Learning Module 3

Literary Analysis: Poetry

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Overview

In this unit, you will be required to evaluate poetry critically and to write an essay in which you
use evidence effectively, with properly documented sources (MLA). You must also demonstrate
the ability to write in grammatically correct sentences, articulate a clear thesis statement, use
topic sentences, and make a logical argument that thoughtfully incorporates other points of
view. If these learning objectives are unclear to you, please contact your instructor for clarifica-
tion.

The Elements of Poetry/Genre Quiz

Step 1

Read chapters 11-17 of your textbook. Choose three of these elements of poetry to use later in
the body of your essay.

Speaker

Setting

Tone

Words

Images

Symbols
 Choosing a Topic/Writing Your Essay

Step 1

Under “Reading More Poetry,” choose a work from one of the following authors to focus on.

NOTE: POEM YOU CHOOSE MUST BE FROM AN AUTHOR ON THIS LIST (WORK MUST BE IN
OUR CLASS TEXTBOOK). ESSAY SUBMITTED ON POEM/AUTHOR NOT ON THIS LIST WILL NOT
RECEIVE CREDIT.

Auden

Cherry

Dunbar

T.S. Eliot

Frost

Heaney

Hopkins

Komunyakaa

Pastan

Piercy

Plath

Pound

Step 2

Once you have chosen an author from the list of eight above, follow the link to that author’s
“Close Reading” workshop.

Step 3
Choose one of the writing topics from the list and articulate one clear theme. Note: You do not
have to answer each question within a question. Come up with a theme based on what you
consider to be the most interesting part of a question.

For example:

This question comes from the “Emily Dickinson” workshop:

2. Comparing Works: Emily Dickinson evidently spent a great deal of time thinking about the na-
ture of pain, dying, and death—she wrote many poems on this subject. Drawing from the selec-
tion of Dickinson’s poems in The Norton Introduction to Literature (pp. 1162–1166, pp. 886–
891 in the shorter edition) or through research using your college library or an Internet search
engine, read at least three of Dickinson’s other poems that treat the subject of death. Write an
essay comparing "[Because I could not stop for Death—]" with these other poems, making an
argument about her conception of death and immortality. Is it consistent across the poems?
Does it seem to shift or vary in different poems? Or even within individual poems?

Do not answer all of the questions within this question. Try to isolate one main idea you’d like
to focus on, such as “the subject of death.” Then, use this idea as the basis for your essay’s cen-
tral theme. One student, using this question as her prompt, wrote:

Theme: Plath uses various elements of poetry to show how death need not be feared.

Step 4

Once you have a clear theme, identify at least three areas of evidence (such as speaker, set-
ting, and language). Using the sample essay as your model, write a five-paragraph essay that
presents specific evidence from the poem (direct quotations, parenthetical citations) to prove
your central theme.

Step 5

Revise, edit and proofread your draft. Do not forget your works cited entry.
Step 6

Submit the final version of your essay before the deadline.