Q: A few weeks ago I asked for your help on a T.S. Eliot paper I was working on. (the nervous middle-aged returning grad student? ring a bell?)
Anyway, thanks to your valuable assistance, I'm happy to say that I got an A from a notoriously tough professor. Wheee!
This time the assignment is a little different, and I'm back with my hat in my hand for more of your studied guidance. My mission is to explicate a Wallace Stevens poem.
I'd like to know: a) your opinion on the steps involved in explicating a poem; b) the definition of primary research; and c) where I can get information helping me understand, define and discuss the structure of a poem -- stanzas, length, why it rhymes or why it doesn't, etc.
Thanks again for your help. I can't tell you how much it means to me. I'll let you know how I do this time.
A: Several good texts for
finding info on explicating poetry are included in the Norton
series (_Norton Introduction to Literature_, etc.) and _Literature:
An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama_ by X.J. Kennedy
from Harper Collins (publisher). These texts contain good material
in introductions to the works, etc.which explain literary techniques.
You should be able to find some of them in your local public library, local college library, or in a good bookstore.
In general terms, you should look first at a poem for what is actually
there: in other words, how does the poem actually read (by punctuation and theme rather than by lining); what are any plots, dominant themes, messages, etc. Second, what are the types of
word choice (diction) the poem uses - and what types of sound and rhyme (end rhyme, internal rhyme -- is it bright, dull, solemn, etc.?). And further, what does the lining do? Are lines stopped conveniently to give further meaning (end-stopped/enjambed, etc.) at particular
points?
Think of a poem as a portrait of meaning (or as a *program* of meaning in a computer sense - as a computer program uses
a specific language, say, Pascal, to bring about a certain efficient
effect). The author paints feelings and meanings through different
technques with lines, words, sound, and images which *combined* give a enhanced meaning to an incident, thought, or meaning.
Just to let you know -- Wallace Stevens was a fairly formal poet who used regular lining and rhymes to bring out meaning, frequently of
small incidents or ideas. Sounds are quite dense in his lines, with
quite a bit of internal rhyming, alliteration (sibilant snakes sneak silently), etc.
If you would let me know the poem, I would be glad to lead you through an explication - and give you practice in this area. I teach
writing and literature at a Cleveland-area college.
