Analysis of Poetry Essay Paper

Analysis of Poetry Essay Paper

Description/Paper Instructions

Analysis of Poetry Essay Paper

Analysis, Poetry, Essay, Paper

Directions:  For Paper #2, you will have two options. You may complete a close reading of a single poem, or pick two poems on a similar theme to compare and contrast.

1. For the first option,you will conduct a very careful and thoughtful analysis of a single poem.
2. For the second option, you will explain how the poems use some of the poetic devices we’ve been discussing to express distinct attitudes towards their common subject.  It will point out the similarities and differencesin the ways the two poems do this.

Therefore, you will need to compare and contrast the general tones of the poems as well as how they use poetic devices to create those tones.  Poetic devices you might want to consider include diction, imagery, figurative language, sound (including rhyme, alliteration, assonance, rhythm, and meter), and form.

Your audience for this paper is other students in the class who have read these poems. You will need to quote specific lines, phrases, or words in order to point out specific features of the poems.

Your purpose is to help your reader see the significance of a single poem and its message or to discuss the differences and similarities in two poems and, consequently, to better understand how each one works to create its particular effects or meanings.

Your final paper should be 1,250 – 1,750 words long, typed and double-spaced, with 1” margins all around. This paper is due by midnight on Monday 27 April 2020.

Use of secondary sources (other than our own textbook) is allowed for this assignment, but the majority of your analysis should come from you.  Students who rely on eNotes and other resources to analyze their poems are not strengthening their own analytical skills, so they are advised to avoid relying on these. If you do use any outside resources, you must cite them, and be aware that I have copies of eNotes and other shortcuts to analysis like these.

 Here are some suggested topics:

1.  Complete a close reading of Emily Dickinson’s “My Life Had Stood a Loaded Gun,” p. 544.
2. Complete a close reading of Thomas Hardy’s “The Ruined Maid”

• You might discuss the use of irony.
• You might discuss the assignment of roles to women.

1. Complete a close reading of Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess”

• You might address the duke’s perception of women.
• Complete a close reading of Randall Jarrell’s “Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”
• You might address the use of sleep versus dream imagery.
• You might discuss the parallels of the womb and ball turret.
• Complete a close reading of “My Mistress’s Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun”
• You might address the treatment of the female.
• You might discuss the attitude toward “false” or “exaggerated” comparisons.

1. Complete a close reading of Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”
2. Complete a close reading of Gwendolyn Brooks’s “the mother”

• Consider addressing the attitude toward abortion
• Complete a close reading of Edwin Arlington Robinson’s “Richard Cory”
• Complete a close reading of Paul Simon’s “Richard Cory”
• Complete a close reading of Shakespeare’s “Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds”
• What is the nature of true love?
• Complete a close reading of Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy”
• You might explore the Nazi versus Jew references in the poem.
• Complete a close reading of John Keats’s “When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be”
• Complete a close reading of Rod McKuen’s “Thoughts on Capital Punishment”
• Complete a close reading of Diane Thiel’s “The Minefield”
• Compare and contrast two views of war depicted in Randall Jarrell’s “Death of the Ball Turret Gunner,” and Diane Thiel’s “The Minefield”
• Consider addressing the repercussions of war.
• Consider addressing the themes about war.

Compare and contrast the ways any two of the following poems represent death:

• Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”
• Dickinson’s “I hear a Fly buzz—when I died”
• Dickinson’s “I Felt a Funeral in My Brain”
• Thomas’ “Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night”
• Donne’s “Death Be Not Proud”

What claims does each poem make about death?  What tone or attitude is taken towards death?  How does each poem use specific poetic devices to create its tone?

Process

Pick your single poem or pair of poems.

1. Read the poem/s through a few times, including out loud, to begin to get a general sense of its attitude towards or claim about its subject. Keep in mind that tone may change over the course of a poem.
2. Try to make sense of any tricky or ambiguous lines. Ask questions if you need to when you come to our live session on Thursday.
3. Use the list of questions below to help you identify the specific poetic devices used in each poem. Pay special attention to lines or passages that seem important to establishing the poem’s general meaning or tone.  Consider how the specific poetic devices seem to be contributing to the poem’s meaning, tone, or effects.
4. Note similarities and differencesbetween the poems’ general meanings, claims, or tone. Note similarities and differencesbetween the way the poems use specific poetic devices to create those meanings, claims, or tones.

A close reading can be a line by line analysis of a single poem.

