Choose a single poem from the Poetry Foundation archive (you can find it at below) that we have not discussed yet in class and do a close reading of it. Discuss and analyze this poem using as many of the vocabulary terms we have accumulated thus far. You are not required to do any outside research, though it can helpful to at least read the biography of the poet. The essay accounts for 15% of your total grade. Some questions to discuss in your close reading and analysis: What themes does the poem explore? When was this poem written? What traditions or context did it come out of? How can we see this in the poem? What were the poet’s intentions with this poem? How do they achieve them? What changes–from beginning to ending–in the poem? How does the poem make a reader feel? What emotions are triggered, how, and why? You don’t need to discuss all of the above–in fact, I’d recommend not trying to–but rather select some area of focus that interest you most to help develop your thesis (what, ultimately, you want to say about the poem). Use the above questions to think through the poem and read it closely. Essential Assignment Requirements: Essay should present and support a clear thesis be at least 3 full pages in length, double-spaced, mostly free of typos, spelling, and grammatical mistakes, provide full citations for any ideas or quotations you take from outside sources and in MLA format. This is a Poetry Foundation archive https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/browse#page=1&sort_by=recently_added The above is the instruction and I put a sample essay format also that might help to write an literature essay.
