Today we'll briefly discuss the organization of this paragraph from the textbook's sample explication essay.
Remember...Say It, Show It, Explain It!
Like many other sonnets, "Design" is divided into two parts. The first eight lines draw a picture centering on the spider, who at first seems almost jolly. It is "dimpled" and "fat" like a baby, or Santa Claus. The spider stands on a wildflower, whose name, "heal-all," seems ironic: a heal-al;l is supposed to cure any disease, but this flower has no power to restore life to the dead moth. (Later, in line ten, we learn that the heal-all used to be blue. Presumably, it has died and become bleached-looking.) IN the second line we discover, tolo, that the spider has hold of another creature, a dead moth. We then see the moth descrived with an odd simile in line three: "Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth." Suddenly, the moth seems not a creature but a piece of fabric--lifeless and dead--and yet "satin" has connotations of beauty. Satin is a luxurious material used in rich formal clothing, such as coronation gowns and brides' dresses. Additionally, there is great accuracy in the word: the smooth and slightly plush surface of satin is like the powder-smooth surface of moths' wings. But this "cloth," rigid and white, could be the lining to Dracula's coffin.
