British literature poetry essay

I have attached my draft I had already picked the peom I want to do

Process Overview

1. Choose a poem we’ve read. [“We Are Seven” is off limits–it’s too dry.]
2. Take some idea from the Norton intro’s (The Romantic Period) discussion of Romantic Poetry or Wordsworth’s “Preface” or Shelly’s Defence.
3. Analyze several metaphors and try to describe the overall metaphorical structure of the poem.
4. Move toward a thesis that interprets the poem in terms of some key idea of Romanticism

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Due Date: tentatively 23 February.

This prompt is under construction.

You must analyze some poem we have read for class as a basis for your interpretation of that poem.

The Basic Approach: you must combine a metaphorical analysis with some interpretation using a key concept of Romanticism.

The Two Prongs:

1. What is the metaphorical structure of the poem? In the first body paragraph, describe what you take to be the metaphorical structure and support your description with evidence from the poem. What does “metaphorical structure” mean? Consider this checklist:

Checklist for Metaphorical Structure

1. To identify a metaphor, you must name the comparison.
2. Controlling metaphor
3. Controlling image
4. Piecemeal metaphor
5. Balance of concrete and abstract elements
6. Typology of small metaphors: similes, personifications, the copula, synecdoche, metonymy, etc.
7. Wet vs dry poems
8. Symbol

2. Second Prong: you must use a good summary-paraphrase of some key idea(s) of Romanticism, citing the Norton introduction (The Romantic Period) discussion of Romantic Poetry and/or Wordsworth’s Preface and/or Shelly’s Defence to shape your overall interpretation of the poem. Your interpretation needs to be yours, but you need to show that you have a good grasp of some key idea of Romanticism to contextualize or support you central interpretative claim.

Some Particular Guidelines

1. Take care of your audience: make sure you give them enough context to understand your claims. You cannot assume they already know much about the poem(s). You do not need to read the poem for them, or summarize the whole poem, but you must give enough context for someone who has not read the poem to understand your argument.
2. You must build your analysis on the language of the poem. You have to treat the poem like a concrete object: it has to be shown to your reader in very precise amounts. Any claim you make about the poem must be well supported by quotation from the poem.
3. You have to show you really understand the MLA mechanics for quoting verse.
4. Your basic mode for the body paragraphs is that you must sandwich quotation with ideas and explanation. I’m not interested in secondary sources for this paper–just primary sources and the Norton Introduction. Beware!: if you use secondary sources, you must cite!
5. If you develop some significant idea based on your poem(s), that probably should be presented as the thesis in the intro–your interpretation.
6. Optional: carry out more than one of the analytic moves from my list of 100 Ways (under Pages).
7. And here is the primary Don’t: Do not offer a bunch of abstract comment that is free-floating with no shown connection to the language of the poem. Talk about and cite the language of the poem.
8. And here’s another don’t: Don’t cite details from the poem that you then ignore–Your analysis needs to use up (do something substantial with) all the details in the quotation.
9. Length: 600-800 words.

Some More General Guidelines for this Essay

Introduction: This is a short essay, so you need to get right to the point.

1. introduce your topic to the reader
2. announce your main claim: a good main claim is going to involve some key aspects of the poem and how you are going to look at them to arrive at your interpretation.
3. optional–say something about how you have laid out your argument, i. e., what are the points of your paragraphs and how do they support the main claim

Body paragraphs

1) Each prgh should focus tightly on making a particular point–most likely about the way the poem works.

2) It should be clear how the prgh relates to the thesis (main claim).

3) This is a literary essay, so you are best served by focusing on bits of text from the literary pieces. In your text you must examine the language of the poem, by first showing it to your reader.

5) DON’Ts:

a) You don’t have space for a long, detailed summary of any text; summaries need to be really short and accurate, like a phrase or a sentence; they need to be just long enough to give the needed context for a particular point you are making.

b) Don’t make good claims that are important to your argument w/out supporting them.

c) Don’t over-quote: any details of a quote that you leave unaddressed will cause a good reader to wonder why you quoted material you didn’t analyze.

Conclusion: you need to pull the body prghs together, reminding your reader what you have shown them about various pieces or aspects of the poem, and how your organization supports the main claim (this is thesis structure).

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General requirements:

MLA format–you will be graded on your citation mechanics, both in-text and Works Cited mechanics. Make sure you show that you understand the use of the slash to show line breaks, indention when you have 3 or more lines to quote, and giving line numbers rather that page numbers in in-text parentheticals.

Your final draft needs to be in the 600-900 word range.

Submit your paper in a Word document that is well named:

(Last-name First-name ENG2240 Poetry essay).

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