Art of poetry

WRITING PROJECT
Length: about 500-750 words (double-spaced)
Format: essay
*Looking ahead: For Week 13, you will make a slide presentation of this essay.
Directions: Choose ONE of the following:
1. Make a visual or musical connection. Select a poem read in class BUT NOT ONE YOU ALREADY WROTE ABOUT. What imagery and themes can you identify? Research an illustration, song, video, or piece of music that you think has parallels with that poem. How do the two works complement one another? How are they different? Discuss the connections you find. Include a Works Cited page.
2. Explore the life of a poet. Select an author from the list of poems read in class and discover something interesting about the poet’s life. Examine one other poem by this author that we did not read in class. Write an essay discussing how the poems do (or do not) show a connection to the poet’s life. 3. Analyze: Select a poem from the e-Text that we have NOT read and discussed in class and NOT ONE YOU ALREADY WROTE ABOUT. Discuss the most important features (e.g., type of poem; structure; diction; imagery; figures of speech; sounds; meter—and/or other important elements such as symbols or irony). The poem should be at least 8 lines long (but not so long that you can’t write well about it in 2-3 pages). Include a Works Cited page.
FORMAT: • Set up your paper in MLA style: typed, double-spaced, with one-and-a quarter-inch margins, 12-point font. • For MLA style: See the Purdue Owl link in the Course Information module and/or speak to a librarian.
NOTE: • Poem titles are in “quotation marks” : “We Real Cool” • Authors are referred to by LAST NAME (it’s “Brooks suggests…”, not “Gwendolyn suggests”) • Include the line number when quoting a word or line of poetry. For example: Hazel calls the frog “ya little green pervert” (20).
EVALUATION: Your paper will be evaluated on your ability to express your ideas about the poem in a clear, organized essay; your statements are supported by a careful reading of the poem; you note and discuss specific and important features in the poem; your essay is proofed and free from grammatical errors; you have followed the directions of the assignment.
PLEASE NOTE: Plagiarized work receives zero points and NO REWRITES. See the syllabus for more information and plagiarism and late papers.

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