ENC1102
Mr. Blanco
Explication of Elizabeth Bishop’s Poem, “The Fish”
Assignment: Write an explication of Elizabeth Bishop’s poem, “The Fish.”
A good explication makes clear to a reader what may have been unclear before he or she reads the explication. An explication aids in the understanding of a poem; it unfolds, elucidates, or makes the meaning of a poem clear. It is “a reading” of the poem, that is an interpretation of a poem based on the words that the writer uses in the poem. The reader (in this case, the writer of the explication) writes her or his interpretation of the poem, bringing to the interpretation subtle nuances that someone else might miss. However, an explication should not be so idiosyncratic or “odd” that a reader might consider the interpretation absurd. Base your explication on text, structure, and logic.
Formal requirements of this assignment: Six paragraphs, with at least 9 sentences per paragraph. It must be typed, double-spaced, with the student information in MLA format.
Below are some resources that may help you complete this assignment.
Resources
Below is a link to the complete text of the poem:
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22238
Below is a youtube “audio” of Elizabeth Bishop reading “The Fish”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnR1x64WOjQ
Short Biography of Elizabeth Bishop:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/elizabeth-bishop
Below is a link to an analysis of “The Fish”
http://throughthe3rdeye.com/node/352
Below is a link to a psychoanalytic reading of the poem:
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/poetry/critical_define/psychoessay.pdf
Additional Information About the Assignment
After an introduction to poetry and after examining several poems, the explication essay assignment will be introduced. Students will be emailed the assignment (see Addendum 1), which includes requirements and resources for writing an explication. The entire class will receive the following homework assignment to prepare for using the Jigsaw method of cooperative learning: “In your own handwriting, copy the entire text of Elizabeth Bishop’s poem ‘The Fish.’ Write the definitions of any words you do not know. Also, write down any words that suggest the attitude of the speaker in the poem toward its subject matter (the actual fish – a Goliath Grouper – formerly known as a jewfish). “
In the next class session, students will be placed in six groups, with 4 – 5 students in each group, depending on the size of the class. Each group will be given a copy of a section of the poem “The Fish” for which they are responsible for explicating completely and connecting it to other parts of the poem. The groups will self-select.
Each student within each group will be responsible for fully explicating at least one line of the poem and producing two or three sentences that fully explain the student’s individual section. Each student will post his or her response to a class blog. The recorder for each group will compile the individual responses and write a paragraph with the sentences from each individual in the group. The group paragraphs will be posted to the class blog. Each group will then take the material that the other groups produced and write a complete 6-paragraph explication essay of the poem. The six essays will be posted to the class blog, where every individual student will be required to write a comment about each essay.
The final step of the teaching method is that each student will gather the material on the class blog and write and submit his or her individual explication essay for a grade by me. Each essay will also be evaluated by each student in class using the grid developed for this project.
University of North Carolina’s explanation of how to write an explication:
Useful advice on explication from Northern Kentucky University
http://www.nku.edu/~rkdrury/poetryexplication.html
More useful advice and links from Duke University: