Grade by Grade
Writing · Writing: Essays and Literary Analysis

Literary Analysis I: Close Reading, Annotation and Turning Observations into Claims

2.1 1.2About 70 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can annotate a literary text for diction, imagery, sound, syntax, structure, speaker and shifts, aiming each note at an effect.
  • I can group my observations into patterns.
  • I can climb from observation to pattern to interpretation to an arguable claim.
  • I can use annotation as a way to generate ideas for a literary essay.

Words to know

close reading
Slow, careful analysis of the details of a short passage (single words, sounds, punctuation, line breaks) to explain how it creates meaning.
annotation
Notes written on or beside a text while reading closely: questions, labels and comments on effects.
shift
A change in a text's speaker, audience, tone, time or idea; shifts are often where meaning is concentrated.
imperative
A sentence that gives a command (Take up our quarrel).
syntax
The arrangement of words in a sentence, including length, word order and punctuation.
pattern
Two or more details that work the same way or change in a meaningful direction.
archaic
Old-fashioned language no longer in everyday use, such as ye for you.

Fifteen lines, a thousand words

A Grade 11 prompt may ask you to write a 1,000-word essay about a 15-line poem. That sounds impossible until you learn to read closely. Close reading is slow on purpose: you look at single words, sounds, punctuation and line breaks, and you ask what each one does. Good annotation turns a short text into more ideas than you can use.

This lesson and the next three build one literary essay, step by step, about a poem you already know. Expectation 2.1 asks you to write in a variety of forms; the literary analysis essay is the most important form in Grade 11 University English.

Remember from Grade 9 and 10

In Grade 9 you analyzed elements of style in In Flanders Fields, and in the Grade 10 Reading unit you studied its form: a rondeau with only two rhyme sounds and the refrain In Flanders fields. In Grade 10 Writing you learned to write a thesis that answers what, how and why, and to zoom in on specific words. This time you will turn close reading into a full Grade 11 essay.

In Flanders Fields by John McCrae (1915; public domain). McCrae was a Canadian army doctor serving in the First World War. Line numbers are in brackets so you can cite them.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow (1) Between the crosses, row on row, (2) That mark our place; and in the sky (3) The larks, still bravely singing, fly (4) Scarce heard amid the guns below. (5)

We are the Dead. Short days ago (6) We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, (7) Loved and were loved, and now we lie, (8) In Flanders fields. (9)

Take up our quarrel with the foe: (10) To you from failing hands we throw (11) The torch; be yours to hold it high. (12) If ye break faith with us who die (13) We shall not sleep, though poppies grow (14) In Flanders fields. (15)

What to annotate

Read the poem twice. On the second reading, annotate for these features, and for every label you write, add a few words about its effect:

  • Diction: words that are surprising, repeated, old-fashioned, emotional or precise (bravely, quarrel, failing, ye).
  • Imagery: what you can see, hear or feel (poppies, crosses row on row, larks, guns, dawn, sunset, the torch).
  • Sound: rhyme, repetition, rhythm (the rondeau's two rhyme sounds; the refrain).
  • Syntax and punctuation: short sentences (We are the Dead.), commands, colons and semicolons, lines that run on (Short days ago / We lived).
  • Speaker and audience: who speaks, to whom, and how that changes (our, We, you, ye).
  • Structure and shifts: where the poem turns (description in stanza 1, the speakers' identity in stanza 2, commands in stanza 3).

A label alone (metaphor) is not an annotation. A label plus an effect (torch metaphor: duty passed hand to hand, like a relay) is.

Annotating stanza 3: notes in the margin, aimed at effectsTake up our quarrel with the foe:To you from failing hands we throwThe torch; be yours to hold it high.If ye break faith with us who dieWe shall not sleep, though poppies growIn Flanders fields.IMPERATIVE: first command; the Deadnow speak TO the living“failing hands”: weak, dying;the throw happens at the last momentMETAPHOR: torch = duty passed on,like a relay; “high” = honourCONDITIONAL: “If ye...”; archaic “ye”sounds solemn, like an oath“sleep”: rest of the dead dependson the living; a threat or a plea?REFRAIN returns: the poem endswhere it began, in the place of death
Each note names a feature and suggests an effect or a question. Notice the question mark in the fifth note: annotations can record doubts, and doubts often become theses.

From observations to claims

Annotations are observations. An essay needs claims. To get from one to the other, climb a ladder:

  1. Observe specific details. The pronouns are our (line 3), We (line 6), you (line 11).
  2. Find a pattern: details that work together or change in one direction. The poem moves from we to you.
  3. Interpret: what does the pattern do or suggest? Readers stop being observers of the dead; they are spoken to directly.
  4. Claim: an arguable statement you could defend for a paragraph or a whole essay. The shift in pronouns turns readers into inheritors of the soldiers' duty, so the poem cannot be read as a neutral memorial.

Each step answers So what? about the step before. Most students stop at step 1 or 2. Grade 11 marks are earned at steps 3 and 4.

From observation to claim: climb one step at a timeOBSERVEPronouns: “our” (3),“We” (6), “you” (11)FIND A PATTERNThe poem moves from“we” to “you”INTERPRETReaders stopwatching and arepulled inCLAIMThe shift makesreaders inheritorsof the dutyEach step answers“So what?” about the last
Observation alone is description. A claim is what an essay proves. The steps between them are where your thinking shows.

