In my own experience as a college student, not too long ago (I wish!)I found  the literary essay the most challenging of essays to write.  Often times, the literary essay isn't taught in English 101 composition.  But since English 105: Introduction to Literature is a required class for most MCC students, it is important to know how to analyze and interpret works of literature.  So we are going to interpret and analyze a poem here because students seem to have the hardest time with poetry.

The first thing you have to do is a close reading of the poem, with a pencil in hand.  The first thing I do in reading the poem is get an overall feeling for the poem.  I write this in the margin. I circle words, mark breaks, where the tone or the mood shifts, or the speaker shifts in some way.  Underline certain phrases that are highly symbolic, put wavy lines under opposing ideas.  That's the first thing I do.

Then I try to free-write five minutes on the poem for a brief summary, a narrative in a sense.  This technique helps me to begin some kind of formal analysis of the poem, which can be line by line or in longer poems, stanza by stanza.  I usually write in the margins, but you can write on a separate piece of paper if you prefer.  Then I take a break and I think about it, I let it sink in.  Then I begin my interpretation of the poem, which comes from doing all the previous steps. Now, one thing I want to say about this summary:  I do this to help generate ideas.  Rarely, in a literary essay, does the professor want you to summarize. In the one that you will write for this class, you will not be asked to summarize.  That's too easy for a formal assignment.  That's where the analysis and interpretation will come in.

One thing I remember about the Frost poem.  I had read it and reread it and done all the kinds of things I just suggested and I just wasn't getting anywhere.  I couldn't comprehend what it was the speaker was trying to say, so I just put it away and went to bed.  And I woke up in the middle of the night and it came to me: that Frost was struggling with the eternal questions we all struggle with:  Who am I? Is there a God? Where do we go after we die? What is life all about?  He was struggling with his identity, just as I have struggled with mine.  So the next day, I went back to the poem and my notes and I tried to see if there was enough evidence to support the idea that the speaker was searching for his identity.  Then I got a piece of paper and I started to list the evidence lines, in order, the way the poem progressed.  And from there, I was able to extract a thesis and a logical order of presenting the evidence.

Now with poems you have to be careful.  You really can't skip around unless you feel that the poem circles back.  You really need to go in order because the speaker is usually traveling through something, she is traveling though something on her way to self discovery.  In other words, the answer or the question doesn't present itself until the end of the poem or often circling back to the beginning.  I don't mean to complicate the process, I just want you to know that you need to go line by line or stanza by stanza in some kind of order.  Otherwise, your thoughts will become too scattered and your argument will weaken.

Ok, now I'm going to show you have I read the poem by providing you with my notations.  Essentially, how I begin to digest the poem, analyze it, look deeper.
 

This seems to be a poem about sitting together as a family, something I've done, we've all done, by the fire, warm, cozy.  But then there is evidence of problems, words like "hisses" and "break apart" and "stick-figure."  Then the allusion to Icarus and tragedy.  So in an ordinary scene lie hints of darkness, harm that is to come.  Humm.  So below the surface lurks, what?  Monsters?  Well, as children, that's what we are afraid of isn't it?  But as adults, what does that fear translate into?  Not being able to control.  That's something.  Perhaps the narrator is realizing she can't control her children, can't keep them safe.  She realizes that no matter what, even when she tells them not to fly too close to the sun, they still will and could fall.
 

I am also interested in the first line.  When I read it aloud, all those "s" sounds seems ominous, like something is going to happen, they are hard those sounds, like something is coming maybe.  The sounds seem to have something to do with the meaning.

And that last line.  "That waxy smell."  The refers back too the Icarus allusion.  That what lingers is the danger, the fall happening because of the wax melting.  So in the face of what appears safe, things are not safe at all.  This cozy, winter scene, and, more universally, all our cozy scenes, are tinged with danger.

Now one more thing.  I recall somewhere in my studies that there is an interesting painting by a Dutch painter, Brughel, about the fall of Icarus and a poem by W.H. Auden that he wrote about the painting.  Hummm.  So I go to the Internet and find both.  First, the picture by Brughel, followed by the poem by Auden.

(The triangle there is the feet of Icarus disappearing.  Hard
to see in such a small reproduction.)

Musée des Beaux Arts (1938)
 W. H. Auden (1907-1973)

 About suffering they were never wrong,
 The Old Masters: how well they understood
 Its human position; how it takes place
 While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
 How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
 For the miraculous birth, there always must be
 Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
 On a pond at the edge of the wood:
 They never forgot
 That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
 Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
 Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
 Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

 In Brueghel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
 Quite leisurely from the disaster; the plowman may
 Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
 But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
 As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
 Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
 Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
 Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

This poem and painting now give me a whole new picture of Moookin's poem, and, possibly, her book.  As I am looking at the painting, I see it is just an ordinary pastoral scene.  Also, if someone didn't tell me it was about the fall of Icarus, I may not even notice those legs in the right-hand corner.  So what is she saying here?  That we don't, as a society, notice the ordinary disasters of the people around us?  That one person's tragedy doesn't concern us?  That we "turn away" because we don't care?  But is it that we don't care?  Or something else?  Wow, all these questions coming out of one little link out of the poem to the story of Icarus.  See how the critical thinking develops.
 

So what does all this mean?  What is the purpose of all this analysis?  So what?  Why analyze a poem or any literary piece?  What is the value for the common reader?

