ESSAY 2 PROMPT:
PART A:
In one paragraph, analyze two-three poems using 1 out of 5 poetic lens: (movements) Erza Pound, Virginia Woolf, Frank O’Hara, Donald Hall, or Jericho Brown.
Select two-three approved poems. Use Poetry Foundation (Links to an external site.) as your main source.
In another paragraph, analyze two-three poems using 1 critical lens (1 chapter) from Bennett & Royle’s book download.
In 3-4 paragraphs, analyze two-three poems using 3-4 our of 7 poetic categories in Part C
Do not confuse poetic lenses with poetic devices.
Each body paragraph must compare and contrast all poems via poetic lens, critical lens, poetic devices download, and/or poetic categories.
Do not analyze poems in isolation. In other words, do no analyze one poem per body paragraph.
You must write at least 6 body paragraphs for this essay. Maximum 8 body paragraphs.
(TBA) Essay 2: Poetry Bank: Guided Poetry Annotation: Start reading poems here to select 2 poems for your Outline
PART B:
In a thesis-driven, well-organized essay, analyze your selected poems’ use of poetic devices through a specific poetic lens to generate poems’ thematic discussion. What poetic devices did the poet use to render the poem’s theme?
Do not mistake the topic/subject of the poem for the theme of the poem.
Subject is the topic of the poem.
Theme is the poem’s thesis, the poem’s main argument, the poem’s central spine.
Theme is the central claim that the speaker of the poem expresses about the subject.
What is the theme? Do not confuse theme with subject/topic/motif.
For example, the poem’s topic/subject is love vs. the poem’s theme/thesis is how to recover from paralysis after lost love.
PART C:
Use #1-7 as suggestions for organizational units / body paragraphs ideas to discuss your poet’s theme: identity devices/techniques – are they effective or not? – and apply level of (in)effectiveness to theme. You should consider all 7 suggestions; then, you will strategically pick 3-4 out of 7 suggestions to focus your poetic analysis:
1. How does the explicit (obvious) and implicit (indirect) meaning of the poem affect theme? How does rereading each poem, unpacking ambiguity, allow readers to create multiple interpretations of the poem?
2. Discussion “power dynamics,” as in, relationships between:
-speaker and audience and/or person directly addressed, or
-speaker and time/setting/culture/history/self, or
-“title, first line, and last line’s” isolated meaning vs. the entire poem
(similar effect or different? which one is more effective?).
3. How does diction: word choice: denotation, connotation, ambiguity (or lack thereof), word placement, repetition, anaphora (repetition of phrase, not just single image or single word) affect theme/audience?
4. How do the speaker appeals to the audience’s 5 senses, synesthesia (blending of senses), imagery, symbols, metaphors, similes affect the theme/audience?
5. How does the physical appearance (how the poem looks on the page): enjambment, line breaks, stanza breaks, negative spacing (white space between stanzas) affects the theme/audience?
6. How does movement, rhythm, pacing, breathing, volta (the turn or shift in argument, style, topic, or POV) affect the theme/audience?
7. How does punctuation (or lack thereof) style, syntax, grammar, tone, voice affect the theme/audience?
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47541/keeping-things-whole
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57103/samurai-song
