Write an Explication paper on Emily Dickinson poem “My first well Day- since many ill”.
It should identify the poem’s meter, rhyme, images, figures of speech, etc. It should offer an interpretation of the thematic significance of these elements. Your explications should consist of 6-9 full paragraphs. Each explication should have a thesis in which you make your overall claim about the poem. Please endeavor to use poetic terms appropriately. You may want to consult a handbook of literary terms or your 3308 text to review these terms and process of explication. You may write strictly New Critical explications. You may also use the explication tools of New Criticism to support a thesis from another critical approach (Feminist, Psychoanalytical, etc.)
We explicate a text in order to help future readers understand it. We review past interpretations and ask, what are other critics overlooking or misinterpreting? Our focus is always on the text. If we introduce biographical or historical detail, it is always to springboard us into a discussion of the text. We never use a text to speculate about an author’s life or to make sweeping generalizations about a historical time period. We are literary critics, not gossip columnists. We seek to help future readers understand and analyze a text.