on the deck, You’ve fallen cold and dead.

24. My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will, The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won; Exult O shores, and ring O bells! But I with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.

26. BY WALT WHITMANO Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,WALT WHITMAN The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.

27. O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills, For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a- crowding, For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; Here Captain! dear father! This arm beneath your head! It is some dream that on the deck, You’ve fallen cold and dead.

28. My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will, The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won; Exult O shores, and ring O bells! But I with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.

29. O Captain, We finally made it home after a frightening trip We survived strong winds; we got what we were after The ship is in sight of the land, bells are ringing, and people on shore are cheering; People on the ship are sad and afraid O people I am walking around, mourning Our captain is laying here dead

31. O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. 1)From what perspective Is the poem told? 3) Why did he uses repetition and what does repetition tells us about narrator? 4)This is a vivid image. What does it tells you about the way the narrator feels? 2)Why did author uses rhyme?

32. O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills, For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a- crowding, For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; Here Captain! dear father! This arm beneath your head! It is some dream that on the deck, You’ve fallen cold and dead. 5)Why did he repeats the same line? What mood those this create? 6)This poem is full of contrasts – label two in this stanza and explain why the poet uses so many? 7)How would you describe the language in this stanza (and the rest of the poem)? Simple, complex? How many syllables do lots of the words contain? What effect is created by the language?

33. My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will, The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won; Exult O shores, and ring O bells! But I with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. 10)What themes and idea those author convey in this poem? 8)Why did he not answer? What does this tell us about his captain? 9)What does “Fallen cold and dead” tells us about narrator’s feeling?

34.  Significance poetic feature is repetition. His strong repetition makes readers to understand narrator’s depressing emotion. Consider how the effect links to the theme of the poem. Understanding narrator’s depressing emotion links to the theme of this poem, which is “The war makes people heartbroken”.

35.  This poem’s setting is Civil War. This is significance because Whitman worked as clerk during this time and talked to many soldiers during his spare time. I think he wrote this poem to convey that soldiers he talked to was heartbroken in many ways.

36.  He uses repetition, rhyme schemes and similes in this poem. Key theme is that “The war do not good but only heart people’s feeling.”

37.  What devices are used?  Who is the speaker?  What is the tone?  What images are there?  What is the rhyme scheme?  What symbols can you find?  What ironies can you find?  What is the setting?