ENG10030 Literary Genre

Midterm assignment
Due date: 26th February 2024

Please choose ONE of the poems or excerpts from the Poetry 2024 file on Brightspace (Week 1 >
Tutorial Resources > Poetry 2024), and write 750 words of close literary analysis (close reading) on
it. (If you would like to write on Chaucer, please use one of the individual excerpts listed below the
table here.) NB: we recommend choosing one of the lesser-known poems/excerpts, which often
allow for more freedom of interpretation – but this is only a recommendation.

You must complete each of the following sections, using the word-counts allocated. For this
exercise (and unlike your final essay), you are not required to look up secondary (critical) sources –
though you may wish to look up dictionaries of literary terms or rhetorical devices or other
reference material to support your analysis. We recommend that you set aside an afternoon to work
closely on the poem/excerpt you have chosen.

PLEASE USE THIS TABLE STRUCTURE BELOW FOR YOUR ASSIGNMENT

1: GENRE and KEY FEATURES (in bullet points)

What genre or genres does this poem use?
What are the key features of your chosen poem
that help you to identify that genre or genres?
(up to 150 words)
2: LITERARY TECHNIQUES
Using bullet-points, each supported with
precise examples from the poem, identify 5
literary or rhetorical techniques at work in this
poem, looking beyond local linguistic effects
(such as alliteration) to more substantive
effects (such as register, tone, address). (250
words)
4: DEVELOPMENT
Describe the development of the poem as it
moves from beginning to end, making close
references to its structure, key images,
engagement with the literary tradition (350
words).

NB: ‘close reading’, as assessed in this assignment, is (as week 3’s lecture powerpoint noted) ‘a line-
by-line analysis of text with particular attention to patterns, correspondences, historical details, or
rhetorical devices’ (OED).
Chaucer excerpts:

 Chaucer, ‘General Prologue’, description of the Host (lines 747-83)

 Chaucer, ‘General Prologue’, lines 715-46 (narrator)
 Chaucer, ‘General Prologue’, lines 165-207 (description of the Monk)
 Chaucer, ‘General Prologue’, lines 207-269 (description of the Friar)