If you’re in my English 1080 classes, you’ll be writing an in-class essay on poetry Wednesday, and I’m guessing that some of you are a little worried. That would be particularly true if you didn’t do so well on the last assignment or if you’re just not comfortable writing about poetry. Up until now, you’ve been writing about short stories, and writing about poetry is really not so different. I mean, yes, it is slightly different, but not completely.
You’ll be ask to write a critical analysis of a poem. We will have covered Robert Frost’s “Stopping By Woods On a Snowy Evening” and “I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud” by William Wordsworth, both of them much more intricately composed than at first glance. In fact, that would be a good starting point to write about: the poem is about a seemingly simple event which is more profound and complex than would appear on the surface. Furthermore, the manner in which the poem is written reflects this very idea of something being deceptively effortless. The speaker in Frost’s poem is striving to enjoy a moment of solitude, while the speaker in Wordsworth’s poem seems to have found a way to achieve such a moment. Both poems, in effect, capture, memorialize, and convey the complexity and profundity of such a moment. Sometimes peace of mind can elude us, particularly when we must strive for it. But does that necessarily mean we should not try to achieve it?
Anyway, it's not my intention to tell you what to think or to write about, but I get so many students who, for some reason, are scared sh*tless about discussing poetry, that I needed to show how it's done. There are many ways to approach the assignment and these two poems, and I certainly don't wish to see my ideas replicated on Friday. Learn from HOW I do this, and don't focus so much on the content of what I say about the poem. Get your own ideas. Sure, build on what other people say, but get to know the poem on your own terms. Otherwise, you just become a drone. The poet is speaking to you. Are you listening?
I’ve talked extensively about these poems in class and, regardless of which poem you’re asked to write about, there are ways to be prepared for the assignment.
First of all, try to forget all the notes you’ve taken and everything you’ve heard or read about the poem, and try to read it as if for the first time. Just try to feel the poem, to envision what the poet has rendered on the page.
Ask yourself: What do I know for sure about this poem? Do some freewriting on that. You might be surprised at how much you know.
Then, ask yourself another question: What about this poem don’t I understand? Articulating a response to that question, on paper, might help you move forward in your search to comprehend the most difficult part of the poem.
If there’s a certain symbol or image that’s bothering you, then do some free-writing on that. Take the “house in the village,” for example. Write the word “house”. Underneath that word, write some words, thoughts, and feelings that you associate with “house.” Don’t edit yourself and don’t stop. Just keep going. I’ll try it myself in fact, right now.
House:
Home
four walls and a roof
security
a haven
ownership of property something solid
something somebody bought
something most people wish they had if they don’t have
but mostly a place to call home
Keep in mind that these are my random thoughts, guided by nothing except a genuine reaction to the word “house”. I gave it no thought beforehand.So when I look back over my notes, I see what a house represents. I see several things I could use in writing about the “house in the village” and what it probably means for the speaker of the poem. Mostly, I see words about solidity and safety, home, a sense of belonging, security, and even ownership of something solid. These are possibly things that one person (the one “whose house is in the village”) has, but which the speaker shows no signs of having within the poem. We see him as being in between, rather homeless (if only figuratively—we don’t think he’s a vagrant or street person, only metaphorically homeless) or feeling displaced or detached from society as it is represented by the man who owns the woods by which the persona is stopping.
Perform the same sort of free-writing for the word “village” and you’ll probably come up with words like (this is me free-writing again, without thought): civilization, many houses, lights, streets, a place where many people live, a place that is NOT the woods—which would represent the wild, rather than civilization—a place not as dark as the woods, and so on. I won’t keep going. I want to leave something for you to discover on your own.
Really, that is the only way to proceed: make the poem your own. Become intimate with it. It’s like when you’re getting to know a boyfriend or girlfriend. Becoming intimate means getting to know them. That means getting to know their habits, the way they like to do things, the good parts and the bad parts, the way the talk, the sound of their voice, what their bodies look like, how they react to certain ideas of yours, and what kind of ideas they have to share with you.
And they do, you know, have ideas to share. You just have to listen. Becoming intimate with a poem means spending some time with it. Make it your boyfriend or girlfriend. Go on a date for an hour and see if you like this poem. But you can’t know if you like it unless you spend the time, ask it some questions, and get to know it bit by bit.
