Poetry Explication Assignment

I ask them to take a poem/and hold it up to the light/ like a color slide
But all they want to do/ is tie the poem to a chair with rope/ and torture
a confession out of it.
From Introduction to Poetry by Billy
Collins
About Explication:
What is explication? Explication is the unraveling of a poem (or story or
play), basically explaining the poem word by word, line by line, or
stanza by stanza. In unfolding the poem, you should address any
literary devices you see: simile and metaphor, allusion, rhyme, rhythm,
repetition, onomatopoeia, form (if applicable), and other techniques.
How do these all contribute to the overall message of the
poem?
An explication is a way for you to slow down and focus on the detail.
Often, a poem that you find confusing will make sense once you take
some time to examine it piece by piece. The first place to begin,
always, is the title. What do you expect from the title? Does the poem
deliver this? How? If it surprises you, why might the author have
chosen this title? Or, is the title ironic, and if so, how does irony
change the meaning of the poem? These are just a few questions you
might ask yourself.
Introduction: Include title (in quotation marks), author, dates, brief
background of the author if necessary and relevant, a brief summary of
the plot (situation), or literal level of the poem (denotation), and your
thesis, which probably will mention two or three techniques the poet
uses to convey his/her argument (theme). The thesis will include
what you believe to be that argument.
Body Paragraphs: Systematically go through the poem showing the
techniques stated in your thesis and showing how they relate to
the poets argument. Brief quotes should be incorporated into your
sentences to clarify your point. Do not, under any circumstance, quote
the entire poem within the paper. If you quote three or fewer lines, an
inline quote, you should introduce the quote with a signal phrase, and
then quote the section of the poem, indicating line breaks with a /
and stanza breaks with a //. To quote more than three lines, use a
block quote. In either case, follow the quote with a parenthetical
reference of the line number(s). And then, make sure that you follow
the quote with an analysis of the quote. Remember I.C.E, Introduce,
cite, explain.

Conclusion: Here you pull the paper together and reaffirm your
thesis. You could discuss how the poem relates to real life and/or use
this paragraph to disagree with the poets argument if you wish. But in
doing so Do not use first person to argue or agree! All analysis
needs to be in third person, objective voice. Thus, instead of
saying I think that Frost ignores the religious aspect or Frost really
relates to my going to the woods, myself you would instead say
Frost ignores the religious aspect or Frosts experience relates to
the real experience of visiting the woods
Style: In addition to the usual style suggestions, you should also be
very careful about using the word I or me, as in I believe or It is
my opinion. These are useless phrases that serve only to cast doubt
on your argument. Keep your sentences focused on your subject, the
poem itself. In addition, as a college-level writing, be sure that your
sentence structure is varied and that you take some care, if necessary,
to combine short sentences to avoid repetition and make sure that one
sentence builds upon the previous ones. Include transitions where
appropriate to avoid jumping quickly from one topic to the next.
Additional Style Tips: While the explication tends to be a
chronological progression, consider the organization of the paper. How
can you group your observations? This, as any other formal paper,
should be a multiple-draft project where your initial observations are
organized into main points, and these main points are then focused
with a thesis in the intro, with topic sentences in the body paragraphs,
and finished with a conclusion.