I use the resource referenced below to begin a discussion about poetry before we do the activity in
which students write an “I’m From” poem, template below, and share reactions to it emotionally, narratively, and tonally and then they write a reflection.

https://www.oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/83813/overview?section=6

Activity Lesson Plan

1. Poetry Explication OER Commons Lesson- go over pages 3-6 of the lesson below. Have students read aloud and get a discussion going responding to the prompts.
2. I go over the constraints of the “I’m From Poem”, (pages 1 and 2 below) assignment and sample poem below and ask students to post their poems on discussion board.
3. I ask students to read their poems in class, and I assign three first responders. The first responders will discuss the three questions on page 6 of the Poetry Explication sheet and mention a line that got their attention and explain why. The writer of the poem is encouraged to respond to the responders.
4. Then I give my positive thoughts about the poem and the lines that intrigued me.
5. Students are asked to reflect on the writing process. How was writing a poem different from the other writing you’ve done in this class this semester?
6. Ask students to read a peer’s work and respond in writing to one particular idea.

I’m From Poem

Describe yourself in this poem using the frame below: (It will read like a poem)

My name is  . . .
I’m from . . .
I’m from . . .
I’m from  . . .

2
(fill in the blanks “I’m from” above with things you love about where you’re from)
I’m from . . .
I’m from . . .
I’m from . . .
(fill in the blanks “I’m from” above with things you hate about where you’re from)
I’m from . . .
I’m from . . .
I’m from . . .
(fill in the blanks above with things you don’t understand about where you’re from)
Concluding Line:  address any of these topics:  Did you leave, stay? Glad, sorry? How has it shaped you)
Last line:

https://iamfromproject.com/poems/

Here’s a sample poem:

My name is Mary
I’m from Spencer Gift stores with black velvet posters
I’m from Right on Red and Cul-De-Sacs
I’m from Route 9 South, sunken movie multiplexes, and New Jersey Transit buses
I’m from a lot of white people smoking Marlboro cigarettes
I’m from Macy’s anchored shopping malls and TGI Fridays
I’m from Garden State license plates in gold chained frames
I’m from cookie cutter housing developments named Green Acres
I’m from a town built around brickmaking
I’m from near the Jersey Shore & foul smelling drinking water

Got out alive but still going back, the industrial roads of my dreams

Lecture: Close Reading and Poetry Explication

As part of your work for this unit, you will be assigned to write a type of essay called a “poetry explication.” An explication is a thorough, line by line analysis of a poem that looks at its themes, tone, sounds, images, and poetic devices. The goal of a poetry explication is to look at all of the different facets of a poem, analyze how they are related, and then explain how these relationships work to communicate a specific experience to the reader of the poem.

The foundation of a poetry explication is a process called “close reading.” This lecture presents some different strategies for closely reading a poem. The chapter titled “Writing about Poetry” in Unit 1 also presents some good techniques for the close reading process. Together, this lecture and the “Writing about Poetry” chapter
should give you all the tools you will need to produce a well-written, well argued poetry explication.

The Title Matters

Reading a poem, we start at the beginning—the title, which we allow to set up an expectation for the poem in us. A title can set a mood or tone, or ground us in a setting, persona, or time. It is the doorway into the poem. It prepares us for what follows.

Read the titles of the poems in the bulleted list that follows. What responses do the titles bring up for you? If you like, you can jot down your findings.

“Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening”

“Happiness”

“Wishes for Sons”

“Riot Act, April 29, 1992”

“Reckless Sonnet”

“Pissing Off the Back of the Boat into the Nivernais Canal”

“How Much Is This Poem Going to Cost Me?”

“The Turtle”

“A Blessing”

“Girl Friend Poem #3”

“Sex at Noon Taxes”

“The Tree of Personal Effort”

“The First Time Through”

Upon a first reading, it’s important to get an idea of what it is you are entering. Read the poem out loud. Listen for the general, larger qualities of the poem like tone, mood, and style. Look up any words you cannot define. Circle any phrases that you don’t understand and mark any that stand out to you. We may ask ourselves the three questions in the following list:

1. What is my first emotional reaction to the poem?
2. Is this poem telling a story? Sharing thoughts? Playing with language experimentally? Is it exploring one’s feelings or perceptions? Is it describing something?
3. Is the tone serious? Funny? Meditative? Inquisitive? Confessional? Something else?

