Choose ONE of the following topics for the means of writing a TWO page explication. This length does not include the work(s) cited page. Follow proper MLA documentation and cite specific lines of poetry appropriately. Use The Pocket Wadsworth Handbook if you need help citing. Make sure to include an introduction with the thesis stated near the end of the introduction, a developed body, and a captivating conclusion.
TOPICS
A) Explicate the speaker’s tone in “Suicide Note.”
B) Explicate “Yet Do I Marvel” by Countee Cullen and why the speaker feels the way he does about being an African American poet.
C) Analyze the figures of speech in “Harlem” by Langston Hughes.
D) Explicate the poem “You fit into me” OR “The secretary chant” and how the speakers feel about the situation they have encountered. Keep in mind these poems are a metaphor for something more. What are they a metaphor for? What figurative language devices have been used to convey the metaphor?
E) Or, choose another literary element to describe for one of the poems you were supposed to read in this unit. Do not write on “Wind.”
Your goal with this paper is to be as thorough in your analysis as possible. Use the actual poem to help you; refer to specific lines and tell why and how those particular lines contribute to the poem, how it moves it along, what information can be implied from the poem itself. Refer to the sample essays on D2L if you need help. Use strong verbs to direct your writing and set up your analysis.
Also, write in present tense when applicable, and use transitions and signal words accordingly when setting up quotations.
Avoid using contractions and the use of the pronouns you and I. Refer to yourself as “the reader.”
One last thing—don’t forget to include the slashes (/) when citing lines of poetry. Here’s the work cited model you need to use. Be sure to follow the punctuation and italics as they appear. Fill in the information as it pertains to the poem you choose.