The directions under the assignment:
PLEASE READ EVERY WORD OF THESE TOPICS CAREFULLY. THEN LISTEN TO MY RECORDINGS ON EACH TOPIC TO HELP YOU WRITE A GOOD ESSAY! CHOOSE ONE TOPIC. OFTEN THE WORDING OF THE ASSIGNMENT IS CLOSE TO WHAT YOU NEED TO CLAIM IN YOUR THESIS STATEMENT. DO NOT CREATE A THESIS THAT DOES NOT RELATE TO THE ASSIGNMENT! PLEASE NOTE EVERYTHING i HAVE TOLD YOU ABOUT QUOTING, GENERALIZATIONS, ETC. AFTER THE TOPICS I HAVE INCLUDED SOME NOTES THAT APPLY TO THE WILLIAM BLAKE ASSIGNMENT. I HAVE ALSO ADDED THE ROBERT FROST POEM ‘DESERT PLACES’ WHICH IS NOT IN YOUR BOOK. YOU WILL SUBMIT YOUR FIRST DRAFT UNDER THE WEEK 10 MODULE, NOT HERE.
English 111 Paper 3 Topics – Poetry
4 pages double-spaced. No less. Minimum of two outside sources using M.L.A. parenthetical citations within your paper and a Works Cited sheet at the end. Your two outside sources should be in the form of a quote or two from critics TO BACK UP YOUR VOICE/YOUR INTERPRETATION. DO NOT FASHION YOUR WHOLE ESSAY ALONG THE LINES OF ANOTHER’S ARTICLE. Only use sources from the SBCC library data base, not the internet. I don’t need biographical information about the author in your introduction. Any works that you read and learn from, but do not cite in your paper should go in a Bibliography. Please refer to Chapter 3 of your Kirszner text for M.L.A. style documentation (you are probably already quite familiar with citing M.L.A. style).
Be sure that the first sentence of your introduction refers to the author and the piece you are analyzing. For example, “In Robert Frost’s “Desert Places,” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” he reveals…… etc. During the body of your essay, there’s no need to keep referring to the author. If need be, refer to the speaker of the poem, but there’s little need for that. Give 3-4 lines of general background information about the poem(s), and then your thesis statement. No generalized people/humans statements please! I should know immediately, from your thesis, what aspect/theme of the poem you will be discussing/analyzing. You may then give a brief summary of the poem in the paragraph after the intro. After that, there is no more re-telling, only discussion/analysis/expansion of the poem’s words to develop your thesis. YOUR PAPER SHOULD NOT JUST BE A PARAPHRASE OF THE POEM, it should be an INTERPRETATION, in other words, you expand on the meaning of the words. Please talk to me about this if you don’t understand. I am expecting MANY short quotes from the poem, and your analysis of these. No Floating Quotes! Divide your paper up into clear paragraph topics – each topic relates to an aspect of your thesis.
Then end with a conclusion paragraph. Please also read my notes below these topics to help you with your essays. Note: Do not confuse the speaker of the poem with the author – in other words, the speaker is often a character created by the author, and the poem is not necessarily autobiographical.
Please, I repeat: No introducing quotes with ‘the poet/author writes, etc. Incorporate your quotes naturally into your sentences. See my file about this.
1. Compare and contrast the speaker’s attitude to the world/nature around him in “Desert Places” (see poem written below) and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” (10). (Formulate an effective thesis for this comparison). Remember we have two “landscapes,” as it were – the one outside us, and the one within us. How does the snowy world affect the inner world of the speaker in “Stopping…” compared to the effect it has on the speaker in “Desert Places”?
Desert Places by Robert Frost
Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast
In a field I looked into going past,
And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,
But a few weeds and stubble showing last.
The woods around it have it – it is theirs.
All animals are smothered in their lairs.
I am too absent-spirited to count;
The loneliness includes me unawares.
And lonely as it is, that loneliness
Will be more lonely ere it will be less –
A blanker whiteness of benighted snow
WIth no expression, nothing to express.
They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars – on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening:
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
My teacher has an analysis on youtube that would be perfect to follow if possible please:
