Your final essay for this course will consist of the explication of one of the poems below (titles of poems are in quotation marks, not italicized).

This essay should be double spaced

It should be 2 1/2 to 3 pages long

You must use 2 sources of Literary Criticism in your analysis

You can use the analysis of the poems from the videos below, but you have to quote from them and cite the source wth the time range.

Even if you use the videos, you still need to research 2 works of literary criticism from the LaGuardia library.

Remember that this is your analysis, and you have to use the videos and the literary criticism sources to help support your own claims about the poem. Use your own words to explicate or extrapolate meaning from the poem of your choice.

“Traveling through the Dark” by William E. Stafford

LINK:   https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42775/traveling-through-the-dark

Analysis 

LINK:   https://youtu.be/nrxSx6y0st0

or

“The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake

LINK:  https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43654/the-chimney-sweeper-when-my-mother-died-i-was-very-young

Documentary

LINK:   https://youtu.be/ws1adpEy2Vs


or


“The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats

LINK:   https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43290/the-second-coming

Reading and Analysis

LINK:  https://youtu.be/BDK6hklSsE0

INSTRUCTIONS ABOUT POEM EXPLICATION:


Poem explication:
 

Read poem (at least 2 times/One shot reading, the other, a more focused reading).

Identify the speaker

Identify the theme (Dramatic conflict or situation/ no universal idea)

Always use present tense

Refer to parts of a poem by Stanzas and lines

 

Ex. The second stanza begins with an ominous prophetic voice asking “What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow / Out of this stony rubbish?” (Eliot, lines 19–20).

 

Use slash to separate line breaks

 

 

 

Introduction

Begin immediately by informing the reader of the title and poet (In the poem xxxxxxxx by Dylan Thomas…Date if relevant). No hook necessary.

Identify the theme or dramatic conflict or situation of the speaker (identify speaker/not the poet)

No synopsis

Begin Thesis:

This poem dramatizes the conflict between…

Or

This poem dramatizes the situation of…

 

Body Paragraphs (Chronological, beginning, middle and end) 3 ideas (analyze word choice, tone (emotion or state of mind), imagery, metaphor, allusion)

Body 1

Body 2

Body 3

 

 

 

 

The conclusion

Write it after you have reached the end of the poem

Restate the dramatic conflict or situation

Final thought about relevance to life

 

Verbs to use:

Dramatizes

Presents

Characterizes

Implies

Emphasizes

Shows

Wonders

Alludes to

Asks

Thinks


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