1. How to Explicate a Poem To explicate means “to unfold” [Latin root]
Explications interpret a poem (or other brief passage) intensely and persistently, talking carefully about the words, explaining the patterns of imagery, the meaningfulness of rhythms, the power of sounds all in order to analyze the possible meaning and relationships of the words in the piece.

2. Basic steps to explication...
Review background information.
Read the poem completely through.
Read it again aloud (unless you’re testing.)
Paraphrase the poem in your own words – who, what, where, when, how, etc. You can do this holistically or line-by-line.
Identify speaker and intended audience if you can (not the same as the author!)

3. Continued...
6. Identify words or phrases you don’t understand and take note of it. 7. Look up words you don’t know. 8. Identify the use of figurative language and imagery. 9.Look at the poet’s word choice (diction) – what intention lies behind each decision? 10. Look at the physical characteristic of the poem – how is it shaped?

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11. Identify the rhythm – the stressed and unstressed syllables. 12. Identify the rhyme scheme – aabb, abab, etc. 13. Look at the use of punctuation – how does it direct the reader? 14. What is the tone of the poem? 15. What is the theme of the poem?

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16. Make subjective observations about the poem and write them down – what support do you have for any supposition you make? 17. What can you conclude about the poem and/or the author based on the piece?