You will write a comparison / contrast essay of about 600 words about a topic of your choice in regards to two poems we have studied. Focus your paper on a specific topic linking the poems (setting, theme, writing style, imagery, symbolism etc.) rather than trying to cover everything; it is better to say a lot about a little than a little about a lot. You must include at least two quotations from each poem. I do not require a Works Cited page since we are all using the same texts, but I do expect you to use proper MLA style for integrating quotations into your essay and for the overall format of your paper.
You should begin your essay by trying to engage your reader’s interest in the topic you selected (marriage, evil, faith, humor, grief, bells, love etc.) and then link that subject to the two poems. You should end your first paragraph with a strong, specific thesis indicating your essay’s overall purpose.
Bloom’s Literature database includes a link to a brief handbook offering clear, concise advice for planning, organizing, and writing literary essays using MLA documentation and format, including specific advice for composing a comparison / contrast essay. The “How to Write About. . .” section also offers excellent advice about analyzing the works of some of the poets we studied.
The following are poems that we have gone over in class that you can choose from for your essay:
Anne Bradstreet (Volume A pg 217) “To My Dear and Loving Husband” (237) “Here Follow Some Verses Upon the Burning of Our House (243)
Phillis Wheatley (787) “On Being Brought from Africa to America” (789); “To His Excellency General Washington” (796)
William Cullen Bryant (Volume B 116) “The Death of Lincoln” (123)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (571) “A Psalm of Life” (573); “The Slave Singing at Midnight” (574) “My Lost Youth” (579); “Hawthorne” (581); “The Cross of Snow” (582)
Edgar Allen Poe “Alone” (611); “The Raven” (618); “Annabel Lee” (618)
Walt Whitman (1294) “One’s Self I Sing” (1312); “Shut Not Your Doors” 1312) “Crossing the Brooklyn Ferry” (1364); “When I Heard the Learned Astronomer” (1375);
Emily Dickinson (1654) “I taste a liquor never brewed” (1661); “Some keep the Sabbath going to Church” (1668); “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” (1664) “Because I could not stop for Death-“ (1676); “Tell all the truth but tell it slant-“ (1689) “There’s a certain Slant of light” (1666); “Letters to Thomas Wentworth Higginson” (1694)“A narrow fellow in the Grass” (1687)