That means taking key words and free-writing about them, just as I did, and as I have done in class. It’s truly the only way to make a poem your own, to understand it on your own terms. Studying notes from class, reading Sparks Notes or Googling just won’t cut it. They can help, but they won't engage your thoughts, imagination and understanding in quite the same way. Remember that you’re looking for repetition: a pattern. If your girlfriend keeps using words like “baby” and “marriage” over and over, then you’ll notice a pattern emerging: she yearns for a man with a sense of commitment. If she keeps mentioning words like “tarot” and “magic,” she might be a closet Wiccan. If it’s “cool,” “rad” and “gnarly” over and over, she’s probably a closet surfer or a wannabe hippie. You get the picture. Words mean something. Patterns of words mean something more, something bigger: an idea begins to emerge.
If a poem uses words like “cold,” “dark,” “frozen” and “winter” there’s a good possibility that the persona is fixated on winter. But the words have other connotations. They are somewhat negative words, connoting metaphorical death or dying, and what exactly is dead or dying depends on the content of the poem. Maybe it’s a dying soul—of the individual or of society. Maybe the person feels isolated and alone, or just detached, frozen inside, as it were. Is there a suggestion that this is a passing, or fleeting, moment, or is it an eternal winter that he’s talking about? (Notice that I’m not talking about the Frost poem in particular, just showing you can glean connotations from a pattern of words.) If the words invoke bright, fun, positive images, and there are several such words in the poem (or just in one stanza), then the implications for the tone of the poem are obvious.
I could go on and on about content, but many of you probably are wondering about the actual writing process.
Once you’ve got your ideas and organized them, come up with a good thesis that will allow you to argue something about the poem, then you’ll start to write. Have a plan of attack (e.g. “I want to write about figurative language in one paragraph, a certain repeated image in the next paragraph, and rhyme and meter in another paragraph. I will show how each of these is connected to the theme I’m discussing that is portrayed in this poem”). That would be a solid plan and a good way to get yourself ready to tackle the critical analysis of the poem. Then you have to just do that.
You’ll have the poem in front of you on Wednesday, so it’s a good idea to quote occasionally from the poem. Don’t use really long quotes. Just use brief phrases here and there, such as “wandered lonely” in the middle of sentences, and then go on to explain that the word “wandered” implies a melancholy, perhaps aimless traveling on the part of the person. In fact, the word “lonely” confirms not only the lacking of company, but also a sense of yearning for company at the same time. If you’re going to quote an entire line, do it like this: “That floats on high o’er vales and hills,” placing a comma inside the quotation marks as I just did. Also, notice how I introduced the line using a colon: the colon means “that is” or “like so”.
If you’re quoting two lines or more, use a slash between lines: “The only other sound’s the sweep/Of easy wind and downy flake.” Use the same line length and punctuation that the poet uses so that you maintain the integrity and meaning of the original words.
Other than that, make sure you do the same things in writing your essay that I’ve been preaching all semester. It all starts with a solid thesis statement that tells me what the poem is about. For example: In his poem “Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening,” Robert Frost depicts a moment that is more complex and troubling than it might appear on the surface.” Then, round out your introductory paragraph by telling me, what you mean and how you know. Explain what “complex” and “troubling” mean in contrast to the “surface” appearances. And tell me how the poet conveys that theme—for example: “The poet presents a man at a literal and figurative crossroads, pondering his place in the world and his relationship to all that surrounds him. The troubled nature of the man’s mind can be seen in the sight and sound imagery, figurative language, and rhythm of the poem. While the speaker seems to be at ease as he watches the snow fall, a close look at his words suggest otherwise.” (Notice how my last sentence makes my intentions clear by explaining my thesis statement, but without repeating it. In a way, that last sentence acts as a second thesis statement.)
So my opening paragraph might look like this:In his poem “Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening,” Robert Frost depicts a moment that is more complex and troubling than it might appear on the surface. The poet presents a man at a literal and figurative crossroads, pondering his place in the world and his relationship to all that surrounds him. The troubled nature of the man’s mind can be seen in the sight and sound imagery, figurative language, and rhythm of the poem. While the speaker seems to be at ease as he watches the snow fall, a close look at his words suggests otherwise.
From there, it’s obvious what you need to talk about: in separate paragraphs, show how the poet employs imagery, figurative language, and meter to illuminate the theme of deceptive simplicity. In each paragraph, you’ll use sample words and phrases, sometimes an entire line, to illustrate your point. Then, you’ll proceed to discuss those words and phrases (like the free-writing I mentioned earlier, only in miniature form, with more of a sense of purpose).
I’ve already given you a handout on "Writing About Poetry," which will give you more concrete things to discuss. But this is how I would go about writing a critical analysis of one of these two poems on Friday. Remember what I said though: make the poem your own. Get to know it intimately, one word and line at a time. There is no other way to be honest and real, and to really get something out of the reading. You might just learn something about yourself in the process.
