> Poetry Topic > Analysis of Poem/Song Lyrics
Academic Level: Bachelor
Paper details For this assignment, you will need to conduct a close reading of a poem or set of lyrics from a song. A paper that analyzes poetry is called an explication, and it is a line-by-line
commentary on what’s going on in the poem. However, an explication is more than just a long summary. Although you may have to summarize or paraphrase the poem in parts of your paper, you must still
have a clear thesis statement that makes some kind of claim about the poem. In your explication, you must make some sort of argument regarding the poem or song. The paper should go through the text
line-by-line, highlighting the parts that best support your argument. I have a “sample paper” as well, that is my additional materials.