Step-by-Step Method of Thoroughly Explicating a Poem

Based on work by Helen Vendler

Paraphrase

• In your own words, write what the poem says.

Ask yourself:

• What has been happening before the poem begins?

• What has provoked the speaker?

Form of the poem

• How is it divided?• Where do the breaks

come?• Are there changes in

– agency? – language? – Tense? – Person?

Climax

• Where is the climax—primary shift in the poem?

• How does the rest of the poem fit around the climax?

Find the Skeleton

• What is the emotional curve on which the whole poem is strung?

• How is this emotional curve made new?

Language

• What are– The contexts of diction– Chains of significant

relation– Parts of speech

emphasized– tenses

Tone

• Can you hear changes in the speaker’s voice as the poem progresses?

Agency

• Who is the main agent (source of power) in the poem?

• Does the main agent change as the poem progresses?

• Oddities are important.

Speech Acts

• What is the main speech act of the agent?

• Does the speech act change?

• Oddities are important.

Arrangement

• Can the pieces be – rearranged?– Written in a

different person?– Written in a

different tense?

• Could any of the pieces be left out?

Genre

• What genres could apply to this poem?

Imagination

• Has it invented something new, striking or memorable in– Content– Genre– Analogies– Rhythm– speaker

Sound Units

• Sound units of a poem are its syllables.

Word Roots

• Poets are usually aware of the roots of the words they use.

• The meaning of a word in a poem is determined less by its dictionary meaning than by the words around it.– Thematic relation– Phonemic relation– Grammatical Relation– Syntactic relation

Sentences

• Track who is saying what to whom.• What are the implications of these

words?

Ordering of Language

• Manner of poem• Matter of poem

History and Regionality

• History poems have a tension between the copiousness of history and the brevity of lyric.

Identity of Speaker

• Examine various facets of power and identity

• How do these change and offer varying views of the world?

Attitudes, Judgments, Values• You do not have to accept

the poet’s words.• Closely examine the stylized

language to make sure that you understand the values suggested by the poem.

• Can you separate the persona from the author?

Structure

• The intellectual and logical shapes into which its thoughts are dynamically organized.

• Any overarching structure can have many substructures.

Images

• A word is not the same thing as a picture.

• Words refer.• Images represent.

Meaning

• Meaning is derived from analyzing the content as it is arranged in the form of the poem.