How to Explicate a Poem

from Miracle Strip by Matt Layne

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about

Music:
Ned Mudd
Reverse Breathing
from the album Time Travel for Dummies

lyrics

How to Explicate a Poem
Preparation
Wash your hands.
Choose one (1) poem from the red shelf of live poems.
Place poem in the explicating pan, ventral side up.
With a red pen, lift the poet’s words away from the page.
Using scissors, cut along the midline of the poem from the literal to the figurative girdle. Take care to leave the metaphor intact.
With scalpel, make small incisions after each line and in between stanzas.
Lift the flaps of the poem’s wall, carefully, so as not tear the words, and pin back.
Explication
Observe and determine the poem’s voice:
Whitman's- Poems with a masculine voice have Whitmans.
These organs are located at end-stopped lines. They are pale colored and roundish and often very, very small. They are notable for celebrating themselves.
Dickinson's-Poems with a feminine voice occasionally have Whitmans as well, more than likely a curly-q type structure will be found around the outside of their stanzas. These are the Dickinsons.
Note: Masculine poems can also have structures that look similar to Dickinsons. These structures serve no actual purpose. In males, they are called vestigial Dickinsons.

Write down all unfamiliar words.
Throw words identified in step 2.b into the garbage.
Starting with the form, identify and remove each of the poem’s major organs:
Form
Analogy
Metaphor
Rhythm
Meter
Post-mortem
Is the poem dead?
Check for rhythm or meter.
If the poem is still alive, the form may have been misidentified.
Remove organs until the poem is still and lifeless.
If the poem is dead, place the carcass in the red receptacle by the sink, and wash hands.
Rest Head on Desk Until the Bell Rings
NO TALKING!

credits

from Miracle Strip, released August 31, 2022
Music:
Ned Mudd
Reverse Breathing
from the album Time Travel for Dummies

license

about

Matt Layne Birmingham, Alabama

Poet, librarian, raconteur; Matt Layne has been poking hornet's nests and looking under rocks since he was knee-high to a peanut peg.
I reckon you oughta check him out.