opening paragraph with thesis due: Friday, March 24

essay due: Friday, April 7

page length requirements: 3-4 pages

Using one of the questions below as a guideline, write a well planned essay about a poem or poems. Be sure to spend time carefully reading both the poems and the question before you begin putting pen to paper. Also, be sure to spend time brainstorming and jotting down notes about the poem before you begin a draft. An effective essay takes careful planning. No matter what question you answer, be sure to develop a thesis that needs to be proven through use of specific examples and details in the poem. Once you've written an opening paragraph, hand it in for approval before writing your first draft of your entire essay. This will save both of us aggravation.

Your essay must be written according to the standards of Core 110: Effective Writing. This means that along with a clearly defined thesis statement (a statement, a theory about the poem that is not obvious, that needs to be proven), you must also include an introduction, clearly developed body paragraphs with logical topic sentences, and a conclusion which is logically connected to the rest of the essay and that provides closure to your writing.

Use quotes from the poem(s) to support your points. You cannot talk about a piece of literature without using direct quotes from the piece. The more quotes you use, the stronger your argument will be. Be sure to do more than simply "drop in" quotes. Introduce all quotes and then explain how they prove your point, support your thesis. You do not have to use MLA format for this assignment; because we are all using the same texts for this assignment, simply quote your material and parenthetically note the page numbers your quotations came from.

All final drafts must be handed in on the due date at the beginning of class or a failing grade will be given. All essays must be word-processed and double spaced. Set margins at one inch all around and use a 12 point font. Provide a cover sheet with your name, essay title, and question number. Revise, edit, and proofread.

Before beginning your essay, read the appendix "Writing about Literature" at the end of your textbook. Examples of student essays appear on pages 1012 and 1060. Read these carefully!

In a carefully developed paper, complete one of the following assignments:

1. Compare the tone of voice used in Heaney's "Mid-Term Break" to that in Musgrave's "You Didn't Fit." Pick out three or four key words key words that seem to help control the tone. Write an essay in which you compare the tone of the two poems.

2. The speakers in Ammons's "Needs" and Heaney's "The Outlaw" both reveal themselves to have desires and needs that they are not themselves fully conscious of. Analyze carefully just what elements in the poem make clear to us the "secret" aspects of their characters. Compare the character of the speaker (and the strategies used to characterize her) in Maxine Kumin's "Woodchucks." Choose either "Needs" or "The Outlaw" to compare in detail with "Woodchucks," and write an essay in which you characterize the speakers in the two poems, making clear what kind of attitude each poem develops toward its speaker.

3. Consider carefully the symbolism of the trout in Pollitt's "Two Fish." Exactly how do the fish become symbolic to the lovers? How do they become invested with meaning? What do this year's trout look like? Is the difference between last year's trout and this year's in the fish themselves or in their settings? What power does the weather have over the fish? What is the implied moral for the lovers? What does each lover believe about what the trout represent? What are the temperamental differences between the two lovers? What does the poem conclude about the "meaning" of the fish? Write an essay in which you show how the poem opens and develops the question of what symbols mean.

4. Read Birney's "Anglosaxon Street" aloud. Then go through the poem line by line and pick out half a dozen words and patterns of sound that seem to you especially effective in creating vocal effects. Analyze carefully the effects created by each of these words or word groups, and try to account for exactly how the passage works. Then, using these examples as the primary (though not necessarily the exclusive) basis, write a paper on the uses of sound in the poem.