This essay will focus on our second unit on poetry. You have three choices for Paper 2, so please be sure that you follow carefully the instructions for the assignment you choose. I should be able to determine easily which of the topics you are addressing in your paper.
When you are ready to begin your essay on poetry, CHOOSE ONE of the following paper topics:
- Choose one of the U.S. poets laureate (1986 - present). Select 3 or more poems by this author that address a common subject. Develop a thesis about what these works suggest about the author's style or thematic focus (this will be your thesis).
This paper is NOT a biography of a poet. You must provide a reason to discuss the works together beyond the fact that they were written by the same person. Choose poems that TOGETHER reflect the poet's approach to poetry or address one of his or her major themes. Not only must you link the poems to this common theme, you must also link the poems to each other. The essay should read as a single paper, not as separate summaries of three unrelated poems.
- Choose a poem by someone other than Robert Frost, Edgar Allan Poe, or Emily Dickinson. Identify at least three key symbolic images in the poem and explain how they contribute to a reading of the poem (this will be your thesis). (You don’t need to state that the poem can be read symbolically as well as literally since this is true of most poems.) For example, if the poem includes an image of a storm, consider how the storm means something other than just the literal wind and rain. Does the storm represent an emotional upheaval, a psychological turning point, a public or private state of chaos? And if the poem also includes images of, say, night and water, how are all of these symbols linked by a common theme?
In your first paragraph, briefly describe the poem and end by explaining what the poem means. Organize the body paragraphs around the specific symbolic images, not around the stanzas of the poem. In other words, avoid a stanza-by-stanza reading of the poem.
- Compare one of the poems in the anthology to the lyrics of a song that addresses a similar subject. Identify the poem and song's common theme and explain what the works say individually about this theme or subject. Explain if the two works compare or contrast (emphasize one or the other) and how they comment on one another (this will be your thesis). In other words, explain what we gain by reading the two works together. (You must include the song lyrics at the end of your essay.) You should refer to the lyricist of the song as the author (this person may or may not be an artist who performed the song).
Sample Solution