2. What is Explication?
• Analysis of a poem
• Describes meaning
• Describes relationships of words,
images, and other parts of a poem
• Connects poem’s plot and conflicts with
its structure
3. Preparing to Write
• Read poem silently, then read it aloud
• Think of it as a dramatic situation, audience
address
• Identify and describe the voice or voices
• Identify and describe conflicts and ideas
• Describe language used
4. The Design
• Identify who, what, when, where, why,
and how
• Form (sonnet? sestina? free verse?)
• Rhetoric
• Syntax
• Vocabulary
6. Metrical Terms to Know
• Meter: recurrence of regular beats
• Foot: basic unit of meter
• Iambic (iamb): foot of poetry with unstressed syllable
followed by stressed
• Trochaic (trochee): foot of poetry with stressed syllable
followed by unstressed
• Anapestic (anapest): foot of poetry with two unstressed
syllables followed by one stressed
• Dactylic (dactyl): foot of poetry with one stressed
syllable followed by two stressed
7. Types of Meter
• Monometer: one beat
• Dimeter: two beats
• Trimeter: three beats
• Tetrameter: four beats
• Pentameter: five beats
• Hexameter: six beats
10. Writing the Explication
• First paragraph: discuss large issues
(who, what, when, where, why, how),
conflicts, dramatic situation of speaker
• Next paragraphs discuss details of
form, rhetoric, syntax, vocabulary
• The conclusion: sound effects and
visual patterns to assert explanation
11. Tips
• Refer to the speaker of the poem as “the
speaker” or “the poet”; the speaker may
not necessarily be the poet
• Use present tense
• Avoid uses of the verb “to be”