For Essay, write an explication of one of the assigned poems.
Most Like an Arch This Marriage
By John Ciardi
Most like an arch-an entrance which upholds
and shores the stone-crush up the air like lace.
Mass made idea, and idea held in place.
A lock in time. Inside half-heaven unfolds.
Most like an arch-two weaknesses that lean
into a strength. Two fallings become firm.
Two joined abeyances become a term
naming the fact that teaches fact to mean.
Not quite that? Not much less. World as it is,
what's strong and separate falters. All I do
at piling stone on stone apart from you
is roofless around nothing. Till we kiss
I am no more than upright and unset.
It is by falling in and in we make
the all-bearing point, for one another's sake,
in faultless failing, raised by our own weight.
For this particular essay, focus on the poetic techniques of diction, tone, image, and/or figurative language.
Essay must be between 500 and 750 words and adhere to MLA formatting. It needs to quote directly from your chosen text for support, but it should not use any secondary research.
Remember that the explication essay should not just summarize the poem.
It needs to look at the different elements of poetry used and offer a detailed explanation of the poem that also addresses the poem's overall effect and meaning.