explicate one poem or song of your own choosing. You must provide the text of the poem along with a reference showing where it came from. If you choose a poem in a different language, be sure to provide a translation.
Focus on the poem’s themes, but be sure to describe how the writer has worked the theme into the text. What is the dramatic situation in the text? Who is the speaker? Has the poet used powerful figurative language? What other poetic techniques are used to convey any important ideas or emotions? How has the poet used sounds and sound effects like assonance, consonance, alliteration, rhyming? How well did these techniques work for you as a reader? For a poem that originally appeared in another language, feel free to use any expertise you have in that language to explain the use of sound by the poet.
The evaluation criteria for Essay 2 are spelled out in the Explication Essay Rubric below. I strongly recommend that you use the Rubric and check out the criteria to evaluate your efforts before turning in your final draft.
Explication essays tend to run short, so aim for an essay between 600 and 900 words, or 2.5 to 3.5 pages (excluding any appendix providing the text of a new poem or song).
