PROMPT It is very clear that New York City is important to Frank O’Hara. It’s everywhere in his poetry. But it’s more than just an exciting place to stand still and walk around in. For O’Hara, it seems intimately related to the art of poetry itself. In this brief essay, you will choose one of the poems listed below. You will pick a passage from that poem (no less than 5 lines, no longer than 10) in which O’Hara describes the city. You will quote this passage in your essay. You will then analyze this passage in order to answer the following questions: How does Frank O’Hara link poetry to the city? Why do you think he makes that link? Your analysis should focus on the form of the passage you’ve chosen. By form I mean the organization of words and phrases on the page: what a text looks like and how it’s put together. In the context of poetry, the line break is a very prominent formal device (and one that O’Hara really likes, as it happens). So are metaphors and similes. Our list of formal devices will no doubt expand as the semester continues. For now suffice it to note that if you do not comment on the way that a poem looks on the page in excess of the literal denotative meaning of its words, you will not have done the assignment properly. (You may find it helpful to consult the handout entitled “Pointers for Reading Poetry,” available for download on Moodle.) Please choose only one of the following poems as the basis for your essay: “Music” “On the Way to San Remo” “A Step Away From Them” “Three Airs” “Poem (Khrushchev is coming on the right day!)” “Personal Poem” “Adieu to Norman, Bonjour to Joan and Jean-Paul” “Rhapsody” “How to Get There” “Steps”
