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Poetry Explication
Notes
Group Work
Essay
Notes on Poetry Explication: Method #2
1. Examine the situation in the poem: Does the poem tell a story? Is it a narrative poem?
If so, what events occur? Does the poem express an emotion or describe a mood?
Poetic voice: Who is the speaker? Is the poet speaking to the reader directly or is the poem told
through a fictional persona"? To whom is he speaking? Can you trust the speaker?
2. Tone: What is the speaker's attitude toward the subject of the poem? What sort of tone of voice
seems to be appropriate for reading the poem out loud? What words, images, or ideas
give you a clue to the tone? Where does the tone shift?
Examine the structure of the poem:
a. Form: Look at the number of lines, their length, and their arrangement on the page. How
does the form relate to the content? Is it a traditional form (e.g. sonnet, limerick)
or "free form"? Why do you think the poem chose that form for his poem?
b. Movement: How does the poem develop? Are the images and ideas
developed chronologically, by cause and effect, by free association? Does
the poem circle back to where it started, or is the movement from one attitude
to a different attitude (e.g. from despair to hope)?
c. Syntax: How many sentences are in the poem? Are the sentences simple or
complicated? Are the verbs in front of the nouns instead of in the usual "noun, verb"
order? Why?
d. Punctuation: What kind of punctuation is in the poem? Does the punctuation
always coincide with the end of a poetic line? If so, this is called an end-
stopped line. If there is no punctuation at the end of a line and the thought
continues into the next line, this is called enjambment. Is there any punctuation in
the middle of a line? Why do you think the poet would want you to pause halfway
through the line?
e. Title: What does the title mean? How does it relate to the poem itself?
3. Examine the language of the poem:
a. Diction or Word Choice: Is the language colloquial, formal, simple, unusual?
Do you know what all the words mean? If not, look them up. What moods or attitudes
are associated with words that stand out for you?
b. Allusions: Are there any allusions (references) to something outside the
poem, such as events or people from history, mythology, or religion?
c. Imagery: Look at the figurative language of the poem--metaphors, similes,
analogies, personification. How do these images add to the meaning of the
poem or intensify the effect of the poem?
4. Examine the musical devices in the poem:
a. Rhyme scheme: Does the rhyme occur in a regular pattern, or irregularly? Is
the effect formal, satisfying, musical, funny, disconcerting? Rhythm or meter:
In most languages, there is a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in
a word or words in a sentence. In poetry, the variation of stressed and
unstressed syllables and words has a rhythmic effect. What is the tonal effect
of the rhythm here? Other "sound effects: alliteration, assonance,
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consonance repetition. What tonal effect do they have here? Has the poem created
a change in mood for you--or a change in attitude? How have the technical
elements helped the poet create this effect?

Figurative Language Part I: Synecdoche and Metonymy
Synecdoche (n): a figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole (as fifty
sail for fifty ships), the whole for a part (as society for high society), the species for the genus
(as cutthroat for assassin), the genus for the species (as a creature for a man), or the name of
the material for the thing made (as boards for stage).
Motonymy (n): a figure of speech consisting of the use of the name of one thing for that
of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated (as crown in lands belonging
to the crown)
The difference, is whether the attribute that is substituting for the whole is part of the
whole (synecdoche), or merely associated with it (metonymy). So "suits" instead of "officials" is
metonymy, while "hands" for "workmen" is synecdoche.
Poetry Explication Essay: (1945) Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jerrell
From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose
Death of the Ball Turret Gunner, quoted above, is Randall Jerrells most anthologized
poem. This is due in part to the authenticity of a WWII veterans writing and despite its brevity,
the poem creatively addresses the themes of war and abortion in the format of a post-mortem
reflection. The poem was written in 1945, following the end of the Second World War and the
conclusion of Jerrells service in the Army Air Corps, where he would have come in contact with
Ball Turret Gunners on a daily basis. The Ball Turret Gunner was typically the smallest person
in the crew, and was tasked with manning a Sperry ball turret, meant for ventral defense needs
on the iconic B-17 Flying Fortress. His only protection from the explosive anti-air rounds that
bombarded him, both from attacking fighters and the ground, was a thin Plexiglas window.
At base value, like the vast majority of war literature, Death of the Ball Turret Gunner is a
commentary on the cruelties of war and of the insensitivity Man. Ball Turret Gunner was one of
the most dangerous positions to hold in the Air Corps and was typically filled by soldiers that the
Army considered expendable. To this effect. Jarrell employs effective diction and a chilly, jaded
narrative voice. He addresses the short-stick treatment of the gunners even in death in a line;
they washed [him] out of the turret with a hose. The poem is punctuated definitively, using
short, surgical sentences and fragments like the kind youd hear from a person who has
accepted their lot in life (or in death). But Jarrell doesnt settle for clich, and likens the
emergence of the Ball Turret (and its gunner) to birth from the belly of their B-17 mother. The
implication, however, is not that he was born, but that he was aborted. He uses icy diction and
a cynics tonal innuendo to describe how he fell into the State, and was loosed from [his]
dream of life.
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In 1945, a time when war was publicly glorified and abortion was widely practiced
(though illegal), to demonize the topics was a bold endeavor. Jarrell cleverly applies his bias in
a format that can be ingested and processed by the reader. Regardless of their opinion on war,
the public agrees that there is nothing romantic in the death of a soldier, and so Jarrell takes the
opportunity to subversively infuse a parallel between the death of a soldier and the death of an
unborn child. This piece, though dated in context, will continue to speak to each generation as
they struggle with the social issues surrounding the intentional snuffing-out of life.