Poetry Essay Guidelines

 

For this essay, you will analyze ONE poem using ONE literary device. Your three-point thesis will state the three things you are arguing about the poem. Be sure to argue a thesis statement that goes beyond the obvious and is worth proving. (Note: This paper is worth 200 points toward your overall grade.)

 

DIRECTIONS: Write a five-paragraph poetic analysis in which you apply ONE literary device to

ONE poem. (Remember, you are NOT summarizing what happens in the poem. You are analyzing.)

 

Let’s take a well-known nursery rhyme to illustrate how to approach this essay. The title is “Jack and Jill.” The *imaginary* author is Sharon Walters.

 

Jack and Jill went up the hill To fetch a pail of water.

Jack fell down and broke his crown, And Jill came tumbling after.

 

Sample Thesis I   In the poem “Jack and Jill,” author Sharon Walters utilizes a hill, a pail of water, and a crown to symbolize the various obstacles that humans face throughout life.   Notice that the thesis statement’s three points are the following: a hill, a pail of water, and a crown. Three different symbols are used. Thus, this thesis statement would fulfill the requirements of the assignment.

Sample Thesis II   In the poem “Jack and Jill,” author Sharon Walters uses a pail of water to symbolize the circle of life, the burdens of life, and the fluidity of life.   Notice that the thesis statement’s three points are the following: the circle of life, the burdens of life, and the fluidity of life. Only one symbol is used, but three arguments are made. Thus, this thesis statement would also fulfill the requirements of the assignment.

 

Example of Summary within a Paragraph (INCORRECT; YOU ARE NOT SUMMARIZING FOR THIS ESSAY.)   In the poem, Jack and Jill go up the hill in order to fetch a pail of water.

Example of Analysis using SYMBOL as a Literary Device within a Paragraph (CORRECT; YOU ARE ANALYZING FOR THIS ESSAY.)   In the poem, the hill symbolizes the upward journey that Jack and Jill must travel in order to succeed in life. In pairing Jack and Jill together, the author sends a hidden message to the reader that teamwork outranks individuality when facing uphill obstacles.

 

Poetry Essay Guidelines

 

Choose only one literary device. The literary devices that you may choose from to apply to the poem are the following: speaker, theme, tone, visual imagery, figures of speech, and symbol.

 

Choose only one poem. The poems that you may analyze are the following:

 

“Death of a Young Son by Drowning” p. 773; “She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways” p. 776; “A Certain Lady” p. 776; “Ballad of the Landlord” p. 778; “We Real Cool” p. 779; “Leaving the Motel” p. 831; “Woodchucks” p. 832; “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” p. 833; “Sympathy” p. 836;

“Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone” p. 837; “Hubert Blankenship” p. 867; “That Time of Year Thou Mayst in Me Behold” p. 870; “Marks” p. 871; “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”

1. 872 (Due to the high volume of cheating, “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” cannot be written on for the poetry essay); “The Twenty-third Psalm” p. 878; “The Leap” p. 885; “Song” p. 887; “One Perfect Rose” p. 888; “The Road Not Taken” p. 892 (Due to the high volume of cheating, “The Road Not Taken” cannot be written on for the poetry essay); “The Vacuum” p. 893

 

Within your poetic analysis, be sure to provide at least one direct quotation for each body paragraph, which means you will have a minimum of three direct quotations for this essay. (Note:  View page 5 of this document to learn how to cite your direct quotations correctly. The page is typed in green-colored font.)

 

ESSAY SUBMISSION: The complete submission should include only one document: your final draft. Essays should be submitted to Canvas. Each student will have only one opportunity to submit an essay to Canvas by the deadline. Therefore, students should be sure to submit the CORRECT draft of the assignment when they submit.

 

SOURCES: You will NOT use any outside literary resources to help you write this essay. You will rely on your own reading of the poem, form your own analysis, and construct your own argument. In other words, sparknotes.com, cliffsnotes.com, and all other cheat sites are prohibited!!! You will study the poem and provide your own interpretations based on evidence from the poem. (Note: An outside source can be used ONLY for the hook. See page 4.)

 

FORMAT: The essay is to follow MLA guidelines for format and documentation. (Note: View page 7 of this document to learn correct MLA format. The page is typed in orange-colored font.)

 

A Work Cited page is required for this essay. (Note: View page 6 of this document to learn how to format your Work Cited page correctly. The page is typed in red-colored font.)

 

You will follow five-paragraph essay structure. All components of an essay are required: hook, three sentences of background, three-point thesis, transitional words, topic sentences, the thesis restated in the conclusion, and five sentences minimum per paragraph. (Note: View page 4 of this document to learn five-paragraph essay structure. The page is typed in blue-colored font.)

 

Poetry Essay Guidelines

 

The essay should be formatted as a Microsoft Word document so that it can be graded within Canvas. Essays that are not formatted properly will not be graded, and re-submissions will be subject to a late penalty. If you do not have Microsoft Word on your personal computer, then load the essay onto a jump drive/flash drive or email it to yourself as an attachment. Once you get to campus, you may then open the document on one of the computers and convert the file to Microsoft Word.

 

Do not use your cell phone to upload documents. There is a glitch that occurs between the systems.

 

RECYCLING ESSAYS: Recycling essays is the practice of re-submitting essays for one class that originally were submitted to another class. Recycled essays will not be accepted—even if the essays were submitted in a previous semester for the same class with the same instructor.

