ENGLISH POEM
CONTEXT: The first unit of the course, Origin Stories, focuses on poems, essays, and stories inspired by the author’s depiction of a distant homeland or connection to an ancestral past. Common to many of the texts are a sense of displacement, a nostalgic mood, a longing to connect with family and/or homeland, and a desire to escape to a different time and place. PROMPT: Analyze one of the texts from Week 1 or 2 by explaining a key theme/mood in the work and then explaining how the author uses at least one but no more than three literary techniques to convey that theme/mood. (See the list of literary techniques below.) Your introduction should identify the author and give a brief (no more than 2-3 sentences summary of the work. Your thesis statement should define the theme/mood and identify the literary techniques. The body of your paper should involve analysis of lines or passages from the text that illustrate the use of specific techniques in relation to the theme/mood of the work. Below is a list of literary techniques. You are not limited to these, but these are among the most common ones. Analyze each one in detail rather than trying to cover a variety of authorial methods. Feel free to incorporate ideas generated by your Discussion Board posting or Reading Journal response, but go beyond what you’ve already written in the interests of creating a precise, compelling, and comprehensive exploration of the literary work. PURPOSE: This assignment is designed to engage you in the type of analysis common to literary studies. It is premised on a more structural and aesthetic approach to literature rather than examining a work in terms of its historical context and relation to issues of class, race, and gender. LITERARY TECHNIQUES: Here is a list of common techniques used by writers of literary works. It is by no means comprehensive. Please also consult the Literary Terminology link from OWL (the Purdue Online Writing Lab) in the Writing about Literature module. Diction: choice of words (such as desсrіptive, abstract, romantic, harsh, gentle) Imagery: this term encompasses use of sensory desсrіption as well as often being used to refer to figures of speech Figures of speech: includes metaphors, similes, and personification Structural patterns/rhythm: i.e. a poem broken into specific stanzas, the use of rhyme Repetition of images and words: writers often use repetition for emphasis Style of narration/point of view: it could be first-person narration (using “I”) or a third-person limited narration (using the perspective of a specific character) or third-person omniscient narration (incorporating the perspectives of multiple characters) Dialogue/internal monologue: this allows readers to “hear” characters speaking to each other or get into the mind of a specific character Setting: where the story takes place can be of major significance Characterization: how specific characters are portrayed by the author The protagonist is the main character who is typically trying to achieve a goal. The antagonist is a character who tries to thwart the protagonist. Irony: writers can use irony within the words/thoughts of a character or in terms of the events and outcome of the plot Style of writing: it can range from poetic, formal, and flowery to choppy, fragmented, and stream-of -consciousness ( in which a character’s thoughts can be depicted as rambling and/or disconnected) CRITERIA FOR AN EFFECTIVE ESSAY An effective essay accomplishes the following: displays the writer’s ability to analyze a literary text with depth and perception presents a focused and specific thesis that corresponds with the key ideas in the body paragraphs of the essay uses relevant evidence from the text to support the thesis identifies the author and gives a brief summary of the work in the introduction structures the essay in unified paragraphs anchored by strong topic sentences uses effective transitions to move from paragraph to paragraph presents a lively and engaging opening paragraph develops a resonant conclusion that provides satisfying closure for the essay displays an ability to use dynamic sentences and precise words, avoiding errors in grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure applies appropriate MLA standards to the heading, running header, fonts, spacing, indenting, in-text citation, and Works Cited page Please see the two essays posted in the Writing about Literature module as examples of analytical papers that earned superior grades in my classes. One is about Emily Dickinson’s poem “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” and the other is about an essay titled “The Color of Success.” Also posted is a literary analysis essay about one of Shelley’s sonnets that appears in a textbook. (Note: the Dickinson essay gets into technical details about rhyme schemes and stanza patterns. It’s not necessary for you to use this much detailed terminology in your analysis of any poems.) The following content is partner provided