Look hardest at shifts and tensions

The richest places in a text are usually where something changes or where two things pull against each other:

  • The shift at line 10. For nine lines the Dead describe; in line 10 they command. The colon after foe opens a demand.
  • Life against death. Larks sing and poppies grow while the speakers lie in the ground. Nature continues; the soldiers do not.
  • Grief against duty. Lines 7 and 8 mourn small, ordinary joys (dawn, sunset, love). Lines 10 to 14 demand the fight go on. Is the poem a lament or a call to arms? A strong essay can argue it is both, and explain how they connect.
Worked example

Let's climb from annotation to claim

Use annotations on lines 6 to 8 to build an arguable claim.

  1. Observe: line 6 is a short, flat sentence: We are the Dead. Lines 7 and 8 list simple verbs: lived, felt, saw, Loved, and were loved.
  2. Observe more: the experiences are ordinary and physical: dawn, sunset, love. Nothing about glory, heroism or battle. Then: and now we lie.
  3. Pattern: a list of active, living verbs collapses into one still verb, lie. The sentence moves from motion to stillness, just as the soldiers' lives did.
  4. Interpret: the Dead measure their loss in everyday moments, which makes them feel like ordinary people the reader could know, not distant heroes.
  5. Claim: By defining the Dead through ordinary pleasures rather than heroic deeds, McCrae makes their loss feel personal, which gives their later demand on the living its emotional force.
  6. Check: is it arguable? Yes: someone could argue the poem is mainly patriotic, not personal. Is it supported? Yes: lines 6 to 8, and it links forward to the demand in stanza 3.

Claim: By defining the Dead through ordinary pleasures rather than heroic deeds, McCrae makes their loss feel personal, which gives their later demand on the living its emotional force. It is specific, arguable, supported by lines 6 to 8, and connected to the poem's shift.

Hands-on activity

Three-pass annotation of a song or poem

You need: a printed copy (or a handwritten copy) of a short poem or the lyrics of a school-appropriate song you know well, and three different coloured pens or highlighters.

  1. Pass 1 (one colour): diction and imagery. Mark words and images that stand out; write the effect beside each.
  2. Pass 2 (second colour): sound and syntax. Mark repetition, rhyme, short or long sentences, unusual punctuation.
  3. Pass 3 (third colour): speaker, audience and shifts. Who speaks to whom? Mark the line where something changes.
  4. Find one pattern that connects at least three annotations.
  5. Climb the ladder: observation → pattern → interpretation → claim. Write the claim at the bottom.
  6. Read your claim to someone in your family and ask, Could someone disagree with this? If not, push it further.

What to look for: every annotation includes an effect, the pattern links several details, and the final claim is arguable.

Just for fun

Close reading is the only activity where staring at a single semicolon for five minutes counts as hard work. In fairness, the semicolon in line 12 (The torch; be yours to hold it high) earns it: that tiny pause is the moment the torch changes hands.

Your turn

1

Turn this label into a full annotation: imagery, line 2.

2

Where is the biggest shift in the poem, and what changes?

3

What is the effect of the short sentence We are the Dead.?

4

Find a contrast in stanza 1 and explain it.

5

Climb the ladder: observation The poem begins and ends with poppies. Write a pattern, an interpretation and a claim.

6

Why is The poem uses a metaphor of a torch not yet a claim?

More practice: warm-up

1

Who is the speaker of the poem?

2

Name the archaic word in line 13 and what it means.

3

What is an imperative? Give the first one in the poem.

4

List the four steps of the ladder.

5

What is the poem's refrain?

More practice: on your own

1

Annotate the word bravely in line 4.

2

Annotate the line break between lines 6 and 7: Short days ago / We lived.

3

Explain the possible double meaning of sleep in line 14.

4

Find a pattern in the verbs of stanza 3 and state it.

5

Write an arguable claim about the torch metaphor.

Challenge

1

Is the poem a lament or a call to arms? Write a claim that answers both and explains how they are connected.

2

Annotate the semicolon in line 12 and the colon in line 10. How does punctuation shape the poem's turn?

3

Explain why annotations that include questions (such as threat or plea?) are often more useful for an essay than annotations that only label.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

Which is a full annotation, not just a label?

2.

Where does the poem shift from description to command?

3.

Put the ladder in order.

4.

Which is an arguable claim?

5.

The word ye in line 13 is:

6.

In stanza 1, the larks Scarce heard amid the guns below create:

For parents and teachers

Big idea: This lesson starts a four-lesson sequence that builds a complete Grade 11 literary essay (expectation 2.1: writing in a variety of forms; the literary analysis essay is the main form in ENG3U). Annotation is also an idea-generating strategy (expectation 1.2).

How to help: read the poem aloud together, slowly. Ask your teen to point to one word and tell you what it does, not what it means. Then ask So what? until they reach a claim.

Sensitive topic: In Flanders Fields is about soldiers who died in the First World War and is read in Canadian schools around Remembrance Day. Discuss it respectfully; some students have family members who served or serve in the military.

Common difficulties: labelling devices without effects; stopping at observation; choosing only obvious features (rhyme) instead of rich ones (pronouns, punctuation, shifts); writing long summaries in the margin instead of short, pointed notes.