For comparison-contrast, there are two general ways to organize a comparison/contrast argument of this sort.  One way would be to discuss each poem separately:  that is, say everything you have to say about poem A and then say everything you have to say about poem B.

At some point, either in the discussion of poem B or in a concluding section of the paper, you need to point out the similarities and differences you’ve discovered, both the general ones and the specific ones.

The second way to organize such an argument would be to discuss comparable aspects of the poems one at a time:  thus, you might have a paragraph or two on how each one uses imagery, followed by a discussion of how each one uses figurative language, followed by a discussion of how each one uses rhyme, etc.

For some papers on this assignment, the first approach may work better.  It allows you to offer a more coherent reading of each poem, rather than making your reader skip back and forth between the two poems.  The second approach might work for two poems that are very similar, such as two different Shakespeare sonnets.

If you like the second approach, be sure to give your reader a quick overview of the similarities and differences your analysis focuses on at the beginning of the paper, to help your reader stay oriented.

Whichever approach you take, I’d recommend outlining this paper before you begin drafting it.  Sometimes outlines can be stifling, but the organization of this sort of paper will probably be pretty straightforward in most cases.  Of course, if you come up with a neat or useful insight after you’ve made your outline, find some way to adjust the outline to fit it in.

Keep in mind that you will probably not want to write about all the poetic features and devices you identify in each poem. Rather, you will want to pick the ones that seem important in creating each poem’s distinct tone, effect, or meaning.

Having picked the poems you’ll be writing about in Paper #2, take the following initial steps to begin exploring each one:

1. Try to decide the subjectand theme of the poem: Subject:  what is the poem about? Theme:  what does the poem seem to say or feel about its subject?
2. . Figure out how to read the poemaloud. Follow the punctuation.
3. Attempt to paraphrasethe poem. Are there any words or lines whose sense is not clear to you?
4. How would you define the toneof the poem? Is the tone consistent throughout or does it change?  What poetic devices create the poem’s tone?
5. Identify words, phrases, or lines which for any reason seem to stand outwhen you read them. Can you explain why they do?  Do they stand out for a reason?  Are they particularly significant in the poem?
6. What is the structureof the poem? Does it seem to be a closed formor open form poem?  Why?  If closed form, what are its important formal structures (e.g., line lengths, rhyme scheme, stanza form, etc.)?  In either case, does it seem to be broken into parts, sections, or steps?
7. Identify all imagery in the poem. What kinds are there?  You might want to list the imagery in order to see what the sequence of images suggests.
8. Identify all figurative languagein the poem. What specific kinds of figurative language do you find (e.g., metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy, etc.)?  What effect does the figurative language have?  What do the figures suggest about the things they denote?
9. Find examples of alliteration, assonance, or other interesting uses of the sounds of words. Do these uses of sound “echo” the sense of the poem?
10. If the poem rhymes, does it follow a structured rhyme scheme? Do the rhymes create a strong sense of rhythm in the poem?  Do they highlight important words?  Do you notice internal rhymes?
11. Does the poem contain caesura that interrupt the rhythms of certain lines? What effects are created at the ends of lines?  What lines are end-stoppedor run-on?  Does the poem sound musical, conversational, rough, smooth?
12. Scan the poem for stressed and unstressed syllablesand for significant pauses. Do these rhythmic devices enhance the poem’s effectiveness?  Does the poem follow a particular form or meter
13. Reviewyour responses to the above questions. Begin to note ways in which these features of the poem work together to contribute to the poem’s meanings or effects.

