How can I explicate thee? Let me count the ways!

Is this explication assignment giving you stomach trouble? Here's help . . .

HOW TO EXPLICATE A POEM

Try the following links for helpful suggestions, ideas, and examples . . .

http://www.uwrf.edu/~sl01/explcat.html
This site gives specific suggestions for different elements of the poem that you should consider. Because the professor goes into more specific detail about the process of analyzing the poem than Kennedy and Gioia provide in the text, this material is a great supplement.

http://www.williams.edu/English/PdfEnglish/Guide3LRaab.pdf
Professor Williams' site above provides a pdf handout. He offers some practical suggestions about the process for writing an explication, including some pre-writing activities different from Kennedy and Gioia's suggestions.

http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/markport/best/study/poetry.htm
This teacher's explication page includes a link to the American Academy of Poets "How to Read a Poem" as well as a sample explication.

Rhyme Scheme (or Rhyme "Scream?")

Rhyme scheme is the exact correspondence of rhyming sounds at the end of each line of poetry, identified by the first end rhyme represented by a lower case "a," the next variation by a "b," the third variation by a "c," and so on.

Below is an illustration of a common rhyme scheme for closed form poems written in quatrains (four-line stanzas).

(To see the web resource from which this illustration is drawn, go to http://www.millikin.edu/aci/crow/basics/frost3.html
"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"
By Robert Frost (1874-1963, pictured above)

Whose woods these are I think I know. a

His house is in the village though; a

He will not see me stopping here b

To watch his woods fill up with snow. a

My little horse must think it queer b

To stop without a farmhouse near b

Between the woods and frozen lake c

The darkest evening of the year. b

He gives his harness bells a shake c

To ask if there is some mistake. c

The only other sound's the sweep d

Of easy wind and downy flake. c

The woods are lovely, dark and deep, d

But I have promises to keep, d

And miles to go before I sleep. d

And miles to go before I sleep. d

Hence, the rhyme scheme is: aaba bbcb ccdc dddd

Last modified Nov, 1999 by M. O'Conner at http://www.millikin.edu/aci/crow/basics/frost3.html

To learn more about rhyme scheme on the Internet, visit Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

To Quote, To Summarize, or To Paraphrase? And how?

Editor's Note: The following handout pasted in from the Purdue University Online Writing Lab provides an excellent summary and review of fundamentals. Several links to the OWL are embedded in the article.

Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

This resource was written by Purdue OWL.
Last full revision by Dana Lynn Driscoll.
Last edited by Dana Lynn Driscoll on September 10th 2006 at 11:49AM

Summary: This handout is intended to help you become more comfortable with the uses of and distinctions among quotations, paraphrases, and summaries. This handout compares and contrasts the three terms, gives some pointers, and includes a short excerpt that you can use to practice these skills.

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Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

This handout is intended to help you become more comfortable with the uses of and distinctions among quotations, paraphrases, and summaries. This handout compares and contrasts the three terms, gives some pointers, and includes a short excerpt that you can use to practice these skills.

What are the differences among quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing?

These three ways of incorporating other writers' work into your own writing differ according to the closeness of your writing to the source writing.

Quotations must be identical to the original, using a narrow segment of the source. They must match the source document word for word and must be attributed to the original author.

Paraphrasing involves putting a passage from source material into your own words. A paraphrase must also be attributed to the original source. Paraphrased material is usually shorter than the original passage, taking a somewhat broader segment of the source and condensing it slightly.

Summarizing involves putting the main idea(s) into your own words, including only the main point(s). Once again, it is necessary to attribute summarized ideas to the original source. Summaries are significantly shorter than the original and take a broad overview of the source material.

Why use quotations, paraphrases, and summaries?

Quotations, paraphrases, and summaries serve many purposes. You might use them to . . .

• Provide support for claims or add credibility to your writing
• Refer to work that leads up to the work you are now doing
• Give examples of several points of view on a subject
• Call attention to a position that you wish to agree or disagree with
• Highlight a particularly striking phrase, sentence, or passage by quoting the original
• Distance yourself from the original by quoting it in order to cue readers that the words are not your own
• Expand the breadth or depth of your writing

Writers frequently intertwine summaries, paraphrases, and quotations. As part of a summary of an article, a chapter, or a book, a writer might include paraphrases of various key points blended with quotations of striking or suggestive phrases as in the following example:

In his famous and influential work On the Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud argues that dreams are the "royal road to the unconscious" (page #), expressing in coded imagery the dreamer's unfulfilled wishes through a process known as the "dream work" (page #). According to Freud, actual but unacceptable desires are censored internally and subjected to coding through layers of condensation and displacement before emerging in a kind of rebus puzzle in the dream itself (page #s).

How to use quotations, paraphrases, and summaries

Practice summarizing the following essay, using paraphrases and quotations as you go. It might be helpful to follow these steps:

• Read the entire text, noting the key points and main ideas.
• Summarize in your own words what the single main idea of the essay is.
• Paraphrase important supporting points that come up in the essay.
• Consider any words, phrases, or brief passages that you believe should be quoted directly.

