Essay 1 Poetry Analysis

Essay 1 Instructions and Topics Updated 2022

The Basics:

LENGTH: Approximately 850 words.

FORMAT: Use MLA format (see MLA information & samples in the Essay 1 Folder.

TITLE: Come up with an original, relevant, interesting title (not "Essay 1").

(NO!) SOURCES: Do not use any secondary sources. Remember: Even other peoples’ ideas must be cited if used in your paper–so, don’t tempt yourself. Don’t "Google" the poems. Come up with your own (crazy) ideas!

WARNING: If, for whatever reason, you still use sources, you must properly cite them both in the exact places they are used in the paper AND with a Works Cited. At minimum, any essay that has sources that are not clearly cited will receive a zero. See syllabus for further possible penalties.

Other Requirements:

POINT OF VIEW: Avoid using first person "I". And, eliminate any use of second person "you." 

QUOTES FROM THE POEMS: You DO need to use brief, relevant quotes from the poems you are discussing to help make your points clear. 

INTRODUCTION: Should include the authors and titles of the works being discussed.

THESIS: Should be the last sentence(s) of the introduction. This should be the point/argument you are going to prove in the essay. (And special note: This is a "regular" essay and not a Module Response, so do not start with "Thesis: " at the top.)

(NO) WORKS CITED: Since this is the first essay and we have not had time to cover format issues for the Works Cited, you do not need to include a Works Cited. (Normally, you would have a Works Cited that lists the poems you are discussing in the paper.) However, IF you go against the secondary sources rule, you DO need a complete Works Cited with those sources and the poems included.

TURNITIN.COM: The paper must be submitted directly to Turnitin. 

Grading Issues/Rubric: 

When I grade this paper, I will look for:

  • An introduction that establishes the central issue(s) of the paper and that includes the authors and titles of the works being discussed. 
  • A strong, clear thesis at the end of the introduction.
  • Interesting, original points made about the literature.
  • Logical paragraphing. Each paragraph should present a distinct point that helps prove the thesis.
  • Good balance in the discussion of both poems.
  • Good use of relevant quotes from the poems to help make the points.
  • Proper MLA format throughout.

The Topics:

Select two poems from ONE of the following thematic categories. Your two poems should come from the same category. Each poem has the starting page (from our text, The Norton Introduction to Literature, Shorter 13th ed.). You will write your paper using your two selected poems.

 

Love and/or(?) Romantic Love

  • Donne "The Flea" (807)
  • Rich "Living in Sin" (991)
  • Auden "[Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone]" (837)
  • Marvell "To His Coy Mistress" (808)
  • Pound "The River Merchant’s Wife" (1157)
  • Parker "A Certain Lady" (776)
  • Eliot "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1139)
  • Rich "[My mouth hovers across your breasts]" (998)
  • Millay "I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed" (973)
  • Shakespeare "[Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?]" (878)

Work and Life

  • Smith "The Business" (852)
  • Heaney "Digging" (1144)
  • Wagoner "My Father’s Garden" (787)
  • Whitman "I Hear America Singing" (938)
  • Hughes "I, Too" (1075)
  • Cofer "The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica" (825)
  • Bontemps "A Black Man Talks of Reaping" (1070)
  • Baca "Green Chile" (850)
  • Hughes "The Weary Blues" (1073)
  • McKay "Harlem Shadows" (1076)

Poems About Poets and Poetry

  • Jordan "Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Miracle Wheatley" (974)
  • Collins "Sonnet" (974)
  • Crane "To Emily Dickinson" (1026)
  • Collins "Taking Off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes" (1027)
  • Mullen "Dim Lady" (974)
  • Millay "I Will Put Chaos Into Fourteen Lines" (972)
  • Hicok "O My Pa-pa" (791)
  • Moore "Poetry" (765)
  • Alvarez "Poetry Makes Nothing Happen"? (766)
  • Auden "In Memory of W. B. Yeats" (1041)

Family

  • Grosholz "Eden" (848)
  • Pastan "To a Daughter Leaving Home" (1151)
  • Cherry "Alzheimer’s" (1133)
  • Hudgins "Begotten" (853)
  • Espada "Of the Threads that Connect the Stars" (848)
  • Ortiz "My Father’s Sons" (845)
  • Mora "Elena" (1048)
  • Hicok "O My Pa-pa" (791)

Death and Mourning

  • Auden "[Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone]" (837)
  • Stevens "The Emperor of Ice-Cream" (1172)
  • Dickey "The Leap" (885)
  • Nemerov "The Vacuum" (893)
  • Mora "Gentle Communion" (1049)
  • Randall "Ballad of Birmingham" (922)
  • Dickinson "I Heard a Fly Buzz–When I Died" (1024
  • Johnson "On My First Son" (1146)
  • Toplady "A Prayer, Living and Dying" (923)

History/War

  • Owen "Disabled" (785)
  • Kumin "Woodchucks" (832)
  • Espada "Litany at the Tomb of Frederick Douglass" (806)
  • Owen "Dulce et Decorum Est" (913)
  • Lovelace "Song: To Lucasta, Going to the Wars" (784)
  • Brooks "First Fight. Then Fiddle" (973)
  • Yeats "Easter 1916" (1035)
  • McKay "If We Must Die" (1077)
  • Pope "The Call" (912)
  • Jarrell "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" (879)
  • Hughes "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" (1074)

Beauty/Literature/Art (and the Kitchen Sink)

  • Whitman "[I celebrate myself, and sing myself]" (777)
  • Heaney "Digging" (1144)
  • Stevens "The Anecdote of the Jar" (1171)
  • Pope "Sound and Sense" (903)
  • Lee "Persimmons" (801)
  • Wordsworth "Nuns Fret Not" (969)
  • Rossetti "In the Artists’ Studio" (970)
  • Collins "Sonnet" (974)
  • Moore "Poetry" (765)
  • Su "On Writing" (835)

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