English 1100 C & D1
Fall 2005
Essay #1
Due: September 21

Choose one of the attached poems and, in 2-3 typewritten pages, write an explication of it. Paying careful attention to the words and what they mean and suggest, work line by line through the poem to show how its features add up to a whole.

For help in understanding the goal and shape of an explication, read the section “Writing About a Poem” in your text (1441-60), focusing mostly on the section on explicating (1442-47). The sections “How to Quote a Poem” (1454-1456) and “Before You Begin” (1456-1457) should also be helpful to you.

DO apply the various techniques we use in class (for example, writing a summary of the poem may help you).

DO NOT use any outside sources other than a dictionary or other strictly factual resource.

Please submit both a hard copy, due in class, and an attachment to jaime (dot) cleland (at) gmail (dot) com.


Attached poems included:

  • D.H. Lawrence, "Piano"
  • William Butler Yeats, "Leda and the Swan"
  • William Wordsworth, "I wandered lonely as a cloud"
  • Marianne Moore, "Poetry"

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