There are several ways to integrate quotations into your text. Often, a short quotation works well when integrated into a sentence. Longer quotations can stand alone. Remember that quoting should be done only sparingly; be sure that you have a good reason to include a direct quotation when you decide to do so. You'll find guidelines for citing sources and punctuating citations at our documentation guide pages.

What is poetry?????

That question has been answered many ways and provoked a lot of discussion. Believe it or not, English teachers will argue about what poetry "is" and what it is "not."

So with that question in mind, this unit introducing the concepts of "closed form" (also called "traditional poetry") and "open form" (often referred to as "modern" poetry) provides an occasion to explore exactly what poetry is.

To that end, a recommended supplemental reading for you: The Wikipedia online encyclopedia's discussion of "poetry." (Click here to link to Wikipedia.)

Reading the Wikipedia article will take you 10 or 15 minutes, but the overview is worth it. (You don't have to read every word of every part of it--Just skim. You'll know where to slow down and drink deeply and where you can just speed on by.)

You may find some ideas and/or information in the Wikipedia article that will come in handy on a future writing assignment.

For further discussion, consider posting the following:

• share a web link to a helpful or interesting resource on poetry that you found
• what you believe poetry is.
• an original poem that you wrote
• a copy of a poem that you find meaningful or special to you
• anything else related to "what is poetry?"
  

Reading a Poem

(To the left: "Gaozongquatrain," a Chinese poem. Is this what you feel like you're reading when you tackle the 1002 assignments?)

Here are some tips from a couple of websites on reading poetry.

(From Bedford/St. Martin's LitLinks)

1. Who is the speaker?What does the poem reveal about the speaker's character? In some poems the speaker may be nothing more than a voice meditating on a theme, while in others the speaker takes on a specific personality.

2. Is the speaker addressing a particular person?If so, who is that person, and why is the speaker interested in him or her?

3. Does the poem have a setting?Is the poem occasioned by a particular event?

4. Is the theme of the poem stated directly or indirectly?Some poems use language in a fairly straightforward and literal way and state the theme, often in the final lines. Others may conclude with a statement of the theme that is more difficult to apprehend because it is made with figurative language and symbols.

5. From what perspective (or point of view) is the speaker describing specific events? Is the speaker recounting events of the past or events that are occurring in the present? If past events are being recalled, what present meaning do they have for the speaker?

6. Does a close examination of the figurative language (see "Glossary of Literary Terms") of the poem reveal any patterns?

7. What is the structure of the poem?Since narrative poems, those that tell stories, reveal a high degree of selectivity, it is useful to ask why the poet has focused on particular details and left out others. Analyzing the structure of a nonnarrative or lyric poem can be more difficult because it does not contain an obvious series of chronologically related events.

8. What do sound and meter (see "Glossary of Literary Terms") contribute to the poem?Alexander Pope said that in good poetry "the sound must seem an echo to the sense," a statement that is sometimes easier to agree with than to demonstrate.

9. What was your response to the poem on first reading?Did your response change after study of the poem or class discussions about it?

Also consider the following (From UWisconsin-Madison Writing Center):

*Read a poem with a pencil in your hand.

*Mark it up; write in the margins; react to it; get involved with it. Circle important, or striking, or repeated words. Draw lines to connect related ideas. Mark difficult or confusing words, lines, and passages.

*Read through the poem, several times if you can, both silently and aloud.

Peace Out!

Peace Out!

(Psalms 4:8)
By David L. Pulling
January 2005

Lie down,
Sleep,
Peace out,
Lord--
For peace I crave!
For I can’t
Peace myself
Together
Safely
Unless
You . . .

Peace!

Our next unit introduces poetry as a subject for discussion and composition. Do you have a poem that means a lot to you? Have you written a poem that you'd like for others to read? Why not post it as a comment right here for all of English 1002 (and the world) to see!

The Salem Witchcraft Trials: An Interactive Tale

Nathaniel Hawthorne's Puritan ancestors were directly involved in the Salem Witch Trials (not as witches, mind you). That was part of Hawthorne's past of which he was not particularly proud. As a result of the embarrassing family history, much of his literary endeavor was directed at exposing what Hawthorne perceived as the hypocrisy of his Puritan forbears.

The photo above is Salem as it looked around the time of the Witchcraft Trials (and "Young Goodman Brown").

The link provided here (just click here!) to a National Geographic interactive website on "Salem" will provide you with a riveting interactive experience from the time and place of "Young Goodman Brown." Without a time machine, this is about as an authentic visit to the historical Salem that you can get!

Enjoy, and by all means, post a response--Whether you're in English 1002 or not!

Pictured above is a famous painting of a witch being examined in the Salem trial.

An Online Interactive Reading of "Sweat"

Interested in what lies beneath the surface of ordinary words in "Sweat?"

Or in the author's intended significance for places and objects that never would have occurred to you as a casual reader?

Thanks to the web, click here to link to a version of the story produced by faculty and students at U. of South Florida with inserted hyperlinks to explanations of important terms, symbols, and objects in the story. Even though we move on from Hurston and "Sweat" to the next Module come October 4, some of you will choose to write about "Sweat." This version of the story might give you some rich insight. It's also an illustration of what a powerful resource you have at your disposal in the Internet.
Use resources like this to do your best!

If you like this material, find it interesting, or better yet, helpful, post a comment!