ENGL 209: Introduction to Literary Analysis
Professor E. Derek Taylor
Topic for Essay 3: Poetry
Due Wednesday, 11-9-16
Instructions: In a three-page essay (1200 words, MLA format), closely analyze how a poem achieves its particular effect—a flexible word that covers both tone and theme. Any of the concepts and terminology we’ve been discussing in class the last few weeks could prove useful to you as you refine your approach—sonic qualities, imagery, figurative devices, diction, symbolism, syntax, punctuation (etc., etc.). You may choose any poem you like, as long as it is not analyzed at length in our textbook. Check with me ahead of time if you are unsure of where your poem falls on this admittedly hazy line.
Feel free to consult a dictionary as needed (recall our work in class with the OED regarding connotation and denotation), but otherwise focus directly on the poem in question. If you do include outside sources, be sure to cite them appropriately.
Here are a few guidelines for writing a successful essay:
1. Your first paragraph will need to address directly the assigned topic, probably by first identifying the poem and its author and then describing (as best you can) what we know (or can’t know) about the poem’s speaker and situation. This opening paragraph should conclude with a thesis that links what you take to be the poem’s primary effect to particular elements of the text helping to produce it.
2. Work ahead of time to organize your points of analysis into cohesive units of meaning that can be developed into full, pointed paragraphs directed by crisp, clear topic sentences.
3. Quote directly words, phrases, and passages that best support your ideas; without such direct textual support, your claims about the text will remain unconvincing. Recall that (as out textbook frequently demonstrates), it is possible to say a great deal about a very few words, especially when those words derive from a poem.
4. Have some fun! Do not hesitate to shape, bend, or mold the assignment in such a way that it becomes interesting to you; do be careful, however, not to abandon the assigned topic.
5. Proofread carefully for grammatical and mechanical mistakes.
Professor E. Derek Taylor
Topic for Essay 3: Poetry
Due Wednesday, 11-9-16
Instructions: In a three-page essay (1200 words, MLA format), closely analyze how a poem achieves its particular effect—a flexible word that covers both tone and theme. Any of the concepts and terminology we’ve been discussing in class the last few weeks could prove useful to you as you refine your approach—sonic qualities, imagery, figurative devices, diction, symbolism, syntax, punctuation (etc., etc.). You may choose any poem you like, as long as it is not analyzed at length in our textbook. Check with me ahead of time if you are unsure of where your poem falls on this admittedly hazy line.
Feel free to consult a dictionary as needed (recall our work in class with the OED regarding connotation and denotation), but otherwise focus directly on the poem in question. If you do include outside sources, be sure to cite them appropriately.
Here are a few guidelines for writing a successful essay:
1. Your first paragraph will need to address directly the assigned topic, probably by first identifying the poem and its author and then describing (as best you can) what we know (or can’t know) about the poem’s speaker and situation. This opening paragraph should conclude with a thesis that links what you take to be the poem’s primary effect to particular elements of the text helping to produce it.
2. Work ahead of time to organize your points of analysis into cohesive units of meaning that can be developed into full, pointed paragraphs directed by crisp, clear topic sentences.
3. Quote directly words, phrases, and passages that best support your ideas; without such direct textual support, your claims about the text will remain unconvincing. Recall that (as out textbook frequently demonstrates), it is possible to say a great deal about a very few words, especially when those words derive from a poem.
4. Have some fun! Do not hesitate to shape, bend, or mold the assignment in such a way that it becomes interesting to you; do be careful, however, not to abandon the assigned topic.
5. Proofread carefully for grammatical and mechanical mistakes.