Poetry Paper

English 1102

 

DIRECTIONS

 

  • Select one of the poems from the syllabus.

  • Review the PowerPoint "How to Write about a Poem" posted in D2L under "Content."

  • Having read and annotated the poem, focus on a specific theme in it and explore it in 500-600 words (5 ¶s in a mature font).

  • Choose three words of phrases from the poem that represent the specific theme, one per argument paragraph.

  • Make sure that your thesis adheres to one of the three options from the thesis handout (link). The first part of the thesis will be specific to the poem (something explicit from the poem) and the second part will go beyond the poem itself to show something more about life, humanity, etc., while broadening our understanding of the poem itself. Therefore, this paper is to analyze the poem while relating it to life. MANDATORY ESSAY ORGANIZATION (link).

  • Italicize, bold or underline the thesis statement.

  • The first part of each of the argument paragraphs will analyze the text, and the second part will relate that analysis to life nowadays (link).

  • The introductory ¶ should have only two sentences, one of which will be the thesis statement.

  • The paper cannot earn more than 60% without the required organization and thesis.

  • No title page is necessary, but title your essay in an original manner and put your name on the paper as well in the upper left corner.

  • This is to be your own, original work, without referring to any outside sources or commentaries. However, this is not an "I" paper.

    •

  • Use present tense.

  • Do not use "you."

  • Please do not organize your paper based on the original organization of the poem, stanza by stanza.

  • Do not focus on the literary devices used by the author (e.g., diction, tone, irony, symbolism) but rather on the actual content.

  • Include a brief heading with your name, assignment, date and course.

  • Include the word count at the top of the paper.

  • Submit your final draft through the D2L Brightspace assignments dropbox under Poetry by the due date.

  • Detailed feedback about the submitted paper will be provided in D2L.

  • The content of the paper will be graded based on its organization, thesis, paragraph structure, quality of arguments, analysis strength and lack of summary. Each type (not each occurrence) of major grammatical errors (e.g., run-on, pronoun-antecedent agreement, fragment, misplaced modifier, parallelism, verb form, subject-verb agreement, 3 x spelling errors) will equal a deduction of 10 points.

  • As always, if you have any questions, please email me at cperkowski@gordonstate.edu.

    Texts:
    My Heart Leaps up When I Behold
    I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
    Jabberwocky
    Aunt Jennifer's Tigers
    My Last Duchess
    My Papa's Waltz
    The Red Wheelbarrow
    The Chimney Sweeper
    Barbie Doll
    The Road Not Taken

    •

    A word is dead
    I like to see it lap the Miles
    My life had stood – a Loaded Gun

    "Hope" is the thing with feathers –
    The Lightning is a yellow Fork
    Success is counted sweetest
    Wild nights     – Wild nights!
    I felt a Funeral, in my Brain
    I'm Nobody! Who are you?
    I heard a Fly buzz     – when I died
    Because I could not stop for Death
    Tell all the truth but tell it slant
    Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day
    Metaphors
    The Times They Are A-Changin'
    Break, Break, Break
    Resume
    Medusa
    Cinderella
    Ozymandias
    I, Too
    Harlem
    the mother
    How Do I Love Thee?
    The Flea
    The Convergence of the Twain
    Daddy
    My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun