poetry paper

Description

The poetry paper, like the drama and the fiction paper, is a 4 page analysis of two poems [or three or more if you feel up to it]. A study of more than two poems would be a division and analysis of certain themes or symbols that appear in several poems. The idea is to discuss a poem or poems based on the “elements” or features of poetry. In other words, you will study poetic symbols [including metaphors, imagery, personification] or the poet’s use of certain other devices, like alliteration, assonance, allusion, metrics [see the rhythm and versification handout on the module] which must be included in the essay. You might also discuss the poem in relation to the romantic/classical types of poetry breakdown in the module called “Notes on Poetry.” The best advice I can give is to break a poem down into its parts and to write about each part, one at a time. It’s a simple way to structure a paper and it works. Writing about poetry may seem daunting at first, but if you break a poem down into parts, your paper has a simple and clear structure to it. If you compare two poems, compare them according to a certain theme or idea [my advice]. What is being said in each poem? The Tyger and the Lamb [William Blake] are good for comparison. Roberts Frost’s poems are also good for comparison.  And Countee Cullen and Jean Toomer [two African American poets writing during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s on similar themes] would be good for comparison.