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Instructions and Options

For this assignment you have three options. In each case, you'll be expected to "show off"--that is, demonstrate some of what you've learned this semester. You'll also need to devise an organizational strategy which suits your particular option and focus. There's no single way to approach any of these options, and each option gives you a fair amount of room to move.

Also, the critical approach here is a loose one and specific to this class. In other words, you won't be using any particular, strict critical lens standard in Literature Studies. (You can get practice with those lenses in English 271 and other courses.) This essay assignment is devised primarily to help you recall, synthesize, and apply specific material we've studied in this class.

Please note: your must choose a poem or poet from our text, or one otherwise approved by your instructor—no commercial mass-market writing, teen, or children's verse.

1: Write About a Poem

Write a "panoptic" essay which examines all facets of a poem using strategies you've practiced this term. Explicate the poem, then address its mode, verse form, formal elements, music, and interpretation. (When addressing form and formal elements, try to discuss how specific parts of the poem function and fit together, and how they work toward an organically unified whole.) Tie your essay together with a surprising and insightful central claim (thesis).

 

2: Write About a Poet

Write an essay which makes an interesting and illuminating claim about an approved poet. Research the poet's biography, career, literary reception, influence, and legacy, then formulate a central claim or insight about the writer based on your research—something which will help us to better appreciate the poet's work. Note: this cannot merely be a regurgitation of biographical facts found in sources; you need to synthesize and interpret the facts you find. It might be interesting to do a poet whom you feel has been neglected and deserves more critical and popular attention, though this is not required.

 

3: Write About a Subject or Theme

Write a compare-and-contrast essay which examines how a particular subject or theme is represented, understood, and developed in the work of different poets. For instance, you may have noticed, over the course of the semester, that a particular topic or theme runs through many of our readings. This is a chance to examine how different poets work with and interpret the same topic or idea. (For best results, do a little research/review into how to best construct comparison-contrast essays.) Unify your essay with a good, comprehensive central point or thesis.

Alternately, you might investigate how a subject or theme is treated over the course of a poet's entire career and body of work. As above, you'll need a good thesis. You might consider, for instance, whether the poet's view of the subject changes over time or remains the same.

4: Write Using a Specific Critical Lens

If you have some experience using different critical lenses, you can write an interpretive paper using any one of those approaches: formalist, feminist, culturalist, Marxist, psychoanalytic, deconstructionist, postcolonialist, and so on. This is especially recommended for English majors. NOTE: this option is more challenging than the others, and will be held to a standard appropriate for its level of difficulty.

 

Audience and Purpose

Your audience is a general one of undergraduate literature students and instructors—much like our class, but not just our class; don't write this piece with ONLY me or your classmates in mind. You might imagine that your essay will appear in a critical anthology on a particular poet's work, to be used generally in lower-level literature courses.

Your purpose is to illuminate and provide insight into a work, a poet, and/or poetry in general, drawing on what you've learned this term. Show off what you know! And see if you can help other students much like yourself better appreciate and experience your subject, whatever it may be.

 

Evaluation Rubric

Click here for the rubric!

 

Explanation of Grading