Resources:
Explication worksheet
Pale Fire (the poem) by Vladimir Nabokov
Outside research of terms/names
Situation:
Writing about poetry requires balance between attention to technical elements of the construction and evidenced interpretation of the content. In interpreting Pale Fire, we are dealt a slightly more complicated hand, in that Nabokov uses the poem as a device, rather than a freestanding work of art. The debate about the extent to which the poem itself is a prank or even meant to be good within its context is not important here. Nabokov needed to write a poem worthy of what amount to a nearly 300-page thematic explication, so we ought to be able to write a few paragraphs about it. What the novel Pale Fire does not, by and large, attempt is actual explication. We are told that the poem is constructed in heroic couplets, and have Popes work as a point of comparison, but beyond that, Kinbote has relatively little to say about the poem as a poem. We will correct that here.
Task:
As implied above, your explication ought to pay special attention to the formal elements of Pale Fire. Nonetheless, our context for approaching the poem is wholly different from that of Kinbote, Nabokov, or the reader of the novel. Much of good academic writing is experimental; you are experimenting with taking the poem seriously and on its own terms. You have the explication worksheet as a starting point, but you will want to delve a bit deeper into the glossary of terms as well. This assignment is in some ways the simplest: describe for your reader the poetic elements deployed, and offer an interpretation of the theme(s) based only on whats available from the poem itself.
Evaluation:
An A explication will include:
Attention to at least 5 poetic devices. These terms should be bolded in the text and clearly cited by line numbers.
Description of at least one example of figurative language from the poem.
Description of the theme(s), using text as evidence.
A clear narrative flow which connects each of the above into a cohesive essay.
Display command of academic syntax and elements of style.
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