Sample Essay: Explication
"Blackbird" by The Beatles
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
Black bird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
all your life
you were only waiting for this moment to be free
Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.
Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise,oh
You were only waiting for this moment to arise, oh
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
INTRODUCTION * LITERAL/SURFACE MEANING * SPECIFIC ASPECT OF THE POEM THAT GUIDES ITS UNDERLYING MEANING * SYMBOLIC/UNDERLYING MEANING * [NOTE THAT PARAGRAPHS 2 & 3 can be interchanged] * CONCLUSION (SOCIAL COMMENTARY-- MESSAGE)
SAMPLE ESSAY:
“Take These Broken Wings and Learn to Fly”: The Inspiration of “Blackbird”
The song “Blackbird” written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and performed by The Beatles, is both inspirational and poetic. The song embraces the notion of connectedness. In its lines, images of joy and pain are juxtaposed to create a message of hope. Througout the song poem, we can all come to identify with the blackbird. What first seems like a short lyric about a blackbird becomes a commentary on humanity.
Literally, “Blackbird” is about a bird that has recently healed from an injury. The narrator speaks to the bird and encourages it to once again fly. The narrator repeats several times to the bird, “you were only waiting for this moment to arise” (lines 4, 16-18), which indicates that the bird has anticipated this recovery. The poem captures the moment when the bird must finally “take these broken wings and learn to fly” (line 2). However, the message of inspiration to recovery in this particular situation resonates beyond the bird and into society as well.
What underlies the narrator’s expression to the bird is an extension of encouragement to all people who have been held down for any reason. It is a message intended to reach the depressed, abused, unconfident, uneducated, ill, and all others in society who are experiencing such situations. The message for those fighting these odds is to go out and live life, to “arise” and “fly”. The narrator says, "One must “take these sunken eyes and learn to see” (line 6); in essence, one must embrace their situation and overcome anything that stands in their way of living life to its fullest. Human beings can take comfort in knowing that sometimes hardship can breed a new appreciation for life, or in the bird's particular case, "freedom".
The “blackbird” becomes the vehicle for this humanistic idea of hope. The color of the bird, black, may represent the ills people in society face; whether a person is confused, misunderstood, shunned, or has some physical ailment, we are all linked together by pain and hope. There is always “light [in] the dark black night” (line 10); one can always find hope amidst the pain. Amongst the blackness of the poem is the sound of chirping birds; the down blackbird finds a way to “sing in the dead of night” (line 1). Just as the blackbird sings, so too does the artist; they are conveying a message of hope through song. The juxtaposition of dark and light images serves to solidify the idea of acceptance of the negative and a focus on the healing to come.
Everyone faces battles in their lifetime. However, no battle is so extensive or complicated to be fought. One must face their fears, inner demons, and labels and focus on overcoming all obstacles. Like the blackbird, we must embrace our “moment to be free” (line 8) and release anything that would hold us back; we should "arise". The "you" in the song resonates beyond the bird to all of "us". Lennon and McCartney’s poetic words are words of inspiration and hope, even if in the darkest of times.
** Double-spacing is necessary in MLA format.
ESSAY GUIDELINES:
Explication de texte: A method, which originated in the teaching of literature in France, involving painstaking analysis fo the meanings, relationships, and ambiguities of the words, images, and other small units that make up a literary work.
Poetry Explication * Essay 2 * English 1302
Explication goes beyodn teh assimilation required for paraphrase and thus provides you with the opportunity to show your understanding of a work. There is no need, however, to explain EVERY line in the poem; you must decide what is important. A general explication devotes attention to the meaning of individual parts in relationship to the whole. It is your "reading" of the poem. You will need to be selective and to consider only those details that are significant to your own thematic development.
Your general explication will demonstrate your ability to 1) follow the essential details of the poem (paraphrase), 2) understand the issues and meanings revealed by the poem, 3) explain some of the relationships of content to technique, and 4) note and discuss especially important or unique aspects of the poem.
Assignment: Provide a 2 page general explication of ONE of the following poems (do not use outside research-- rely only on your OWN reading, understanding of the poem):
1. Edwin Arlington Robinson's "Richard Cory" (1053)
2. Marge Piercy's "Barbie Doll" (1048)
3. TBA
4. TBA
Reminders:
* You must include the title and author of the poem in your intro. paragraph; however, you need to avoid weak opening statements, such as "Robert Frost wrote the poem "The Road Not Taken" or "This essay is about "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost".
* Evidence for your "reading" should come only from the text itself. You must incorporate quotes into your essay in each body paragraph; the quotes are the examples that help you to solidify your discussion points. In an essay of this length, a good rule is to use 3-4 SHORT quotes per body paragraph; the length of the poem also dictates the amount of quotes necessary to adequately explain the poem.
