Saturday

For the explication, you need critics on the poem you're investigating. Essays with titles like "Chick Fleas: Extended Metaphors and the Rhetoric of Love in the Poetry of John Donne." School library has several collections edited by Harold Bloom and a big reference set on poetry. Winthrop and the state system (jstor and others) would have all you need. You can use Wordsworth's own "Preface to Lyrical Ballads" as one source on Wordsworth. That's a critical essay explaining what he and Colerige intend.

Use ESSAYS and BOOKS by legitimate critics, not Sparknotes. Are SNs referenced? If so, sure, use them to find other sources and for first ideas, but don't rely on SN as a critic. You are not looking for background but for the opinions of educated, published, "expert" readers on your chosen poem. You use little short, perfect insights from the critics to enrich your explication, to make it a little bit of a conversation between you and a few critics -- a few other readers -- rather than a monologue. Cite their published, copyrighted words as research using MLA style.