English 2225
Short Paper Guidelines
This paper gives you an opportunity to explore a work
by one of the six Romantic poets we will have read this semester. You need only
compose about two to three pages for this assignment, but I would like you to
include at least one outside source with your discussion (that is not just
biographical in nature). We will briefly
discuss documentation guidelines in class, but as writers in a college-level
English literature class, I expect you to be able to follow resource guidelines
to correctly document your sources (and your poem) following MLA standards. Here's
a website to
get you started (use MLA format)..
My recommendations include the following:
- Choose a Romantic poet from the six we will have read (Blake,
Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley,
and Keats). Who has been your
favorite? Which one wrote the poems you enjoyed rereading? Once you've decided that, then choose a work.
(The poem you select need not be a poem we have discussed in
class.)
Whatever work you select, ask some questions about the poem:
- What
is being dramatized? What conflicts
or themes does the poem address, or question?
What issue is being raised?
- Who
is the speaker? Define and describe
the speaker and his/her voice. What does the
speaker say? Who is the audience? Are other
characters involved?
- What
happens in the poem? Consider the
plot or basic design of the action. How are the
dramatized conflicts or themes introduced,
sustained, or resolved?
- When
does the action occur? What
is the date and/or time of day? Does that
matter?
- Where
is the speaker? Is there a clear
narrator? Are there multiple narrators? Describe the
physical location of the dramatic moment.
- Why
does the speaker feel compelled to
speak? What is his/her motivation?
- Consider as well: does the poem you've
chosen fit into the canon of
English Romanticism?
If so, how? If not, why not?
Consider, perhaps, questions about form, diction, image,
and rhythm. For example:
- Poetic Language
: Look for qualities that
might distinguish the poem: is it a sonnet? Does
it have a three-stage development? What about
symbols? Level of diction? Does the diction use
assonance and alliteration?
- Rhythm and Rhyme
: Consider the sound and
meter of the words; in a poem with no rhymes,
consider the importance of the end words. Read
the poem aloud.- Images
: Does the poem describe or
present strong images or symbols or metaphors?
Does an object or image dominate the subject of
the poem?
- Form
: How does the poem look
on the page? Does the form matter? Are there
caesuras and enjambments the poet uses to
heighten an effect? Stanzas?
You may want to consider providing some cultural, biographical, or historical
background to help contextualize the poem in the poet's life.
This may help you assess the content
and quality of the poem as well.
Remember: you do not need to include biographical or historical
information for this assignment! If
you believe it would help illuminate some aspect of what you are
discussing about the poem, then by all means include this
information, but as your audience, I do not need an accumulation
of facts about the poet's life in addition to your analysis.
You should not evaluate the poem.
This is not meant as a
book or film review where you judge or assess a poem's worthiness. Instead, I
would like you to discuss the poem to show us what you have seen and have come
to understand about your
selection.
For some additional help thinking about your poem,
consider these websites:
From the University of
Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center comes a
short, six-step
process for reading a poem.
From the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, here is a
handout on poetry explication.
This paper is due on Tuesday, March 10th at
the beginning of class. Please add a cover page with your
paper that includes a title, your name, this class
title, and the date. You should also have a short Works Cited page at the end.
You do not need to cite our Norton Anthology
for any lines of poetry. (Just supply the appropriate line numbers from the poem
after the passages you quote.) In addition, you should submit your final paper
into turnitin.com (we will talk about this in class) before you call the
assignment done. I will need this submission as part of your paper, so please do
this ahead of time. Failure to submit into turnitin.com by the time I begin
grading will result in a half-grade penalty.
And finally: don't forget the presentation variables
to be sure your paper is ready: the final draft should be double-spaced, should use 11-
or 12-point font, should be printed on singled-sided sheets of paper, and should include a cover
page. You need only include a title, your name, and basic course information on
the cover page, but please include one. Also, just staple the entire paper once
in the upper left-hand corner--no plastic covers or other folders, please.