It offers you deeper meaning, another way to see things, another voice to hear, a way to connect to something or someone else.  For me, I just like the decoding process of language, I like to opening myself up to a deeper connection to something more than what I see.  I like to push myself into areas I don't normally go.

Ok, back to the poem.  Now, I also see an allusion to Luke Skywalker, who is a Star Wars character, actually, a hero who fights Snaggletooth.  He is also a boy.  Humm, Icarus was a boy too.  So Skywalker is a mythical hero and Icarus is, well, not a hero, more of a tragic figure.  So maybe Mnookin alludes to both to show the possibilities available to her son.  He can either slay the enemy and be victorious, or he can fly too close to the sun (metaphorically as we know she son won't really fly) and be killed, or lost in some way.

Wow, all this in one little poem.  Now, I'm digging this allusion thing, this referencing to outside sources.  Since the essay I am going to write will be on the collection of poems and not just one poem, I'm going to look through the book and see if she alludes to other mythical, historical, folk figures.  And she does.  She alludes to Superman, Odysseus,  Rumplestiltskin, Rasputin, Alexandra, even Daphne (her cat's name).  All these names must mean something.  So now I do some research and find out about all these figures and interpret their meaning in Mnookin's book.  So I've analyzed the poems and now, after research, I will interpret the meaning of the poems and come up with my thesis statement, the vehicle that will drive my paper.
 

analysis (observation) + interpretation (opinion that you intend to prove)= thesis statement

Let's take a look at how to construct your essay:  Lets look at the assignment again.

Assignment :  Assignment:  Choose one of the literary terms from your Literary Terms sheet and write an essay using at least three poems from Mnookin’s book in which you analyze and explain how it works to open the door to a deeper understanding of Mnookin's world.  For example, you could write about how allusions to mythical characters create a greater understanding of the son’s dilemma; you could discuss the use of alliteration and how it points to the destruction of the family;  or you could discuss the symbolic use of nature throughout. Whichever term you choose, you are to explain how that term provides accessibility to the poetry, how it helps to reveal deeper truths about life.
 

Introductory paragraph: Begin your essay by stating the author's name and the name of the book.  Then, identify the subject matter of the poems, but don't say the subject matter over and over.  Talk generally about the subject, leading your reader to the thesis, the last sentence of your introductory paragraph.  The introductory paragraph should be approximately 4 lines long. In Wendy Mnookin's book,  To Get Here, her use of allusion to mythological figures serves to underscore the possible triumph and/or tragedy of her son's future, a future which promises difficult and possibly life-threatening battles.  By referencing Odysseus, Icarus,  Luke Skywalker and Superman, Mnookin suggests that her son could become any one of them, either returning victorious or returning not at all.  This depiction of her son also forces the reader to understand these are the same possibilities that wait for us all.  Now, something else here.  I could also write an essay about the other allusions I found that seem to represent her struggle, how her future could end up in reference to the battles she is fighting.  So, I could talk about historical allusions to Rasputin and Alexandra, the mythological allusion to Daphne, and the folk legend of Rumplestiltskin.  That all suggests the outcome of her life. Example from above: In writing this paragraph, use the active present tense (uses, suggests).  Don't use redundant language (she says, she states).  Use more exact terminology (she wonders, she examines, she discovers).  Also note that the author of the poem isn't necessarily the speaker in the poem.  Be sure to make the distinction.

 

Body paragraphs: The body of your essay discusses your interpretation/ analysis of each poem that contains the allusion you introduced above. You should have at least four body paragraphs, each one examining, each figure you present.  Each paragraph must support the thesis statement.  Each paragraph must begin with a topic sentence that introduces one of the figures. Then, the rest of the paragraph must support that topic sentence with discussion and evidence from the poem, quoting lines and phrases.  But note that an essay that simply quotes the poem is weak without adequate discussion. Move through the poem beginning at the top, moving to the middle, then finishing at the end.  Or, stanza by stanza.  Remember:  Don't summarize the poem.  Analyze it. Example:  In the Poem, "His Odyssey" Mnookin presents her going leaving the safety of home and journeying into a potentially threatening and dangerous environment.  He walks "toward the burn/of lights in every window" (3-4), he love "the silver bodies/of knives"(5-6).  And so on....

 

Conclusion: The conclusion is a summary of what the writer has learned in trying to prove the thesis statement.  It should mirror the introduction, but not simply restate it.  You do not say, "In conclusion" or "In summary."  It is obvious you are concluding.  Say something like, "What Mnookin has ultimately accomplished in this book is..."  This paragraph should be the same size as the introductory paragraph.  It should carry the same weight as the introduction and it should drive the point home.

Now, in no way am I suggestion that the literary device you should write about is allusion.  You can pick any device that is interesting to you:  alliteration, connotative and denotative meaning, metaphor, tone, foreshadowing, symbols etc..  Essentially, you use the device as a tool to help you discover cool stuff in the poem.  It's like you are a detective and this is your microscope.

For those of you who are interested, that essay I spoke about at the beginning of the lecture, the one on Frost's "Birches?"  I got an "A." I hope the same for you on this paper.
 
 

Remember: Don't summarize, analyze!

But before you begin, check out this excellent site on the Internet.  He does a great job taking you through the steps for discovering and uncovering material in poetry, as well as lots of good stuff about putting your essay together.

Then, off you go.  Good luck!