Humanities

Essay Assignment: On Poetry

Assignment:

Develop an open question about one or more of the poems we read this

semester. Your thesis should be a thoughtful answer to that open question. You will

support your answer with a detailed close reading. A close reading will require you to

explain the poem’s use of language and form as essential to the poem’s meaning.

Therefore, you will need to explain its use of figurative language (metaphor, simile,

personification, metonymy, and/or synecdoche), its tone, denotations, rhyme, meter, and

its overall poetic structure. Regarding the latter point, it is important to consider how and

why the poem begins, develops, and ends as it does. You should assume that the poem

has an organic unity: all of its words have meaning in relation to each other.

Make your answer as detailed as possible.

Your interpretation should be based on a close textual analysis of what the texts say. Use

the text as your proof.

Your interpretation needs to be argued, explained, and supported.

Format:

Your essay must be at least three full pages and no longer than five. It should

be double-spaced and typed in 12 point Times New Roman font.

It should have a clear

thesis that is developed in a series of coherent and related paragraphs.

Quotes, in-text

citations, and the Works Cited page should conform to the guidelines of the MLA

Direct the essay to someone who knows the poem, but has not taken the time

to analyze it carefully in order to understand the depth of its language and meaning.

Due Dates: Thesis and Outline due Oct 30 Final November 8th

Poems:

My Papa’s Waltz BY THEODORE ROETHKE

Summer Storm by Dana Gioia

Introduction to Poetry BY BILLY COLLINS

The Garden of Love BY WILLIAM BLAKE

The Tyger BY WILLIAM BLAKE

THE DIVINE IMAGE BY WILLIAM BLAKE

“The Wild Iris” by Louise Gluck

(ANY) SONNET 18 / 20 / 94 / 130 / 138 / 144 William Shakespeare

Dreams Langston Hughes

Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH