Poetry In-class essay

So I no longer have to talk out of both sides of my mouth here on this blog. I'm talking strictly to my students here, particularly in English 1080. Anyone else can go to my other blog at http://gerardcollinsblog.blogspot.com/.

The poetry in-class essays are due on Friday, and I'm not getting the sense that too many people are fretting over it, which I hope is a good sign. I've talked a lot in class about how to go about writing them, but I'll go over the basic idea once more and maybe toss in the occasional hint about how to proceed.

First, this is not a research essay. Do not research your poem of choice on the internet or anywere else, or else you will be considered a plagiarist. I do have ways of knowing. The signs are extremely obvious to me, so please, for your own sake, don't attempt to get one by. It's just not worth it. These are short essays and can easily be done in a day or two, even if you're being extra meticulous about your ideas and phrasing, which I hope you are. That's not a moral question for necessarily, but a matter of me wanting you to do really well on this essay. Please do well.

You can use a dictionary, hardbound, on-line, or otherwise to look up literary terms and that sort of thing. Or if there's a word you don't understand, or a word you just want some ideas or clarification about. That's fine. Just don't research the poem itself or the poet. The idea is to show that you know how to offer a critical analysis of a poem you've not necessarily seen before.

Make sure you start with a thesis statement, but be willing to revise that statement after you go. Don't write a statement about poetry in general (for example, "Poetry sometimes has imagery about relationships"). Write something about the poem you're actually discussing: "Theodore Roethke's poem, "My Papa's Waltz" is about a father and son who..." and go from there. I won't finish it because I always find that student either repeat exactly what I said or they find that I used up their idea and now they feel they can't use it. So I'll use another poem as an example:

In 'Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening," Robert Frost depicts a man who pauses on his journey to reflect on his situation in life.

Then, follow with an explanation of who the man is, what the journey is exactly, and what precisely he is reflecting upon. You might want one more sentence, then, to say which poetic techniques in particular you think he uses to convey that theme.

Your essay, since it's only 500 words could look something like this (remember, this is only an example. There are many other ways):

Paragraph 1: Introduction (including brief statement about what the poem is about, literally).

Paragraph 2: Dominant imagery

Paragraph 3: Figurative language (symbols, metaphors, personification, and that sort of thing)

Paragraph 4: Sound (including rhyme scheme, meter, and/or the actual use of sound, such as consonance, assonance, alliteration, and so on. These subjects can all go together in one paragraph or you can discuss them in separate paragraphs. Your choice. There are a lot of ways to write an essay. I'm just providing examples.)

Paragraph 5: Conclusion. Sum up what your main point has been and say one final thing about the poem that you want the reader to know, but is in keeping with your thesis. No new information or quotes here.


Remember, each paragraph should follow a pattern something like this:

1. Make a statement (topic sentence).

2. Give evidence (BRIEF quotes or details).

3. Discuss evidence (talk about the quotes directly. By that, I mean discuss individual word choices of the poet.)

Make sure you put the title of the poem in quotation marks whenever you mention it. After you use the full name of the poet once, you need only use his surname (last name) from then on.

For "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night," you really should address the major imagery, symbolism, and diction of the poet. There's no other way to do justice to that poem. Do you see any patterns? Do you see any anomalies, or differences, or breaks, in the pattern? The title is a strong clue of what the poem is about, what kind of relationship is being set up there and how the speaker feels about his situation.

How the speaker feels about his/her situation is always the key to understand a poem.

In "My Papa's Waltz," how do you think the speaker feels about his/her situation as alluded to in the title of the poem? You'll have to discuss rhyme and meter to do a decent job of this poem, mostly because of the subject matter. Also, is this mostly a negative poem or a positive poem, or can you really decide? If there is ambiguity, don't ignore it. Try to suggest a reason for it.

In Leonard Cohen's poem, "A Kite Is A Victim," try to peel the layers from that poem to see what he is actually saying. What's his true subject in this poem? What's he trying to say about it? And why does he use so many metaphors and certain kinds of images to get his point across? The line length and rhythm of that poem play a definite role in how you read the poem.

That's what rhyme and meter do, by the way: they dictate how you read the poem, which creates a certain feeling or mood, which almost always reflects some kind of theme: a bigger, overall idea of what the poem is about.

Your biggest clue as to what that "bigger idea" is (which many of you missed on the in-class essay): the title. That's where the poet always makes it known what his true subject is. The last line is also a large clue.

I think I've said enough. These blogs are exhausting to write when you're already pretty depleted.

Good luck with this assignment. Because it's so short, you can concentrate more on just getting the words just right. That's what I'm trying to teach you: be clear in your writing. It will improve the quality of your thoughts and of your life in the long haul. I promise.

For now though, just show me that you get what the poem is about and how the poet achieves his goal.

Godspeed.

GC