 

ESSAY REVIEW POLICY: If students desire feedback, they are welcomed to email the first two

paragraphs (introduction and body paragraph A) of an essay to the instructor for review before the essay’s due date.

 

SUGGESTIONS: As you are analyzing the poetry, consider these questions: What similarities do I see? What differences do I see? What is the obvious meaning of the poem? Are there any hidden messages in the poem? What do the characters have in common? How are the characters different? What objects are in the poem? Do these objects hold any significance?  Where does the poem take place?  Is there anything special about this location? (Note: These are just questions to help you get started with the thinking process.)

 

RESOURCES: (1) The SOAR Institute, which is located on Shelton State’s Martin Campus, should be open for free tutoring before this essay’s due date. (2) Smarthinking (an online, 24/7 tutoring program) should be available before this essay’s due date. (3) As always, I am here to help.

 

***I ABSOLUTELY ENCOURAGE you to email your thesis to me in advance to ensure you are on the right path BEFORE you write the entire essay.***

 

Five-Paragraph Essay Structure

 

Note: Each paragraph should have a minimum of five sentences.

 

Paragraph One: Introduction

• Hook –interesting statement that grabs the reader’s attention. The hook should be the very first sentence(s) of the essay. Here are some ways to create an interesting hook to begin your essay:
  • Begin with a quotation from a piece of literature. (Be sure to cite the source!)
    • Example: In “Roman Fever,” novelist Edith Wharton writes, “So these two ladies visualized each other, each through the wrong end of her little telescope” (119).
  • Begin with a quotation from someone famous. (Be sure to cite the source!)
    • Example: Actress and singer Reba McEntire states, “To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone” (www.brainyquote.com).
  • Tell a personal short story. (Keep the story short, and do not get TOO personal!)
  • Ask an interesting question. (Make sure the question is actually interesting!)
  • Define a word. (Be sure to cite the source!)
    • Example: Merriam-Webster dictionary defines heroine as, “the principle female character in a literary or dramatic work” (“heroine”).
  • Background information – provides information about the topic of the essay. The background should be a minimum of three sentences in length. The background is NOT the hook, and it is NOT the thesis. The three sentences of background are separate from the hook and the
  • Thesis – main idea of the essay. The thesis should have three points that you plan to discuss in the essay (point A, point B, and point C). The thesis is never a question; it is a one-sentence statement. The thesis is the last sentence of the

Paragraph Two: Point A from the thesis.

• The first sentence of the paragraph is the topic
  • Topic sentenceàprovides the main idea of the
• Be sure to use a transition in the topic
  • Examples of transitions: First, Second, Next, Also, Last,
• Be sure to use a keyword from the
  • Keywordàthe main word(s) stated in point A of the thesis. Paragraph Three: Point B from the thesis. (See notes above about Point A.) Paragraph Four: Point C from the thesis. (See notes above about Point )

Paragraph Five: Conclusion

The conclusion provides the final thoughts about the topic. Here are ways to create a conclusion:

• Review the main ideas of the
  • Restate the thesis. Note: Do NOT restate the thesis word-for-word as stated in introduction; change the wording and the sentence structure just a

 

OR

• Summarize main points of the essay. To summarize the main points, take the three points from the thesis and turn them into three separate

 

Note: Be sure that the conclusion has at least five sentences (just like the other paragraphs should have at least five sentences).

 

Quoting Poetry within Your Paragraphs

 

As you analyze the poetry, you will need to quote certain lines of the poem as evidence. Purdue Owl provides the following information on quoting poetry:

When quoting short (fewer than three lines of verse) quotations from poetry, mark breaks in short quotations of verse with a slash, ( / ), at the end of each line of verse (a space should precede and follow the slash).

 

Cullen concludes, “Of all the things that happened there / That’s all I remember” (lines 11-12).

 

IMPORTANT: Each time you quote, you need to include these THREE things:

• a signal phrase
• the actual quoted words enclosed within quotation marks
• the lines of the poem enclosed within a parenthetical citation

 

Cullen concludes, “Of all the things that happened there / That’s all I remember” (lines 11-12).

 

*********************

 

When citing long sections (more than three lines) of poetry, keep formatting as close to the original as possible.

 

In his poem “My Papa’s Waltz,” Theodore Roethke explores his childhood with his father: The whiskey on your breath

Could make a small boy dizzy; But I hung on like death:

Such waltzing was not easy. (lines 1-4)

 

Follow this link to view this resource from Purdue Owl in its entirety:

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/03/

 

Work Cited [SAMPLE]

 

Brooks, Gwendolyn. “We Real Cool.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Shorter 13^th ed., edited by Kelly J. Mays, W.W. Norton & Company, 2019, p. 779.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Explanation of the Information Above:

 

Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Poem.” Title of Anthology, edited by Anthology

 

 Editor’s First Name Last Name, Publisher, Date, p. #.

 

 

 

 

Note 1: The title does NOT say “Works Cited” because there is only one poem. Do not include

 

[SAMPLE] as you type your Work Cited page.

 

Note 2: This example is what you follow when you have only one poem to cite.

 

Note 3: Our textbook is called an anthology because it is a textbook that has different poems, stories, and plays from different authors.

Note 4: The Work Cited should be on its own page—not typed at the bottom of the last page of the essay.

 

Student’s Last Name Page Number

 

Student’s Name Dr. Regina Golar ENG 102

Day Month Year

 

Student’s Title of the Essay

 

Begin typing essay here…