The poet, T.S. Eliot.
This essay assignment, you will write an analysis essay comparing T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (Literature 607-611) to two of the following poems under the theme of love.
William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” (Literature 837)
Williams Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130” (Literature 838-839)
Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s “Be Near Me” (Literature 868)
You are only allowed to use the poems mentioned in the prompt. Use only two poems as support.
Your introduction must include a one-sentence summary of each poem you are using; each summary must include the full title of the poem and the full name of the author and must focus on each poem’s key points. The introduction must end with your thesis, comparing the complexity of love as depicted in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” to two of the poems mentioned above.
Body paragraphs: The first body paragraph must focus on “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, the second body paragraph must focus on one of the poems above, and the third body paragraph must focus on another poem from above. For support, ask yourself: How does the persona of each poem view love? How do the lovers treat each other in these poems? Do not just answer the questions in the prompt but use the questions as a guide for your argument.
Use only the poems as support in your body paragraphs. Do not do any other source or any research for this assignment. You must also explain the relationship between the support and your body paragraphs’ topic sentences. Also, do not summarize the whole poems again in the body paragraphs. What I am looking for is your close reading on particular lines or sections of the poems to prove your argument. Also, only use direct quotations from the poems as support.
For support from a poem, use a forward slash “/” after each line and use the correct in-text citation. Example: Shakespeare states, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?/Thou art more lovely and more temperate” (Shakespeare 837).
The essay must be at least 1,500 words, typed and double-spaced. It must include an eye-catching title and a Work Cited page, following the MLA format.Links to an external site.
For those using the Literature: The Human Experience textbook, use the following format in the work cited page:
Publisher, Year, Page range of entry.
For those not using the textbook, check the Purdue Owl MLA pageLinks to an external site. for the correct MLA format in the Work
Essay Checklist
Introduction
___ An opening statement to attract the reader to the thesis statement.
___ A summary of each poem that is only one sentence long and mentions the author’s full name, the title of the poem and the key points of the poem.
___ A strong, well-focused Thesis Statement that reveals everything about the essay.
Body Paragraphs
___ Transitions between each paragraph (“First,…”; “Second,…”; “On the other hand,…” etc.).
___ A strong, well-focused topic sentence related to the thesis statement.
___ Support, presented as direct quotations taken from assigned poems. It must be introduced by a lead-in (such as, who stated the quote) and/or followed by the correct in-text citation. Note: For most lead-ins, use the present tense.
___ Explanations, showing the logical connection between the support and the topic sentence/thesis statement.
Conclusion
___ Restatement (not a repeat) of the thesis.
___ Final thoughts for the reader.
Other notes
___ Follows the directions of the assignment.
___ Title Page included. Avoidance of a generic title.
___ Correct usage of MLA in Works Cited Page.
___ Correct usage of MLA in-text citations.
___ Avoidance of plagiarism.
___ Usage of specific, detailed and concise sentences and active voice.
___ Avoidance of wordiness.
___ Avoidance of vague, confusing, awkward sentence structures.
___ Avoidance of redundancies and repetitive phrases.
___ Avoidance of irrelevant sentences or phrases to the thesis, the topic sentence and/or poems.
___ Usage of formal, academic language.
___ Avoidance of first-person (“I”) and second-person (“you”).
___ Avoidance of contractions (“don’t”, “haven’t”, etc.).
___ Avoidance of spelling errors.
___ Avoidance of grammatical errors (run-ons, fragments, dangling/misplaced modifiers, inconsistency of verbs, inconsistency of pronouns, etc.).
___ Avoidance of punctuation errors.
___ If a direct quotation is longer than four lines, it is set off from the text and the quotation marks are omitted (MLA regulation).
___ For support from a poem, a forward slash “/” is used after each line.
___ Titles of books and websites are italicized.
___ Titles of poems are enclosed in quotation marks.