There’s always that hope.
You’ll be ask to write a critical analysis of a poem. We will have covered Robert Frost’s “Stopping By Woods On a Snowy Evening” and “I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud” by William Wordsworth, both of them much more intricately composed than at first glance. In fact, that would be a good starting point to write about: the poem is about a seemingly simple event which is more profound and complex than would appear on the surface. Furthermore, the manner in which the poem is written reflects this very idea of something being deceptively effortless. The speaker in Frost’s poem is striving to enjoy a moment of solitude, while the speaker in Wordsworth’s poem seems to have found a way to achieve such a moment. Both poems, in effect, capture, memorialize, and convey the complexity and profundity of such a moment. Sometimes peace of mind can elude us, particularly when we must strive for it. But does that necessarily mean we should not try to achieve it?
Anyway, it's not my intention to tell you what to think or to write about, but I get so many students who, for some reason, are scared sh*tless about discussing poetry, that I needed to show how it's done. There are many ways to approach the assignment and these two poems, and I certainly don't wish to see my ideas replicated on Friday. Learn from HOW I do this, and don't focus so much on the content of what I say about the poem. Get your own ideas. Sure, build on what other people say, but get to know the poem on your own terms. Otherwise, you just become a drone. The poet is speaking to you. Are you listening?
I’ve talked extensively about these poems in class and, regardless of which poem you’re asked to write about, there are ways to be prepared for the assignment.
First of all, try to forget all the notes you’ve taken and everything you’ve heard or read about the poem, and try to read it as if for the first time. Just try to feel the poem, to envision what the poet has rendered on the page.
Ask yourself: What do I know for sure about this poem? Do some freewriting on that. You might be surprised at how much you know.
Then, ask yourself another question: What about this poem don’t I understand? Articulating a response to that question, on paper, might help you move forward in your search to comprehend the most difficult part of the poem.
If there’s a certain symbol or image that’s bothering you, then do some free-writing on that. Take the “house in the village,” for example. Write the word “house”. Underneath that word, write some words, thoughts, and feelings that you associate with “house.” Don’t edit yourself and don’t stop. Just keep going. I’ll try it myself in fact, right now.
House:
Home
four walls and a roof
security
a haven
ownership of property something solid
something somebody bought
something most people wish they had if they don’t have
but mostly a place to call home
Keep in mind that these are my random thoughts, guided by nothing except a genuine reaction to the word “house”. I gave it no thought beforehand.So when I look back over my notes, I see what a house represents. I see several things I could use in writing about the “house in the village” and what it probably means for the speaker of the poem. Mostly, I see words about solidity and safety, home, a sense of belonging, security, and even ownership of something solid. These are possibly things that one person (the one “whose house is in the village”) has, but which the speaker shows no signs of having within the poem. We see him as being in between, rather homeless (if only figuratively—we don’t think he’s a vagrant or street person, only metaphorically homeless) or feeling displaced or detached from society as it is represented by the man who owns the woods by which the persona is stopping.
Perform the same sort of free-writing for the word “village” and you’ll probably come up with words like (this is me free-writing again, without thought): civilization, many houses, lights, streets, a place where many people live, a place that is NOT the woods—which would represent the wild, rather than civilization—a place not as dark as the woods, and so on. I won’t keep going. I want to leave something for you to discover on your own.
Really, that is the only way to proceed: make the poem your own. Become intimate with it. It’s like when you’re getting to know a boyfriend or girlfriend. Becoming intimate means getting to know them. That means getting to know their habits, the way they like to do things, the good parts and the bad parts, the way the talk, the sound of their voice, what their bodies look like, how they react to certain ideas of yours, and what kind of ideas they have to share with you.
And they do, you know, have ideas to share. You just have to listen. Becoming intimate with a poem means spending some time with it. Make it your boyfriend or girlfriend. Go on a date for an hour and see if you like this poem. But you can’t know if you like it unless you spend the time, ask it some questions, and get to know it bit by bit.
That means taking key words and free-writing about them, just as I did, and as I have done in class. It’s truly the only way to make a poem your own, to understand it on your own terms. Studying notes from class, reading Sparks Notes or Googling just won’t cut it. They can help, but they won't engage your thoughts, imagination and understanding in quite the same way. Remember that you’re looking for repetition: a pattern. If your girlfriend keeps using words like “baby” and “marriage” over and over, then you’ll notice a pattern emerging: she yearns for a man with a sense of commitment. If she keeps mentioning words like “tarot” and “magic,” she might be a closet Wiccan. If it’s “cool,” “rad” and “gnarly” over and over, she’s probably a closet surfer or a wannabe hippie. You get the picture. Words mean something. Patterns of words mean something more, something bigger: an idea begins to emerge.
