CHAPTER

21
In Brief: Writing Arguments about Poetry
If you are going to write about a fairly short poem (say, under 3 lines!, it"s not a bad idea to #opy out the
poem, writing or typing it double$spa#ed% By writing it out you will be for#ed to noti#e details, down to the
pun#tuation% After you ha&e #opied the poem, proofread it #arefully against the original% 'at#hing an error
(e&en the addition or omission of a #omma(may help you to noti#e a detail in the original that you
might otherwise ha&e o&erloo)ed% And now that you ha&e the poem with ample spa#e between the lines,
you ha&e a wor)sheet with room for *ottings%
A good essay is based on a genuine response to a poem+ a response may be stimulated in part by first
reading the poem aloud and then #onsidering the following ,uestions%
-emember, e&en an e.pli#ation(an unfolding of the impli#ations of the poem(is an argument% In
the e.ample on page //0, the student begins by asserting a thesis, a #laim: 1112arlem" is only ele&en lines
long, but it is #harged with power%3 4he thesis, the arguable #laim, of #ourse is not that 5the poem is only
ele&en lines long,3 but that 5it is #harged with power,3 and the rest of the e.pli#ation is de&oted to
supporting this #laim, to pointing out almost word by word, the sour#es of the power,
FIRST RESPONSE
What was your response to the poem on first reading6 7id some parts espe#ially please or displease you,
or pu88le you6 After some study(perhaps #he#)ing the meanings of some of the words in a di#tionary
and reading the poem se&eral times(did you modify your initial response to the parts and to the whole6
SPEAKER AND TONE
1% $Who is the spea)er6 ('onsider age, se., personality, frame of mind, and tone of &oi#e%! Is the spea)er
defined fairly pre#isely (for instan#e, an older woman spea)ing to a #hild!, or is the spea)er simply a
&oi#e meditating6 (9ot down your first impressions, then reread the poem and ma)e further *ottings, if
ne#essary%!
2% $7o you thin) the spea)er is fully aware of what he or she is saying, or does the spea)er un#ons#iously
re&eal his or her personality and &alues6 What is your attitude toward this spea)er6
3% $Is the spea)er narrating or refle#ting on an earlier e.perien#e or attitude6 If so, does he or she #on&ey
a sense of new awareness, su#h as regret for inno#en#e lost6
AUDIENCE
4o whom is the spea)er spea)ing6 What is the situation (in#luding time and pla#e!6 (In some poems a
listener is strongly implied, but in others, espe#ially those in whi#h the spea)er is meditating, there may
be no audien#e other than the reader, who 5o&erhears3 the spea)er%!
STRUCTURE AND FORM
1% $7oes the poem pro#eed in a straightforward way, or at some point or points does the spea)er re&erse
#ourse, altering his or her tone or per#eption6 If there is a shift, what do you ma)e of it6
2% $Is the poem organi8ed into se#tions6 If so, what are these se#tions(stan8as, for instan#e(and how
does ea#h se#tion (#hara#teri8ed, perhaps, by a #ertain tone of &oi#e, or a group of rhymes! grow out of
what pre#edes it6
3% $What is the effe#t on you of the form(say, ,uatrains (stan8as of four lines! or blan) &erse (unrhymed
lines of ten syllables of iambi# pentameter!6 If the sense o&erflows the form, running without pause from
(for e.ample! one ,uatrain into the ne.t, what effe#t is #reated6
CENTER OF INTEREST AND THEME
1% $What is the poem about6 Is the interest #hiefly in a distin#ti&e #hara#ter, or in meditation6 4hat is, is
the poem #hiefly psy#hologi#al or #hiefly philosophi#al6
2% $Is the theme stated e.pli#itly (dire#tly! or impli#itly6 2ow might you state the theme in a senten#e6
What is lost by redu#ing the poem to a statement of a theme6
DICTION
1% $2ow would you #hara#teri8e the language6 'ollo,uial, or ele&ated, or what6
2% $7o #ertain words ha&e ri#h and rele&ant asso#iations that relate to other words and help to define the
spea)er or the theme or both6
3% $What is the role of figurati&e language, if any6 7oes it help to define the spea)er or the theme6
:% $What do you thin) is to be ta)en figurati&ely or symboli#ally, and what literally6
SOUND EFFECTS
1% $What is the role of sound effe#ts, in#luding repetitions of sound (for instan#e, alliteration! and of
entire words, and shifts in &ersifi#ation6
2% $If there are off$rhymes (for instan#e, dizzy and easy, or home and come!, what effe#t do they ha&e on
you6 7o they, for instan#e, add a note of tentati&eness or un#ertainty6
3% $If there are une.pe#ted stresses or pauses, what do they #ommuni#ate about the spea)er"s e.perien#e6
2ow do they affe#t you6
A NOTE ON EXPLICATION
;n page :2 we dis#uss the form )nown as explication, a line$by$line #ommentary see)ing to ma)e e.pli#it
or to e.plain the meaning that is impli#it or hidden within the words% ( Explication #omes from the <atin
explicare, meaning 5to unfold,3 from ex = out > plicare = to fold%! 4he impli#ation of su#h an a#ti&ity is
that writers 5fold3 a meaning into their words, and the reader per#ei&es or unfolds the message%
(Implication, also from the <atin word for 5fold,3 means something entangled or in&ol&ed in something
else%!
