No citation is needed. The below image are examples
Analyze the following poem in a well-organized, focused short essay. You are not trying to decode its ultimate meaning. Instead, you are making a reasonable argument about how the poem’s strategies and their effects reveal its thematic concerns and create meaning. Think about its form and structure (including metre and rhyme scheme), its imagery, its perspective (does it have an identifiable speaker?), and its title. Use brief direct quotations (no citation is required) or specific descriptions in your own words to identify relevant textual detail as support for your analysis. Read the poem through carefully before you begin writing your essay. This essay will be around 250-400 words, or 1-2 double-spaced (not 1.5-spaced) typed pages, using Times New Roman size 12 font and 2.54cm margins on Letter size pages (check Page Setup).
Do not assume the speaker is the author, you won’t be able to look up anything while writing. Start with a point about the poem as a whole, and choosing something that strikes you most in reading the poem(an image? a comparison? a particular phrase?) is a very good idea. Do any interesting thematic concerns or theme (think of abstract concepts here: love, war, beauty, loss, etc.) stand out? And support with the detail in the poem that led to your choice. Do not start with the abstract theme and try to figure out how the concrete detail works. Start with the poem’s details and think about how they contribute to and develop the ideas the poem is exploring.
Answer the following question
(if it has a title other than the sonnet xxx)How does the title set up what the poem does?
What sorts of images are used, and to what effect?
is it Shakespearean Sonnet or Petrarchan Sonnet? How does the poem use its form (e.g. types of stanzas and division of them) to make its point? Making a point about how the form is used. The rest of this paragraph goes into details to support the point, again pulling out specific words and phrases from the poem as support.
Does it seem to have an identifiable speaker, or audience commenting on observations? Do any interesting images stand out? What senses (sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste) do they speak to?
Marking Rubric: A-level (80+): confident, perceptive, very well written, effectively focused and organized, demonstrative of a careful consideration of the assigned texts and the course materials, including both lectures and discussions as well as the resources posted on our Canvas site. On all assignments and the exam, A+ essays exceed the general standards for writing at the level of this course.