When you answer the third question about tone, the following bulleted, alphabetical list of tonal descriptors can help you pin down what are you sensing; if you are unfamiliar with any of these words, look them up in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary online:

• Abrasive, accepting, admiring, adoring, angry, anxious, apologetic,
  apprehensive, argumentative, awe-struck
• Biting, bitter, blissful, boastful
• Candid, childish, child-like, clipped, cold, complimentary, condescending,
  critical
• Despairing, detached, didactic, direct, discouraged, doubtful, dramatic
• Fearful, forceful, frightened
• Happy, heavy-hearted, horrified, humorous
• Indifferent, ironic, irreverent
• Loving
• Melancholic, mysterious
• Naïve, nostalgic
• Objective, optimistic, peaceful, pessimistic, playful, proud
• Questioning
• Reflective, reminiscent
• Sad, sarcastic, satirical, satisfied, seductive, self-critical, self-mocking,
  sexy, shocked, silly, sly, solemn, somber, stunned, subdued, sweet,
  sympathetic
• Thoughtful, threatening
• Uncertain, urgent
• Whimsical
  

The preceding questions and the list of tonal descriptors will emotionally prepare you to be a good listener. When we come to a text, though we release ourselves of any preconceived judgments, we do come prepared emotionally. Picking up a book of fiction is different than opening a book of nonfiction essays. Within us there is an ever-so-slight yet important preparation. Think about it. Although both nonfiction and fiction share similar writing tropes, how would you feel if someone told you that the nonfiction book you are reading—the one that brought you to tears—is not nonfiction, but actually fiction? Most people become upset. It feels like you’ve been lied to. To put it another way, think about how differently you prepare to engage with a performance depending on its genre. How do you set yourself up differently for a stand-up comic as opposed to an opera? Not only are the effects of the performance different, but the way we emotionally prepare ourselves to receive
them is also different.

Practice on a Poem

Let’s begin to apply these approaches to the following poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay:
             

First Fig

My candle burns at both ends;
    It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—
    It gives a lovely light!

Begin with the title: “First Fig.” What does this title do to you? What kind of expectations and tone does it set up?

Perhaps you expect a poem about agriculture, or the word “first” may suggest to you that the topic is a new experience. The combination of “first” and “fig” together could mean that the poem will discuss something that is growing or just coming into being.

Now let’s ask and answer the three questions that we discussed previously.

• Question 1: What is my first emotional reaction to the poem?
• Answer to Question 1: There is no one right right answer, obviously. You might feel sadness or a sense of loss. You could also feel joy or admiration. Maybe you feel a combination of all of these emotions.

• Question 2: Is this poem telling a story? Sharing thoughts? Playing with language experimentally? 
• Answer to Question 2: The poem appears to be telling a story. There is an implied sequence of events. At some point in the recent past, the speaker of the poem lit a candle. In the present, the candle is burning brightly. The speaker knows that the candle will not last much into the future, however. She expects it to burn out. Curiously, she is not upset by this future certainty. The speaker shares with us her sense of the beauty of the present. She tells us about an event and also about her reactions to the event. The language of the poem is not experimental.

• Question 3: Is the tone serious? Funny? Meditative? Something else?
• Answer to Question 3: The tone of the poem is serious. Although it is not funny, it could be considered ironic. The use of the words “ah” and “oh” add a dramatic tone to this short poem.

Image and Tone

After you have answered these initial questions, read the poem again, very slowly. Pay attention to the images. Allow the meanings to emerge line by line. Ask yourself what your emotional response is at the end of each line, because each new line adds complexity, and may take the poem in a different direction. For example, in Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem “First Fig,” the ending of the first line completely changes how a reader views the title. Previously, we discussed how the combination of “first” and “fig” suggests the themes of new experiences and growth. Line one initially presents the reader with an image of a single candle, an object familiar to most of us. We associate candles with celebrations and new beginnings like birthdays. Perhaps we can even hear the flame flicker and smell the wax. As we call to mind a freshly lit candle, Millay seems to be reinforcing our assumption that this is a poem about beginnings. Halfway through line one, however, Millay makes us question this assumption. The candle in her poem is not typical; it “burns at both ends” (1), which implies not a celebratory, new experience, but an experience coming to an abrupt, premature conclusion. Whoever lit this candle needed to get as much light out of it as possible, as quickly as possible. On the journey from the title all the way through line one, the reader’s thoughts shift from contemplating an innocent beginning to contemplating a shocking end. We may ask ourselves: who lit the candle in this unusual way? Why would anyone do that?