An e.ample will #larify these remar)s% If we say to someone, 5?hut the door,3 ob&iously we are
#on&eying a message through these words% Also ob&iously, the message in 5?hut the door3 is not e.a#tly
the same as the message in 5Would you mind shutting the door, please63 An e.pli#ation would point out
that the first senten#e #ontains an authoritati&e tone that is not found in the se#ond% In effe#t, the first
senten#e 5says3 (in addition to the point about the door! that the spea)er may gi&e orders to the hearer+ or,
to put it the other way around, folded into the se#ond senten#e (but not the first! is the spea)er"s
awareness that the person re#ei&ing the words is the spea)er"s so#ial e,ual% A slightly more #ompli#ated
and mu#h more interesting e.ample is 9ulius 'aesar"s 5I #ame, I saw, I #on,uered3 (<atin: veni, vidi,
vici!% An e.pli#ation would point out that in addition to the e.pli#it meaning there are impli#it meanings,
for e.ample that a man li)e 'aesar does not waste words, that he is highly dis#iplined (the pattern of
words suggests that he is a master of language!, and that he is the sort of person who, on seeing
something, immediately gets it under #ontrol by ta)ing the appropriate a#tion%
Be#ause e.pli#ation is #hiefly #on#erned with ma)ing e.pli#it what is impli#it in a te.t, it is not
#on#erned with su#h matters as the poet"s pla#e in history or the poet"s biography, nor is it #on#erned with
the reader"s response to the poem(e.#ept to the degree that the reader"s e.pli#ation really may not be an
ob*e#ti&e de#oding of the poem but may depend in large part on the reader"s pri&ate asso#iations% (?ome
literary #riti#s would argue that the underlying premise of e.pli#ation(that a writer puts a spe#ifi#
meaning into a wor) and that a reader #an ob*e#ti&ely re#o&er that meaning(is based on the mista)en
belief that readers #an be ob*e#ti&e%! If you loo) at the sample e.pli#ation on pages :3@:/, you #an de#ide
for yourself whether the student unfolded impli#it meanings that the author (William Butler Aeats! had
tu#)ed into the words of his poem or whether the e.pli#ation really is a personal response to the poem%
A STUDENTS WRITTEN RESPONSE TO A POEM
What we gi&e in this #hapter is not an e.pli#ation but a more personal response to a poem by <ouise
BlC#)% <i)e an e.pli#ation, it is #on#erned with the author"s meaning+ but unli)e an e.pli#ation, it does
not hesitate to go beyond the poem and into 5the real world3 that the writer of the paper li&es in% 4he
essay is not so personal that the poem disappears (as it might in an essay that says something li)e 54his
poem reminds me of the time that I %%%3!, but it does not #laim merely to unfold meanings that BlC#) has
embodied or entangled in her words%
Dirst read the following biographi#al note and the poem%
<ouise BlC#)
One of the leading contemporary poets, Louise Glck was orn in !ew "ork #ity in $%&', grew up on
Long Island, and attended (arah Lawrence #ollege and #olumia )niversity* (he has taught at a
numer of colleges and universities, including the )niversity of Iowa and +illiams #ollege* ,irstorn,
her first ook of poems, was pulished in $%-.* /er later ooks include 0he /ouse on 1arshland 2$%345,
from which the following poem is taken6 0he 0riumph of 7chilles 2$%.456 0he +ild Iris 2$%%856 and 9ita
!ova 2$%%%5* Glck:s poetry has een widely anthologized and translated* ;roofs and 0heories< Essays
on ;oetry 2$%%45 is a collection of her literary criticism on (tanley =unitz, 0* (* Eliot, and other authors*
Gretel in Darkness [1975]
4his is the world we wanted%
All who would ha&e seen us dead
are dead% I hear the wit#h"s #ry
brea) in the moonlight through a sheet
of sugar: Bod rewards% E
2er tongue shri&els into gas% % % %
Fow, far from women"s arms
and memory of women, in our father"s hut
we sleep, are ne&er hungry%
Why do I not forget6 1
Gy father bars the door, bars harm
from this house, and it is years%
Fo one remembers% H&en you, my brother,
summer afternoons you loo) at me as though
you meant to lea&e% 1E
as though it ne&er happened%
But I )illed for you% I see armed firs,
the spires of that gleaming )iln(
Fights I turn to you to hold me
but you are not there% 2
Am I alone6 ?pies
hiss in the stillness, 2ansel,
we are there still and it is real, real,
