The writer is about a poem "The deserted Village" written by Oliver Goldsmith, the specific details for writing are included in document. The writing must be original, use your own words to write. T
Close Reading: Looking at what the words do on the page
(Courtesy of Nikki Skillman & Chris Barrett)
Close reading is a way of gaining access not only to what texts mean but how they produce meaning. It’s easy to figure out how a text makes us feel (impressed by its elegance, confused by its opacity, moved by its beauty), but figuring out how the text manages to produce such an impression requires analysis of the formal elements—that is, analysis of what the words are doing on the page. When we read a passage closely, we notice all the minute and manifold choices that the text makes in order to communicate meaning to us; these choices, once identified, illuminate both the passage being analyzed and the larger work from which that passage is drawn.
Here is a list of some formal elements you might look for when you close read a passage. In your first read-through of the text you should focus on comprehending its most superficial meaning; make sure that you can paraphrase every line in prose. After this read-through, take a moment to consider your initial impressions of the text—the overall effect that the passage apparently aims to produce, as well as anything that strikes you as particularly strange or conspicuous. Seasoned close readers will often immediately identify the elements of style that are especially prominent or unique and leap to the process of considering why these most salient features are being deployed as they are in the passage. As a kind of data-gathering practice, however, it is helpful to run through a checklist of stylistic devices to make sure that you’re not overlooking a significant feature that did not readily present itself initially (the best effects are often, after all, subliminal). Here’s the checklist:
S(x2) W(x2) I M T(x2) A G(x2)
Sounds: Consider the sounds are that are repeated in the passage. The more concentrated the occurrences of a given sound, the more likely they are to be significant. It is not merely enough to identify alliteration (repetition of the initial sound of consecutive or proximate words, as in “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers”) or assonance (repetition of the same vowel sound across consecutive or proximate words, as in “How now, brown cow?”)—you must identify how these sonic effects produce meaning in conjunction with the content of the passage. Also, note that there are groups of letters that share phonetic features and can be used to produce emotional effects more subtly than outright alliteration:
B, D, G, P, T, K : “stops”—hard, harsh sounds
S, F, Z, H: softer, breathy sounds often used to evoke wind, whispers, hissing
M, N: “nasals”—moaning, humming, rumbling, possibly sadness
L, R: “liquids”—flowing, trilling
O, U: rounded vowels that can evoke solemnity, gravity, monumentality, weight
Also, don’t forget about rhyme. Where rhyme is a prescribed component of the verse form in which an author is working, many rhymes will not be tremendously significant. Still, the sonic echoes created by rhyme will often yoke words in unexpected and meaningful ways.
Structure: Where does the text divide itself into parts? Are breaks in content reinforced by breaks in the formal shape of the text? What are the linguistic changes (verb tense, person, tone, etc.) that signal to you that some kind of shift is occurring?
Word Order: Word order, or syntax, is often manipulated to produce subtle readerly effects. The initial and final positions in the line are important places to look for words or phrases the text seeks to emphasize; the fronting of a subordinate clause, for example, is a way of highlighting its content and downplaying the content of the main clause. A particularly long fronted subordinate clause, or a succession of subordinate clauses, can also create suspense. Among the syntactic structures that tend to carry significance, some of the most common are juxtaposition (setting unlike things alongside each other), oxymoron, asyndeton (the omission of conjunctions), polysyndeton (the repetition of conjunctions), ellipsis (deliberate omission of a word or phrase that is tacitly understood), chiasmus (abba structure), anastrophe (inversion), and anaphora (the repetition of words or groups of words at the beginning of successive phrases).
When analyzing poetry, always be sure to consider how syntactic units (clauses, sentences) interact with the formal unit of the line. The coincidence of syntactic breaks with line breaks is known as end-stopping; the spilling over of a syntactic unit across a line break is called enjambment. Always note the specific effect created by such manipulations of normal syntax—anastrophe, for example, creates an air of formality in English; polysyndeton the sense of emphasized accumulation or accretion; asyndeton of haste; anaphora of balance, et cetera. Also note that many figures of speech can have different effects, depending on their contexts.
Word Choice: Word choice, or diction, is supremely significant in close reading. As you read, note any exotic, foreign, or unusual words, as well as the unusual use of ordinary words; note groups of words that often occur together or are drawn from a specific domain—economics, law, religion, science, et cetera—such groups of words are known as lexical sets. The degree of formality or informality that the passage communicates (i.e., its register) is created through its diction as well. A mismatch of register and content is always significant, and often results in humor.
Imagery: Always note the pictures that form in your mind as you read, for authors often create images not only to elicit an aesthetic effect but also to forcefully impress upon us the concepts or themes with which those images are associated. In some cases, imagery is generated through figures of thought such as simile, metaphor, metonymy (the use of a word to denote another concept conventionally associated with it), synecdoche (the use of a part to express a whole, or vice versa), and personification.
Meter: The first step is always to identify the verse form in which the poet has chosen to work (e.g. unrhymed iambic pentameter: blank verse). Once you have identified the form, read the passage aloud or voice it mentally and listen for disruption in the regularity of its rhythm. Exceptions to the governing pattern can be as significant as the choice of verse form itself. Remember the effects that different metrical feet can have: the spondee (two stressed syllables) creates a slow, heavy, grave, or grand effect; the iamb (an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable) is a rising, trotting, positive kind of foot; and the trochee (a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable), the inverse of the iamb, often produces a falling, deflated effect.
Tone: As you read, try to infer the speaker’s attitude about the characters or events being described. Try to hear the speaker’s voice. Is his or her tone sarcastic? Earnest? Nostalgic? Plaintive? What diction, imagery, metrical rhythms, et cetera produce that specific tone? Whose point of view is being expressed? At what distance and from what angle is the passage’s content being observed?
Theme: What themes that are developed in the work as a whole emerge in the passage you are analyzing? Don’t merely observe the presence of a given theme, consider how the specific passage under discussion develops that recurring theme in an interesting or unique way, and how the introduction of a theme of broader significance in the work as a whole affects the specific segment of text that you are scrutinizing.
Allusions: Always take special note of moments in the passage that send you outside of the text in order to understand what’s going on within it. References to mythology, religion, history, geography, and literature are always included for a reason—note their frequency and positions in the passage, and what they contribute to its production of meaning.
Grammar: Often, the most stylistically illuminating part of speech is the verb. As you read, ask yourself: what verb tense (past, present, future) predominates? What are the dynamics of agency in the poem? What mood (indicative, subjunctive, imperative)? What voice (passive, active)? Be sure to consider also the types of sentences that appear—are there questions? Exclamations? Interjections? When and how often do they occur?
Genres: To what genres and subgenres does the poem belong? What specific language and formal elements suggest its genres to you?
Close reading is more than just spotting these formal elements. Once you’ve gathered your data with SWIMTAG, you’ll have discovered that some elements of style figure prominently in your passage and some do not play any role at all. The question that will remain is why the stylistic choices you have observed were made, what work the passage’s style performs in its production of meaning. The challenge is constructing a reading based on the most predominant and interesting effect(s) that the passage aims to produce and to use the most persuasive stylistic observations you have gathered as evidence to support your perspective.