The next line of the poem tries to answer these questions. The speaker remarks, “It will not last the night” (2). Millay alters our understanding of line one by introducing a new element, a setting for the poem. The reader learns that the speaker is doing whatever she is doing late at night. The speaker wants the candle to last for a long time, although she knows it won’t. This detail implies that the speaker has been up already for quite a while, and that she expects to stay up even longer. The experience of seemingly endless nights is familiar to many readers. We stay up late when we feel troubled and can’t sleep. These occasions become literal “dark nights of the soul,” when we long for the light of day to relieve us. We also stay up late into the night when we are having fun, and we long for party lights to continue shining because we don’t want to go back to our humdrum daytime lives. Whether the speaker is enduring a dark night of the soul, or dancing the night away at a party, her desire for an intense, bright light makes sense. As we reach the end of line two, we readers may wonder which kind of experience the speaker is having. When we reach the next line, however, we don’t have an answer to this question. The speaker lets us know that she is addressing both friends and foes. These are
people who represent positive, enjoyable interactions as well as people who represent struggle and conflict. As readers, we ask ourselves why the speaker would want to communicate with both groups. What is the importance of her message, that it would have relevance at times of joy and at times of distress? The final line of this poem suggests an answer to this question. The speaker tells us that the oddly lit candle “gives a lovely light” (4). In other words, whether the speaker is experiencing good times or bad times, she see beauty in the brightness of the candle. The emphasis on the beauty of the light prompts us to ask what kinds
of things the light represents to the speaker. In our everyday lives, we associate light with the spark of hope, or the glow of joy. Regardless of her situation, the light in this poem represents an emotional state that will allow the speaker to make it through the night. However, we do not learn if the speaker does make it — she tells that the candle won’t last all night. Perhaps the speaker burns out, like the candle. The ambiguity of the speaker’s fate could be a deliberate choice by Millay, because it allows the poem to conclude with an emphatic, even triumphant emphasis on the image of the light. This emphasis tells us that the experiences of hope and joy
represented by the light are meaningful in and of themselves, regardless of how our situations turn out. This insight might prompt us to reflect once again on the title, “First Fig.” Millay seems to be telling us that our intense emotional experiences will always bear fruit. We will learn new things, whatever result we achieve.

Diction and Sentence Structure

Another important consideration when developing a poetry explication is a poet’s choice and arrangement of words, which we refer to as “diction” in a poem. To analyze diction, here are some questions you can ask:

• Is the language formal or conversational?
• Does the poem use a distinct class of vocabulary, such as scientific terms, engineering terms, cooking terms and so on?
• Are there any words or phrases that get repeated?
• Are there words that are unusual in some way, such as words that are
• outdated, words associated with a specific regional dialect, or words that have slang meanings?
• What kinds of sentences does the poem use? Are they simple or complex?

The diction in “First Fig” is not especially formal. The poem does not use any unusual words. Millay employs simple, uncomplicated sentences that, for the most part, follow the pattern of subject, then verb, then predicate. We probably learned this sentence pattern in grade school. The only departure from this sentence structure occurs in line three, when the speaker addresses her friends and foes. This line includes the words “oh” and “ah,” which are a little different from the other words in the poem. “Oh” and “ah” are outcries or exclamations. They could be cries of joy or cries of sorrow; as we discussed previously, the speaker in the poem does not specify whether her situation is a happy or sad one. The diction in line three reinforces the ambiguity we have previously noted. Moreover, the simplicity of the diction really allows us to focus on the image of the candle, which is so important in the poem.

