Essay Materials

 

First Explication Essay

Tentative Schedule:       

·        January 23, 2001: Introduce the poems, give out the packet, and let students talk about the poem at first glance.

  ·        January 30, 2001: Typed draft and three copies are due. You will be in groups with others who did the same poem. (Also show me your notes.)

·        February 13, 2001: I return your essay with plenty of rewrite suggestions.

·        February 20, 2001: Rewrite and transcript due with cassette all cued up.

·        February 27, 2001: Return essay. Probable night for poetry hoombala, and probably begin The Tempest.

Length:  Generally, these babies run in the 3-4 page range (500-700 words), but there are no restrictions.

What to do:  Look very closely at a poem and explain, in a detailed top-to-bottom analysis, what the poet has done to create an emotional experience to you. In doing this, state what the content is, and then explain in detail how that content is electrified through word choices, figurative language, sounds—and any other tricks that a poet has at his disposal. Think of “Crystal Geyser,” and think of how the sound and the meaning and the suggestions of those words create a poetic experience for you. Now just do that for an entire poem. (A good way to analyze is to consider all the alternative words that weren’t used, like “gory” instead of “bloody” and “flung” instead of “throw.”)

Here are the terms that might find their way into your essay: speaker, theme, denotation, connotation, allusion, tone, setting, imagery, simile/metaphor, euphony, cacophony, onomatopoeia, alliteration, and assonance.

Remember: None of this is magic. It’s just black stuff on white stuff—a poem—that has the power to knock you to your knees.

I suggest you copy this poem on another sheet with lots of space between lines. Then go word by word and make observations (see sample). I also suggest that you study very, very closely all the information I have in the packet I’ll be giving you tonight. In it are some sample essays that I expect you to read (and more samples on page 108 and all of  chapter 22).

The choices: 1.      “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Haydn (page 424)

2.      “Daystar” by Rita Dove (p. 406)

3.       “Batter my Heart” by John Donne (page 54)

4.      “The Bean Eaters” by Gwendolyn Brooks (page 82)

5.      “When You Are Old” by William Butler Yeats (page 513)

6.      Dudley Randall, “To the Mercy Killers” (see below)

To the Mercy Killers

 

                   If ever mercy move you murder me,

                   I pray you, kindly killers, let me live.

Never conspire with death to set me free,

but let me know such life as pain can give.

Even though I be a clot, an aching clench,

a stub, a stump, a butt, a scab, a knob,

a screaming pain, a putrefying stench,

still let me live, so long as life shall throb.

Even though I turn such traitor to myself

as beg to die, do not accomplice me.

Even though I seem not human, a mute shelf

of glucose, bottled blood, machinery

to swell the lung and pump the heart—even so,

do not put out my life. Let me still glow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What to do for week 3:

 

·                                                        here’s the randomness of it all…

·                                            terms up on board and they know them

·                                and idea of how to read a poem: paraphrase, tone-emotion, words..

·                                            go over all the poems they’ve read, they love

·                                            they wrote 2 poems; go over them

·                                            do winter Sundays,,, with crayons and free write

·                                            read Digging / Tooth Fairy (could draw)

·                                            homework sheet… and read the poems

·                                            collect letter to self; collect their poems and their comments

·                                            maybe something with their questions to me

·                                            IMAGERY—root cellar

·                                            Maybe bagel: how to read it, where and when, same with writing…

·        All about the terms

·        Maybe the poem they like

·        Maybe what learned

·        They could get together others in their group and look at poem closely

·        I think it would be good if they heard me analyze a poem: Dulce, Birmingham,  Richard Cory, Love song , Jump Cabling 247, In Just 246, My first poem to you 216

·        Bracelet

 

·        For tone, I could have them do something with crayons: I say the person they most love in the world; or their darkest moment; …

·        Definitely do a free write, and yeah, on the secret moments of parent love

 

 

 

 

Terms: Poetry / Prose / speaker / setting // paraphrase / theme / diction / denotation, connotation / tone / imagery / allusion / open form (free verse) /  closed form

            Plus: how to read, what to read (the triangle)

 

Apply this list to their poems as well

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry terms:

 

            Here are some terms that I think are worth knowing. You should know them in three ways: the word itself, its definition, and an example (actually, two examples are best: an example from a poem and an example that you invent yourself). So, for tonight, check off each term when you’re sure of each of its three parts. Also, be able to apply these terms to the poems from the book as well as your own poems:

 

q       Poetry:

 

 

q       Prose:

 

q       Paraphrase:

 

q       Speaker:

 

q       Setting:

 

q       Theme:

 

q       Diction (abstract, concrete):

 

q       Denotation

 

q       Connotation:

 

q       Tone:

 

q       Imagery:

 

q       Open form (free verse):

 

q       Closed form:

 

q       Sonnet:

 

 

q       Haiku:

 

q       Limerick:

q       Allusion:

 

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