Review the Poetry Essay Grading Rubric to see how your submission will be graded. Gather all of your information, plan the direction of your essay, and organize your ideas by developing a 1-page thesis statement and outline for your essay as you did for your Fiction Essay
Choose 1 of the poems from the list below to address in your essay:
The Lamb or The Tiger or The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake;
Batter my heart, three-personed God or Death Be Not Proud by John Donne (watch the video lecture on John Donnes Batter my heart, three-personed God for more ideas to help you write your essay on this poem);
Journey of the Magi by T. S. Eliot;
Gods Grandeur or Pied Beauty or Spring by Gerard Manley Hopkins;
Ode on a Grecian Urn or Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats;
Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley;
My Last Duchess by Robert Browning (watch the video lecture on Robert Brownings My Last Duchess for more ideas to help you write your essay on this poem);
Sailing to Byzantium by William Butler Yeats;
The Road Not Taken or Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost;
It Sifts from Leaden Sieves or Theres No Frigate Like A Book by Emily Dickinson (Read Gilbert and Gubars The Freedom of Emily Dickinson for more ideas to help you write your essay on Dickinsons poetry);
Ulysses by Alfred Lord Tennyson; and
That Time of Year (Sonnet 73) by William Shakespeare (watch the video lecture on William Shakespeares Sonnet 73 for more ideas to help you write your essay on this poem).
Consider the following questions for the poem that you have chosen:
What is or are the theme(s) of the poem?
Is there a literal setting or situation in the poem? What lines from the poem tell the reader this information? What details does the author include?
Is the setting symbolic?
How would you describe the mood of the poem? What elements contribute to this mood?
Is the title significant to the poems content or meaning? How?
What major literary devices and figures of speech does the poet use to communicate the theme(s)?
How are rhyme and other metrical devices used in the poem? Do they support the poems overall meaning? Why or why not?
Is the identity of the poems narrator clear? How would you describe this person? What information, if any, does the author provide about him or her?
Does the narrator seem to have a certain opinion of or attitude about the poems subject matter? How can you tell?
NOTE: These questions are a means of getting your thoughts in order when you are collecting information for your essay. You do not need to include the answers to all of these questions in your essay; only include those answers that directly support your thesis statement.
and must include, a title page (see the General Writing Requirements), a thesis/outline page, and the essay itself followed by a works cited/references/bibliography page of any primary and/or secondary texts cited in the essay.
