Purpose: This assignment will enable you to discover a poet’s use of poetic devices. You will conduct a close reading of a poem and discuss the poet’s use of these devices in his or her structuring of the form and composing of the content. Applying a close reading and composing a literary analysis will prepare you for the many texts that you will read, summarize, and discuss in your future studies and even in the workplace.
Task:
- You will closely read (and reread) your chosen poem, considering its structural elements, patterns of figurative language, and other literary elements. Bear in mind that, much as we discovered about ads in the advertisement analysis forum, poems are carefully and purposefully crafted–consider that every choice in terms of structure, rhyme (or lack thereof), wording, and tone are deliberate and work to leave an intentional impression on the reader.
- Include the following elements:
- Introductory paragraph that ends with a sentence that explains what you want to say overall about the poem. Ideally, this thesis should focus on the “how” and “why” of the effect of some of these choices.
- Body paragraphs that focus on specific ideas and elements from the poem that provide evidence and support for your overall idea about the poem. Include relevant, brief quotations from the poem, integrate them logically and grammatically, and indicate the line numbers in parentheses.
- A concluding paragraph that sums up what these ideas all add up to.
- Carefully read the example pages that use Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” as an example for explication (Close Reading, Sample Analysis and Key Elements).
- Be sure to maintain an appropriate academic tone (no slang, second-person [“you,” “we”], contractions, etc
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