English Poetry Research Poem

1. Choose a poem from the list provided to you.
2. Annotate the poem. Look carefully and deeply at the nuances of word choice,
connotative meanings, poetic devices, structure on the page, etc.
3. Consider how the poem relates to a social justice movement/issue.
4. Do research. Find out information pertaining to the poem’s author, the social justice
movement/issue it relates to, the social/historical implications, etc. Determine what
information applies to the understanding of this particular poem. Determine where you
might decide to utilize it in your analysis. [I am grading you as much on what you decide
to exclude as much as on what you include. Make smart choices in terms of necessity.]
5. **Analyze the poem. Be sure to include at least 4-5 in-text references that come
directly from the poem. These may be line quotes, word choices, or an explanation of a
literary device or structural choices. As you analyze, be sure you are focusing on
interpretation, not summary. Think about connotative meanings as you do so.
6. **Come to a conclusion about theme and how the poem did [or did not] impact society.
In other words, why should I care about this poem? What should drive me to go out and
read it right now?

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