that bla#) forest and the fire in earnest%
A student named 9ennifer Anderson was assigned to write about this poem in an Introdu#tion to
<iterature #ourse% 9ennifer started her wor) by #opying the poem on a sheet of paper and annotating it%
4o follow up on these annotations and de&elop them, 9ennifer turned ne.t to her writing *ournal% ?he
*otted down responses and ideas, and her ,uestions about aspe#ts of the poem and details of the language
that intrigued and pu88led her%
2ere are the pages from her *ournal:
Breat poemI 2aunting, eerie% Gy fa&orite so far in the #ourse%
?tory of 2ansel and Bretel$$<oo) this up% ?hould I summari8e the story in the paper6
?pea)er$$Bretel% Why her, and not 2ansel6 Fot both of them as spea)ers6
Jin dar)nessJ$$really in dar)ness, or is dar)ness a metaphor6
-epetition in the poem: deadKdead, barKbar, realKreal%
4he tone of the opening stan8a$$s#ary, ominous% 7ar)ness, dead%
4he referen#e to the wit#h% J?hri&els into gasJ$$#reepy detail%
But the wit#h has been defeated% 4hrough the power of Bod6 Why is Bod mentioned in this
line6$$not mentioned elsewhere%
Women (not mothers! seem the enemy in stan8a two% (;dd that the se#ond stan8a is indented%!
4he father pro&ides safety% But safety is not enough% Bretel #annot forget the past: the real enemy is
not the wit#h or the mothers, but her memory%
?he has to tal) about her memory, her e.perien#es% JFo one remembers,J but she does%
I thin) that this is a poem about Gemory: JWhy do I not forget6J
Bretel doesnLt want her brother to forget% ?he reminds him%
JMilledJ$$su#h a strong word, &ery dire#t% Bretel is angry with her brother+ she feels him pulling
away from her%
?omething disturbed, unnatural about the poem6$$the detail about Bretel loo)ing for her brother
to hold her% But he is absent% Where is he6
Who are the J?piesJ6 <ots of JsJ sounds in these lines$$spies, hiss, stillness, 2ansel, still%
?he addresses him by name%
?he #annot es#ape, maybe she doesnLt want to es#ape% Fote that Bretel is des#ribing her
memories of what happened$$not a poem that tells the story of 2ansel and Bretel% BlC#) is interested
in how Bretel remembers, how she feels about remembering%
9ennifer )new the main features of the 2ansel and Bretel story(the brother and sister, their
abandonment, their #apture by a wit#h, and their es#ape% But she wanted to remind herself about the
details, as her note to herself in her *ournal indi#ates%
As an e.periment, 9ennifer used one of the Internet sear#h engines that her instru#tor had des#ribed
during #lass% ?he went to:
Bo2Fet Fetwor): Geta#rawler http:KKwww%go2net%#omKsear#h%html
And she sear#hed for 5hansel and gretel%3 A number of the results loo)ed promising, and she lin)ed
to this one:
Brimm"s Dairy 4ales(2ansel and Bretel
http:KKwww%mordent%#omKfol)talesKgrimmsKhngKhng%html
9ennifer had not reread 52ansel and Bretel3 sin#e she was a #hild% -ereading it now was &ery helpful,
for it #larified a number of important details in BlC#)"s poem% It e.plained, for e.ample, 5the wit#h"s #ry3
in the first stan8a, whi#h alludes to the wit#h"s 5horrible howl3 when Bretel pushes her into the o&en% It
also fills out the referen#e to the 5women3 in the se#ond stan8a, who in the story in#lude the #hildren"s
#ruel stepmother as well as the e&il wit#h% 9ennifer #ould ha&e prepared and written her paper without
ta)ing the time to #he#) on the story, but it was better that she did%
STUDENT ESSAY
2ere is the essay that 9ennifer wrote%
Anderson 1
9ennifer Anderson
Professor Washington
Hnglish 12
12 ;#tober 2E
A Gemory Poem:
<ouise BlC#)Ls JBretel in 7ar)nessJ
H&eryone )nows the story of 2ansel and Bretel, one of the best$)nown of BrimmLs Dairy
4ales% In her poem JBretel in 7ar)nessJ (N2E!, <ouise BlC#) ta)es for granted that we )now
the story$$the brother and sister who are mistreated by their father and, espe#ially, by their
stepmother+ their abandonment in a forest+ their #apture by a wit#h who li&es in a house made
of #a)es and #andy+ the wit#hLs plan to fatten them up (2ansel first! and then eat them+
BretelLs )illing of the wit#h by pushing her into an o&en+ and, finally, the #hildrenLs dis#o&ery
of the wit#hLs *ewels that ma)es them and their father (the stepmother has died! ri#h and
happy at last% BlC#)Ls sub*e#t is not the story itself, but, instead, BretelLs memories% JBretel in
