9th - 12th Writing, March 20

Lesson:
We spent most of the class period discussing the poems the students had been assigned. We looked at the meaning of each poem, as well as some background information on the poets themselves, and then the various poetic devices employed.

This was unfamiliar to most of the class, so we went more slowly and less deeply than I might have liked. We will continue to develop these concepts next week. In the meantime, I distributed a sample poetry explication, along with a few more poems.

Assignment:
Student are to prepare at least a rough draft of a poetry explication of any of the poems distributed so far. I would prefer finished essays, if possible. Explication means explanation; poetry explication is essentially literary analysis for poetry.

We will learn two formats for poetry explication. Both are correct, so choose whichever format better suits your chosen poem.

Standard five-paragraph essay format
Intro paragraph, ending in thesis statement (Intro is a good place to discuss form of poem, number of stanzas, narrative elements, poet info, etc.)
1st body paragraph: Sound Devices (meter, rhyme scheme, assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia, etc.)
2nd body paragraph: Figures of Speech (simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, etc.)
3rd body paragraph: Imagery/Themes (tone, mood, meaning, etc.)
Concluding paragraph: (Restate thesis, summarize points, opinion/comment on poem)

Stanza-by-stanza, line-by-line poetry explication
Intro paragraph, ending in thesis statement (as above, plus include meter and rhyme scheme. This format does not require standard thesis of statement plus three-part comment; a statement alone is sufficient.)
1st body paragraph: 1st stanza, explained line by line
2nd body paragraph: 2nd stanza, explained line by line
3rd body paragraph: 3rd stanza, explained line by line
and so on, as many body paragraphs as stanzas
Concluding paragraph: as above

Stanzas in poetry are similar to paragraphs in prose. In many poems, stanza breaks are easy to see by the way the poems are laid out visually. In other poems, stanzas may be identified by ideas or rhyme scheme. Stanzas are named by how many lines they contain:
2 lines: couplet
3 lines: tercet
4 lines: quatrain
6 lines: sestet
8 lines: octave

The example essay distributed in class follows the stanza by stanza format. Since it explicates a Shakespearean sonnet, which always have four stanzas of three quatrains and a couplet, the example has four body paragraphs plus an intro and conclusion.