If a poem uses words like “cold,” “dark,” “frozen” and “winter” there’s a good possibility that the persona is fixated on winter. But the words have other connotations. They are somewhat negative words, connoting metaphorical death or dying, and what exactly is dead or dying depends on the content of the poem. Maybe it’s a dying soul—of the individual or of society. Maybe the person feels isolated and alone, or just detached, frozen inside, as it were. Is there a suggestion that this is a passing, or fleeting, moment, or is it an eternal winter that he’s talking about? (Notice that I’m not talking about the Frost poem in particular, just showing you can glean connotations from a pattern of words.) If the words invoke bright, fun, positive images, and there are several such words in the poem (or just in one stanza), then the implications for the tone of the poem are obvious.
I could go on and on about content, but many of you probably are wondering about the actual writing process.
Once you’ve got your ideas and organized them, come up with a good thesis that will allow you to argue something about the poem, then you’ll start to write. Have a plan of attack (e.g. “I want to write about figurative language in one paragraph, a certain repeated image in the next paragraph, and rhyme and meter in another paragraph. I will show how each of these is connected to the theme I’m discussing that is portrayed in this poem”). That would be a solid plan and a good way to get yourself ready to tackle the critical analysis of the poem. Then you have to just do that.
You’ll have the poem in front of you on Wednesday, so it’s a good idea to quote occasionally from the poem. Don’t use really long quotes. Just use brief phrases here and there, such as “wandered lonely” in the middle of sentences, and then go on to explain that the word “wandered” implies a melancholy, perhaps aimless traveling on the part of the person. In fact, the word “lonely” confirms not only the lacking of company, but also a sense of yearning for company at the same time. If you’re going to quote an entire line, do it like this: “That floats on high o’er vales and hills,” placing a comma inside the quotation marks as I just did. Also, notice how I introduced the line using a colon: the colon means “that is” or “like so”.
If you’re quoting two lines or more, use a slash between lines: “The only other sound’s the sweep/Of easy wind and downy flake.” Use the same line length and punctuation that the poet uses so that you maintain the integrity and meaning of the original words.
Other than that, make sure you do the same things in writing your essay that I’ve been preaching all semester. It all starts with a solid thesis statement that tells me what the poem is about. For example: In his poem “Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening,” Robert Frost depicts a moment that is more complex and troubling than it might appear on the surface.” Then, round out your introductory paragraph by telling me, what you mean and how you know. Explain what “complex” and “troubling” mean in contrast to the “surface” appearances. And tell me how the poet conveys that theme—for example: “The poet presents a man at a literal and figurative crossroads, pondering his place in the world and his relationship to all that surrounds him. The troubled nature of the man’s mind can be seen in the sight and sound imagery, figurative language, and rhythm of the poem. While the speaker seems to be at ease as he watches the snow fall, a close look at his words suggest otherwise.” (Notice how my last sentence makes my intentions clear by explaining my thesis statement, but without repeating it. In a way, that last sentence acts as a second thesis statement.)
So my opening paragraph might look like this:In his poem “Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening,” Robert Frost depicts a moment that is more complex and troubling than it might appear on the surface. The poet presents a man at a literal and figurative crossroads, pondering his place in the world and his relationship to all that surrounds him. The troubled nature of the man’s mind can be seen in the sight and sound imagery, figurative language, and rhythm of the poem. While the speaker seems to be at ease as he watches the snow fall, a close look at his words suggests otherwise.
From there, it’s obvious what you need to talk about: in separate paragraphs, show how the poet employs imagery, figurative language, and meter to illuminate the theme of deceptive simplicity. In each paragraph, you’ll use sample words and phrases, sometimes an entire line, to illustrate your point. Then, you’ll proceed to discuss those words and phrases (like the free-writing I mentioned earlier, only in miniature form, with more of a sense of purpose).
I’ve already given you a handout on "Writing About Poetry," which will give you more concrete things to discuss. But this is how I would go about writing a critical analysis of one of these two poems on Friday. Remember what I said though: make the poem your own. Get to know it intimately, one word and line at a time. There is no other way to be honest and real, and to really get something out of the reading. You might just learn something about yourself in the process.
There’s always that hope.
GC
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