Jerome 1

Ryan Gallagher

AP Literature

Explication Assignment

21 December 2010

Explication of Alice Notley’s I the People

In her poem I The People, the author Alice Notley works to creates meaning through the

structure of her poem, and through the use of first person pronouns. Through the use of

repetition, Notley is also able compare and reinforce many of the ideas that she presents through

juxtaposition.

Through repetition of words and the maintenance of the poem’s structural pattern, Notley

is able to develop the meaning of her work. The poem begins with the sentence “I the people/ to

things that are were &/ come to be.” This opening line acts as a template for the rest of the poem,

as many of the words and symbols used are repeated throughout the poem. For example, It is

important to note Notley’s use of an ampersand to represent the conjunction word and, as this is

seen on eighteen different occasions throughout the poem, in addition to Notley’s use of the first

person pronoun I, which is also seen countless times throughout the poem. The opening line, “I

the people”, can be considered the poem’s motif, as Notley constantly refers back to this phrase

in both the title, and in the poem. As a matter of fact, towards the middle of the poem, Notely

employs a sentence of similar phrasing as the opening sentence of the poem when she says, “We

the people to the things that are & were & come to be”, which only differs in how Notely

switches to the first person pronoun we. In terms of the poem’s structure, Notley centers the

entire poem, except for the first, thirty second, forty ninth, and fiftieth lines. She also follows the

pattern of not only indenting every other line of the poem, but also making those specific lines

enjambments.
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In addition to utilizing the structure of the poem, and the repetition of key words and

phrases, Notely also takes up a mockingly informative tone in order to further develop her

meaning of who the people are. From the very beginning, it is clear that she is playing on the

ideas of the United States Constitution’s preamble through her title, I the People. At certain

points in her poem, Notely even utilizes the opening phrase of the preamble, such as when she

says, “we the people having our/vision of/ gold & silver & silken liquid/light flowed/ from our

eyes & caressing/all around the walls.” Just as the preamble serves to illustrate the purpose and

meaning of the meaning of the Constitution, Notely is also utilizing this poem, and its play on

the Constitution’s phrasing to depict many ideas in regards to the human condition. Moreover,

from the listing that occurs after the fact, it is clear that Notely is elaborating on the idea of what

the subject of her poem is experiencing. This use of the first person pronoun we, which Notley

switches between throughout the poem only further, accentuate the informative nature of the

tone, as it serves to add and air of inclusiveness to the ideas being described in the poem.

Notley also juxtaposes many ideas throughout the poem to create assonance, and further

develop the poems meaning. This can be seen in the fifth and sixth line of the poem when she

writes, “when we/make love when we go away/ from each other because/we have been created at

10th & A.” Stylistically, Notley does something interesting with the structure of the sixth line

when she allows for extra spacing between the phrases in order to accentuate the splitting of the

two entities being described. However, though the subjects at hand are being separated, one point

of commonality remains in that not only where they were both created in the same place, but

they also share the “hope we are notes of the musical scale”. Notely also goes on to compare

different time periods when she writes, “We the people to the things that are & were & come to
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be” , which ultimately down plays the stark contrast between these periods of time through the

central point that they are all shared by “we the people”.

In the end, it is clear that through the use of various literary techniques such as repetition,

juxtaposition, and the employment of a mockingly informative tone, Alice Notely is able to

develop the ideas of her poem, I the people.