Journal 7: Poetry Response

You must respond to one of the assigned/attached poems (see link – use one of the two Journal 7 poems). 

112V – Assigned J7-J8 Poems.pdfPreview the document

After working through a close reading of one of the poems assigned for this journal, use this journal to start to pull together an explication of the poem and your thoughts.  (you are responding to only one poem).  Must be 300+ words, and well-reasoned.

An “explication” of a poem is a detailed reading of a part (or whole) of the poem – looking (with great detail) at how the words and elements of poetry at work in the poem generate meaning or feeling for the reader. 

In other words, you must analyze the lines of a poem here, not just undertake a general discussion of the poem you close read. 

You are after a high level of detail.  You are also doing these explications in order to practice explications for your Essay 3.  I have attached a guide to explication and the writing of your journal – refer to this to read the poem and write your journal.

As always, pay attention to MLA and polish details

Poem

Funeral Blues
By W.H. Auden
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message ‘He is Dead’.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves, Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now; put out every one, Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood; For nothing now can ever come to any good.