Patterns of Sound

As an art form, poetry is well known for the many different ways it uses the sounds of words to achieve different effects. There are numerous sound patterns that appear in poems. Here is a bulleted list of some of the most common:

• Alliteration, which is the repetition of a specific sound at the beginning of successive words
• Consonance, which is the repetition of a specific consonant sound at any spot in successive words; the surrounding vowels may be different, though
• Assonance, which the repetition of a specific vowel sound at any spot in successive words; the surrounding consonants may be different, though
• End-rhyme, which is the repetition of words that sound the same at the end of successive lines
• Internal rhyme, which is the repetition of words that sound the same in the middle of a line

In “First Fig,” Edna St. Vincent Millay uses the sound patterns of alliteration and end-rhyme. There is alliteration of the letter F in the title. Elsewhere in the poem, we have alliteration of the letter B in the words “burns” and “both,” alliteration of the letter F (again) in the words “foes” and “friends,” and alliteration of the letter L in the words “lovely” and “light.” These alliterations make the poem sound quite musical, like a song. This song-like quality enhances the emphasis on beauty and loveliness.

Millay’s poem also employs end-rhyme.  The first and third lines rhyme with one another, and the second and fourth lines rhyme with one another. In the study of poetry, rhyme sounds are assigned letters of the alphabet so that the reader can see if the end-rhymes make a pattern. The first rhyme sound is always designated as A, the second one is B, and third one is C, and so on. Millay’s poem uses two different end-rhyme sounds that make the pattern A B A B. This pattern is one of the most common in all of English poetry. The choice of this common rhyme pattern suggests that the poet wishes to highlight the universality of its subject.
For further practice, you can look back over “First Fig” to see if you can identify
other sound patterns.

Form in Poetry

Another important element to analyze in a close reading is the form of the poem you are explicating. In the study of poetry, the word “form” refers to the overall structure of a poem. Poems are made up of lines, which are typically organized into groups called “stanzas.” Some of the most common types of stanzas are identified
in the following bulleted list:

• Couplet, which is a stanza of two lines
• Tercet or triplet, which are both terms for a stanza of three lines
• Quatrain, which is a stanza of four lines
• Quintain, which is a stanza of five lines
• Sestet or sextet, which are both terms for a stanza of six lines
• Octave or Octet, which are both terms for a stanza of eight lines
  

Although looking at the organization of the individual stanzas in a poem is almost always helpful, sometimes that approach is not the best way to analyze form. Some writers employ forms that encompass the structure of an entire poem. The bulleted list that follows identifies a few of these types of poetic forms:

• Sonnet, which is a fourteen-line poem that most commonly includes one octave and one sestet, OR three quatrains and a couplet. There are other variations of the sonnet, but these two types are the ones we most
  frequently encounter
• Haiku, which is a three-line poem in which the first line is five syllables long, the second line is seven syllables long, and the third line is five syllables long
• Dramatic monologue, which is a poem of any length and style that is composed as a speech given by a specific character
• Ekphrastic poem, which is a poem of any length and style written in response to another work of art, such as a painting, sculpture, or piece of music
• Pastoral poem, which is a poem of any length and style that has nature or rural life as the subject
• Elegy, which is a poem of any length and style that is written to mourn the passing of someone or something
• Ode, which is a poem of any length and style that written to praise someone or something

There are many other forms; the two preceding lists are not exhaustive. Feel free to use the college’s library databases to learn more about different forms. In the case of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem “First Fig,” the form employed is a single quatrain. As you have no doubt noticed throughout our discussion of this poem, Millay packs a lot into a very short form. The intensity and brevity of the poem are like the intensity and brevity of the candle burning at both ends. We might even say that, in her use of this form, Millay’s poem embodies its subject matter.

Attribution and License

“First Fig” by Edna St. Vincent Millay was published in 1920 as part of her collection First Fig and Other Poems and is in the public domain.

This lecture is a derivative of  “Case Study–A Close Reading of a Poem” by Heather Ringo and Athena Kashyap as it appears in Writing and Critical Thinking Through Literature. It is used under CC BY-NC 4.0. Ringo and Kashyap use material from “Chapter Two: Welcome Reader: Reading Poetry” in Naming the Unnameable: An Approach to Poetry for New Generations by Michelle Bonczek Evory, which is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA. The derivative version adds introductory materials, uses a different poem as an example, and adds some definitions of literary terms. “Close Reading and Poetry Explication” is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0