Explication Paper

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Writing Your Poetic Analysis Paper (Explication) Explicating the poem “Acquainted With the Night” by Robert Frost Remember that regardless of the specific assignment, what you are doing is writing a formal essay. Formal essays have three parts: exposition, body, and conclusion. Let’s look at those individually within the context of writing an explication: Exposition –Requires a beginning strategy. In this case, I am specifically asking you to choose either an apt quotation or an anecdote. If you choose an apt quotation, render it as either an epigraph or an orthodox quotation (see below). Here are examples of both strategies, chosen for an explication of Robert Frost’s “Desert Places”: Every heart has a blind side, where it learns how to improvise… Jakob Dylan [Apt Quotation; Epigraph] In Milton’s Paradise Lost, the character of Satan memorably rationalizes his fallen circumstances by remarking, “The mind is its own place/And in itself, can make a Hell/Of Heaven, or a Heaven of Hell.” [Apt Quotation; Orthodox] During the years immediately after the WW II, with America locked in an increasingly frigid Cold War with Soviets, U.S. Army Intelligence and the CIA conducted numerous studies on human subjects in an effort to perfect techniques of torture and, most specifically, psychological warfare. It was out of this program—known popularly as MK/Ultra—that LSD was synthesized; everyone knows that. Less well known are the experiments involving sensory deprivation. Subjects were placed in pitch-black, soundproof “isolation” tanks, suspended in a saline solution kept at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, and monitored for hours (and, it is rumored, for days in some cases). The results were sometimes dramatically horrifying. What was discovered is that, almost invariably, if the isolation persisted long enough, the subjects began to rave and rant, thrash wildly, self-harm; in short, they went mad. [Anecdote] –You must transition from your beginning strategy to your thesis by explaining the significance of the quotation or the story, thereby connecting it to your thesis. –The thesis is a full sentence expressing the main idea in concrete and specific terms. Example: Robert Frost’s “Desert Places” is a somber meditation on the vast and empty “spaces” of the human mind, heart, and soul. Body The purpose of the body is to support through specific analysis the argument expressed in your thesis. The body of an explication will naturally divide into two examinations: the prosody and the rhetoric. With regard to prosody, you need to unpack—methodically and fully—the stanzas, the meter, the rhythm, the rhyme scheme, and any aural effects (alliteration and assonance). Here is a brief list of some key prosodic terms with definitions: Stanza—A discrete grouping of lines in a poem. For example, look at the poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” It is divided into four, four-line stanzas. We call a four-line stanza a quatrain. Similarly, a two-line stanza is a couplet; a three-line stanza is a tercet; a five-line stanza is a pentet; a six-line stanza sestet; a seven-line stanza is a heptet; an eight-line stanza is an octave; a nine-line stanza is a noncet; and a ten-line stanza is a decet. Nearly all poems are divided according to some stanzaic arrangement. Your first job of analysis is to describe that arrangement. We also count lines to see if we have a traditional form poem on our hands. Fourteen in all, for instance, forms a sonnet. Rhyme Scheme—The pattern of rhymes, particularly end rhymes, that you find in the poem. In “Acquainted With the Night,” we have a pattern called “terza rima,” or “three-ine rhyme,” that was first made famous by Dante Alighieri. In each stanza, the 1st and third line rhymes, while the 2nd forms the rhyme of the next stanza. We call that an “interlocking” scheme, which contrasts with a “progressive” scheme (wherein each stanza features new rhyming sounds). Meter is a description of the fundamental cadence of the verse; the iamb (unaccented/accented) is the foremost unit in English verse, and so it is with this poem (I have been one acquainted with the night/ba-DA ba-DA ba-DA ba-DA ba DA). Rhythm is the sum of the metrical beats per line. In this case we have five iambs per line. Thus, the rhythm of “Acquainted With the Night” is iambic pentameter. So those are some things I’m giving you to include as part of your analysis. But it’s up to you to “make hay” with them. That is, the assumption of an explication is that prosody is not incidental but rather specifically chosen by the poet to support the rhetoric of the poem. In other words, the prosody forms an argument, too. It’s up to you to posit what that argument is. With regard to rhetoric, we look first at word families in isolation to see what kind of picture they present divorced from the connective “tissue” of syntax. Word families are words that hold similar meanings or connotations. For instance, in this poem we find one, out, furthest, down, saddest, dropped, unwilling, still, stopped, far, cry, good-by. When we look at these words divorced from their connective ameliorators but grouped closely we should see a pattern of meaning, a mood—if nothing else—that they establish. Then we look for prominent images and/or symbols. Here, we have, among a few others, that “luminary clock.” Finally, we discuss theme(s). A theme is a “big picture” item. It is the message or messages the poet is conveying that transcend just this poem. It is what the poet is saying about human life that was, is, and always will be true. Conclusion We are practicing the “mirror conclusion.” In that, we re-establish our thesis, make some “small talk” as wrap things up, and finish with another strategy (apt quotation or anecdote). Paper “Specs” –12-point type –Double spaced –“Normal” font (e.g. Times New Roman, Courier, Palatino) –1” margins on all four sides