* Example format for quoting poetry: In "The Road Not Taken", the narrator is faced with a choice: which of the "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood" (line 1) should he travel? Notice how the quote is worked in as part of my own sentence and is not left hanging; notice the quotations around the title of the poem adn the way to cite a line!
* If you are citing more than one line, you use a slash \ to indicate a line break and cite both lines; example: "And be the traveler long I stood \ And looked down one as far as I could" (lines 3-4).
* If the quote is placed mid-sentence, then punctuation comes after the citation; example: "..." (line 4), and...
* Your essay should follow MLA format and include a unique title, Work Cited page (cite only the poem), etc.
* Remember the format from class: 1. a little about the poem and its thematic content; 2. the literal/surface meaning; 3. its symbolic/underlying meaning; 4. specific aspect that allows further examination of the symbolic meaning; 5. the poem's overall message.
Another Sample Essay:
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Choosing a Path: An Analysis of Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”
Our lives are a journey, and along the way, different paths are presented to us; while each path is a choice, within each path lays a series of other choices. In life, some choices are big, and others are small, but every choice a person makes can have a profound impact. While some decisions are clear, others are less so; the process of determining those less clear choices can be tense and confusing. In the poem “The Road Not Taken”, Robert Frost presents the complexities of choice using the metaphor of paths in the woods. Throughout the poem, the narrator reflects not only on the process of the decision, but on the outcome as well.
“The Road Not Taken” recounts a personal experience as told by a narrator using the first person. The first image of the poem, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” (line 1) places the setting of the experience outdoors amongst the woods. It is here that the “traveler, long… stood” (line 3) trying to determine which road to follow. The narrator defines the choice as being between a road that had “bent in the undergrowth” (line 5), one that is “grassy and wanted wear” (line 8), and one that “In leaves no step had trodden black” (line 12); while each path was traveled in different amounts, he makes it clear that each was “just as fair” (line 7) as the other. In the end, he reveals the path he has chosen and admits that it “had made all the difference” (line 20), which leaves readers wondering about the specifics of that choice and its outcome.
The setting of the poem, literally amongst nature, has great significance in the poem. The description “yellow wood” (line 1) introduces the setting in a positive way as “yellow” is a vibrant color usually associated with the sun. While further description is more obscure, such as “bent in the undergrowth” (line 5) and descriptive words such as “grassy” (line 8), “worn” (line 10), and “trodden black” (line 12), the setting of the poem, like the decision-making process, is treated positively overall. The natural setting can be viewed as a parallel to the natural state the narrator finds himself in as he can “not travel both” (line 2) paths and must choose one. Decisions, in general, are a natural part of life; with this observation, it becomes clear that the man’s journey can be related to every person’s life journey.
While readers can relate to the narrator’s situation of having to make a choice, which is part of human nature, they may also relate to the outcome of the choice. People seem conditioned to travel the easier road; the narrator though finds the less predictable path where “no step had trodden black” (line 12) more appealing and saves “the first for another day!” (line 12). In other words, rather than follow in others’ footsteps, the narrator chooses his or her own path. The narrator clearly reveals, “I took the one less traveled by” (line 14), but the message comes with the admission, “And that has made all the difference” (line 20). Through the narrator’s reflection, readers are forced to contemplate the notion that choosing the seemingly harder path in life can lead to a more fulfilling future.
Like the narrator, readers may also look to a time past when they have made an important decision in life, as well as to a time future when “with a sigh” (line 16) they may find themselves telling of that choice “ages hence” (line 17). If the narrator had traveled the road more often taken, then the outcome may have been more predictable; however, it may not have been as rewarding. Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” reflects upon the process of decision making and probes readers to examine the possibility of choosing a less predictable path. Like the narrator, we too are impacted by our choices; in fact, our life is a collection of choices. Therefore, we should strive to uncover our own unique, individual path that leads to our own unique, personal destiny.
Work Cited
Frost, Robert. “The Road Not Taken”. Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing 7th Edition,
Ed. Kirszner and Mandell. Wadsworth: USA, 2009. 1024-1025.
12 point font Double Space Everything
Center Title- Title should be more than just the title of the poem
Notice that the “topic” is introduced and is spoken of in general terms—then I bridge the general idea to the specific poem. The thesis is bolded.
In this type of essay, the first body paragraph details the narrator (or characters), setting, and specific situation presented in the poem without analysis or interpretation.
The 2nd body paragraph begins the interpretation by discussing one aspect of the poem; in this case, I chose setting and its symbolical meaning. Each body paragraph should have ONE topic only… notice that everything discussed here relates back to “setting”.
There is a transition from the discussion of setting to a more overall meaning, which here is relating the journey of one person to something all human beings experience.
The topic statement indicates that the paragraph will deal with the outcome of the choice.
The conclusion builds upon the interpretation. It also circles back to the beginning and bridges the specific poem to general ideas.
Another Example: http://rhetoricandcomp.webs.com/music.htm
