Essay 2 Assignment Activist Poetry

Essay 2 Assignment: Activist Poetry

Please read the Essay 2 assignment carefully prior to exploring the poems for this unit. It can help to direct your reading. Contact me if you have any questions or need assistance.

Essay 2: Activist Poetry

Essay 2 Assignment Activist Poetry

Goals

In this second essay assignment on poetry, you will be demonstrating your ability to do the following:

Apply the elements of poetry to carefully analyze and explicate ONE poem thoroughly. Craft a clear, well-organized essay to explain your interpretation.

Background

In Chapter 5 of Writing Essays about Literature, “Interpreting Poetry,” Kelley Griffith reminds us that the origin of poetry is “mystical” and able to “transform us,” because it “deepens ‘our capacity for personhood, our achievement of humanity’” (115). And it does this by engaging us with certain “conventions” of poetry, including the “sense,” “sound,” “structure” and “sight” (117). What this means is that the language and form used to speak about the subject matter are critical to our deep understanding of the world in which we live. In his memoir, A Place to Stand, author and poet Jimmy Santiago Baca writes, “Language placed my life experiences in a new context, freeing me for the moment to become with air as air, with clouds as clouds, from which new associations arose to engage me in present life in a more purposeful way.” As Baca engaged more purposefully in his words and life, becoming a poet within prison, our investigations into poetry will allow us to gain “new context,” draw new parallels, and deepen our engagement with the issues that we confront daily in the world around us. In this essay, we will look carefully at a number of poets to see how they argue about some of the most important questions facing society and humanity through the language, structure, and sounds of poetry.

Essay 2 Assignment Activist Poetry

Task

Choose one of the poems we’ve discussed in our unit on poetry and write a 3-5 page essay (in MLA format) in which you carefully analyze (explicate) the sense, sound, and structure of the work in order to provide a clear and insightful interpretation of the argument being made about society,

humanity, and/or life. In essence, this means you will need to identify WHAT the poem is about, HOW the poet conveys that topic or argument, and WHY the poet presents the argument in that way or for a certain purpose or impact.

Essay 2 Assignment Activist Poetry

Prompts

Below are some potential prompts for narrowing your focus. These are NOT required prompts, and you may select #7: Choose your own!

1. Evaluate “Flower Feet” OR another poem of your choosing that features women’s issues, and consider the way the poet approaches the themes of women’s roles, freedom and oppression. Who is the speaker? What tone does the speaker use? What argument is being made about the subject or issue? What conclusion can you draw?
2. Explore the theme of righteous or justified violence in “Woodchucks” OR another poem that focuses on acts of violence, by looking carefully at the way the poet reconsiders these actions or behaviors within society. Is the text successful at forcing us to re-evaluate our own view of righteous violence? Consider the following in your answer: What is the speaker’s claims about violence? How do their behaviors, actions or views affirm or contradict their claims? How do they change throughout? What tactics do they use to convince us (and themselves?) And do we ultimately sympathize with them, or do we reject their justification?
3. Evaluate “Bully,” OR another poem which features strong allusions and references to a specific historical or cultural event/practice, and explore how the poet uses these allusions (among other strategies) to explore the theme of cultural identity. Consider the following questions in your answer: Does the poet embrace, reject or otherwise question a dominant culture? Does he/she create sympathy or antagonism toward a minority culture? Do they reveal an irony or hypocrisy within a culture?
4. Explore “homage to my hips” OR another poem of your choosing, which deals with the theme of perfection, conformity, or individuality. Analyze the argument presented about this theme, paying close attention to the literary elements employed by the poet.
5. Explore the use of figurative language, including symbolism, metaphor, simile, and hyperbole, in “There Are Black” OR another poem of your choosing, and discuss what hidden or suppressed “truth” these symbols/figurative comparisons expose about the society. How does the poem deal with the following themes: what we hide from ourselves, and what lays hidden behind walls/closed doors.
6. Evaluate “AIDS,” “One Art,” OR another poem of your choosing, in which a literal or figurative death occurs. Explore how the poet and author use this death to argue against a pervasive belief, perception, or problem in society. In your analysis, make sure you discuss the events or sections leading toward the death, and the resolution following, as well as the death itself.
7. YOUR CHOICE! If you have an interesting interpretation of a poem’s argument, please run it by me first. Most likely my answer will be “yes!”

Requirements A strong essay will:

Open with a well-developed introduction inspired by the poem, secondary resources (biography, etc.) and class discussion, which clearly introduces the poet and poem title. Provide a focused thesis statement that clearly addresses the task and states your argument about the meaning in your chosen poem and offers how this message is revealed.
Categorize the information above to group your ideas.
Use clear topic sentences that offer a critical comment focused on the poetic elements and not just plot points.
Provide and correctly introduce and integrate textual evidence, in the form of quotes and paraphrasing, into your writing to support your points.
Be well-organized to lead your reader and build your argument.
Explain your inferences. In other words, use close-reading analysis (and explication) to tell the reader what the quotes or examples “mean.”
Conclude by offering new insight into the poem or issues for your reader. This is a place to explore personal, cultural, social and universal issues or themes (the bigger picture).
Use MLA format including in-text citation and a Works Cited page.
Provide a Cover Letter which discusses your writing process (the difficulties and successes) and anything you have learned from the comments on your previous assignments.

Required Reading

Baca, Jimmy Santiago. “There Are Black” Bishop. Elizabeth. “One Art”
Clifton, Lucille. “homage to my hips” Espada, Martin. “Bully”

Fainlight, Ruth. “Flower Feet”
Kumin, Maxine. “Woodchucks” Sarton, May. “AIDS”
Griffith, Kelley. Chapters 5, 7-10, & 13

Ch. 5, “Interpreting Poetry”; Ch. 7-10 (Drafting & Quoting Poetry, 282-84); and Chapter 13 (Sample Essay on Poetry, 373-75)

Essay 2 Assignment Activist Poetry

Due Dates

See Syllabus and Unit Overview for Deadlines