I detest explications.
The only time I had to do one was for Dr. Wightman’s English 259 Brit Lit class. I did what seemed like 100 drafts of an explication of a passage from Jane Eyre. After all of my hard work, I earned a lame B- on the paper. The whole process was absolute torture. I know what my problem was, though. In my paper I would talk about how the passage related to or furthered the plot. I just couldn’t help doing it.
I am feeling more optimistic about the poem explication assignment for this class. I will be able to focus on use of language and poetic devices used in the poem to give it its meaning without trying to relate it to something else; because a poem is not really connected to anything else. It only survives within itself. That is, unless I see it connected to everything, which I have to be careful not to do when I write my paper.
Funny you mentioned the lovely Dr. I too had experienced the "explication" and did not fulfill the assignment. Poetry can have so many layers and I think this is what makes it interesting. Don't get me wrong, I don't understand everything the first or second time around. I think for the paper you should pick a poem that evokes emotion from within you. Once you do that, then sit with it a couple of days and reread it. This helps a bit, well, for me. I do not want to fall in a trap where I go off point. The only solution for this is to have fun!
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