RUBRIC QUALITY OF RESPONSE NO RESPONSE POOR / UNSATISFACTORY SATISFACTORY GOOD EXCELLENT Content (worth a maximum of 50% of the total points) Zero points:  Student failed to submit the final paper. 20 points out of 50:  The essay illustrates poor understanding of the relevant material by failing to address or incorrectly addressing the relevant content; failing to identify or inaccurately explaining/defining key concepts/ideas; ignoring or incorrectly explaining key points/claims and the reasoning behind them; and/or incorrectly or inappropriately using terminology; and elements of the response are lacking. 30 points out of 50:  The essay illustrates a rudimentary understanding of the relevant material by mentioning but not full explaining the relevant content; identifying some of the key concepts/ideas though failing to fully or accurately explain many of them; using terminology, though sometimes inaccurately or inappropriately; and/or incorporating some key claims/points but failing to explain the reasoning behind them or doing so inaccurately.  Elements of the required response may also be lacking. 40 points out of 50:  The essay illustrates solid understanding of the relevant material by correctly addressing most of the relevant content; identifying and explaining most of the key concepts/ideas; using correct terminology; explaining the reasoning behind most of the key points/claims; and/or where necessary or useful, substantiating some points with accurate examples.  The answer is complete. 50 points:  The essay illustrates exemplary understanding of the relevant material by thoroughly and correctly addressing the relevant content; identifying and explaining all of the key concepts/ideas; using correct terminology explaining the reasoning behind key points/claims and substantiating, as necessary/useful, points with several accurate and illuminating examples.  No aspects of the required answer are missing. Use of Sources (worth a maximum of 20% of the total points). Zero points:  Student failed to include citations and/or references. Or the student failed to submit a final paper. 5 out 20 points:  Sources are seldom cited to support statements and/or format of citations are not recognizable as APA 6th Edition format. There are major errors in the formation of the references and citations. And/or there is a major reliance on highly questionable. The Student fails to provide an adequate synthesis of research collected for the paper. 10 out 20 points:  References to scholarly sources are occasionally given; many statements seem unsubstantiated.  Frequent errors in APA 6th Edition format, leaving the reader confused about the source of the information. There are significant errors of the formation in the references and citations. And/or there is a significant use of highly questionable sources. 15 out 20 points:  Credible Scholarly sources are used effectively support claims and are, for the most part, clear and fairly represented.  APA 6th Edition is used with only a few minor errors.  There are minor errors in reference and/or citations. And/or there is some use of questionable sources. 20 points:  Credible scholarly sources are used to give compelling evidence to support claims and are clearly and fairly represented.  APA 6th Edition format is used accurately and consistently. The student uses above the maximum required references in the development of the assignment. Grammar (worth maximum of 20% of total points) Zero points:  Student failed to submit the final paper. 5 points out of 20:  The paper does not communicate ideas/points clearly due to inappropriate use of terminology and vague language; thoughts and sentences are disjointed or incomprehensible; organization lacking; and/or numerous grammatical, spelling/punctuation errors  10 points out 20:  The paper is often unclear and difficult to follow due to some inappropriate terminology and/or vague language; ideas may be fragmented, wandering and/or repetitive; poor organization; and/or some grammatical, spelling, punctuation errors 15 points out of 20:  The paper is mostly clear as a result of appropriate use of terminology and minimal vagueness; no tangents and no repetition; fairly good organization; almost perfect grammar, spelling, punctuation, and word usage. 20 points:  The paper is clear, concise, and a pleasure to read as a result of appropriate and precise use of terminology; total coherence of thoughts and presentation and logical organization; and the essay is error free. Structure of the Paper (worth 10% of total points) Zero points:  Student failed to submit the final paper. 3 points out of 10: Student needs to develop better formatting skills. The paper omits significant structural elements required for and APA 6th edition paper. Formatting of the paper has major flaws. The paper does not conform to APA 6th edition requirements whatsoever. 5 points out of 10: Appearance of final paper demonstrates the student’s limited ability to format the paper. There are significant errors in formatting and/or the total omission of major components of an APA 6th edition paper. They can include the omission of the cover page, abstract, and page numbers. Additionally the page has major formatting issues with spacing or paragraph formation. Font size might not conform to size requirements.  The student also significantly writes too large or too short of and paper 7 points out of 10: Research paper presents an above-average use of formatting skills. The paper has slight errors within the paper. This can include small errors or omissions with the cover page, abstract, page number, and headers. There could be also slight formatting issues with the document spacing or the font Additionally the paper might slightly exceed or undershoot the specific number of required written pages for the assignment. 10 points: Student provides a high-caliber, formatted paper. This includes an APA 6th edition cover page, abstract, page number, headers and is double spaced in 12’ Times Roman Font. Additionally, the paper conforms to the specific number of required written pages and neither goes over or under the specified length of the paper.
GET THIS PROJECT NOW BY CLICKING ON THIS LINK TO PLACE THE ORDER CLICK ON THE LINK HERE:  https://www.perfectacademic.com/orders/ordernow Also, you can place the order at www.collegepaper.us/orders/ordernow / www.phdwriters.us/orders/ordernow
Do You Have Any Other Essay/Assignment/Class Project/Homework Related to this? Click Here Now [CLICK ME]and Have It Done by Our PhD Qualified Writers!!

PLACE THE ORDER WITH US TODAY AND GET A PERFECT SCORE!!!