7ar)nessJ is a haunting poem about horrors that Bretel, BlC#)Ls spea)er, #annot forget%
4he poem ta)es pla#e after the wit#h has been )illed and 2ansel and Bretel ha&e returned to the
safety of their fatherLs #ottage% H&erything now should be fine, Bretel says: J4his is the world we
wanted%J JBod rewardsJ: Bod has heard their prayers and sa&ed them% But as if it were still
present, Bretel hears Jthe wit#hLs #ry,J the wit#h whom Bretel )illed% And the image about the
wit#hLs death that she uses is graphi# Anderson 2
and disturbing: J2er tongue shri&els into gas%%%%J 4he wit#h was horrible, but this image is
horrifying+ it sti#)s in BretelLs mind, and the readerLs too, li)e a sho#)ing detail from a
nightmare%
In a way the entire poem reports on a nightmare that Bretel is doomed to li&e in fore&er%
JWhy do I not forget6J$$the )ey line in the poem, I thin)$$really means that she )nows she
will always remember what happened to her and her brother% Dor Bretel this fairy tale does not
ha&e a happy ending%
Aet it does for her brother, or so it seems to Bretel% ?he resents 2anselLs failure to
remember as she does, and, with a &i&id, dire#t #hoi#e of &erb, she reminds him: JI )illed for
you%J 4he nightmarish ,uality of BretelLs thoughts and feelings is shown again in the ne.t
lines, whi#h on#e more ma)e #lear how mu#h her past dominates the present:
I see armed firs,
the spires of that gleaming )iln$$
Bretel is safe but threatened, sheltered at home but still in danger% ?he is #aught by a
terrifying and terrible past she #annot brea) free from% 4he repetitions$$deadKdead, barsKbar,
realKreal$$imply that she is trapped, not able to re$enter the present and loo) forward to the
future% ?he turns to her brother for help, yet without finding the support she see)s:
Fights I turn to you to hold me
but you are not there%
2ansel (who is only named on#e! is not there for Bretel, and at first I felt her hurt% But BlC#) is
not meaning to #riti#i8e 2ansel for his distan#e, his separation from his sister% ;r if BlC#) is, she
is balan#ing that against BretelLs Anderson 3
absorption in the terror of her e.perien#es% ?he feels that she and her brother are still in the
middle of them%
As I thought further about this poem, I wondered: ?trange as it sounds, maybe Bretel
prefers the past to the present, be#ause the past was so real% <ife is all too safe and #omfortable
now, while then e&erything, li)e the fire in the o&en, was so earnest, that is, so serious and
intense% It was not the world she wanted$$who would want to be in that house of horrorsI H&en
now her life is mena#ed, as those sna)y JsJ sounds in the middle of the final stan8a suggest%
But perhaps the frightful feelings, in their intensity, were (and still are! )eener and deeper
than anything that Bretel )new before, or )nows now, in the se#ure world she li&es in with her
father and brother% ?he and her brother then were so absolutely #lose, as they are not now%
Bretel #annot let go of her past, and she does not want to%
O 4;PI'? D;- '-I4I'A< 42IFMIFB AF7 W-I4IFB
1% $9ennifer"s instru#tor told the #lass that the essay should be 5about E words%3 9ennifer"s paper is
more than that(about /E words% 7o you thin) that she uses her spa#e well6 'ould she ha&e
shortened the essay, to bring it #loser to the assigned length6 If you had to suggest #uts, where
would you propose to ma)e them6
2% $7oes 9ennifer omit important details in the poem that you thin) she should ha&e in#luded in the
paper6 H.plain why these should be part of her response%
3% $Bi&e 9ennifer"s paper a grade, and in a paragraph written to her, highlight the strengths and
limitations of this paper% Pro&ide her, too, with one or two spe#ifi# suggestions for impro&ing her
writing in the ne.t paper%
?ound Hffe#ts
'hapter 21 K In Brief: Writing about Poetry
<ouise BlC#)
'hapter 21 K In Brief: Writing about Poetry

A ?tudent"s Written -esponse to a Poem
'hapter 21 K In Brief: Writing about Poetry
52ansel and Bretel3 on the Internet (full te.t a&ailable+ portion of first page reprodu#ed here!%
?tudent Hssay
'hapter 21 K In Brief: Writing about Poetry
?tudent Hssay
[New page]
Anderson :
Wor) 'ited
BlC#), <ouise% JBretel in 7ar)ness%J An Introdu#tion to <iterature% Hd% ?yl&an Barnet et al%
1:th ed% Few Aor): <ongman, 2/% N2E%