Consider the various groups of poems that we have studied the past two sessions: poems about the natural world, poems about cities and civilization, poems and sex and love, or poems about poetry. You probably feel that you have a lot more to say about one of these topics and one of these groups of poems.
Write about three or four poems in that selected group; if your essay deals with a set of related poems, it will have more consistency and coherence. If you want to write about another poem or poems than the ones we have discussed in class, please inform your instructor.
Read the following selections from The Oxford Anthology of American Poetry, ed. D. Lehman, 2006.
Poems about sex and love:
Millay, Rendezvous (p. 390)
Duncan, The Torso (Passage 18) (pp. 649-51)
Wilbur, Love Calls Us to the Things of This World (pp. 668-9)
Levertov, The Mutes (pp. 687-8)
Hall, When the Young Husband (pp. 847-8)
Rich, Living in Sin (pp. 868-9)
Haas, Misery and Splendor (pp. 970)
Note. Since the experience of reading poetry is largely subjective, the same poem is going to make different impressions on different readers. You are only responsible for your own reading experience. Nevertheless, it is possible to be objective about the linguistic qualities of a poem that affect the way you respond to it and the way you understand it.
Look closely at such matters as diction (word choice), repetition, figures of speech (metaphor, simile, and so on), imagery, voice, persona, turns of phrase, allusionthe linguistic bag of tricks that skillful poets have at their disposal.
Length and Format: Write approximately 3 pages and include a Work Cited page. Remember to single-space all block quotations of more than three or four lines of poetry. Otherwise, simply double-space your quoted material. Consult the MLA 8 Handbook on the mechanics of quoting poetry.
For a convenient glossary of poetic terms and devices, you can consult the appendix Literary Terminology to The Norton Anthology of English Literature.
