Week 2 Essay Paper
Explication of Poetry
In well-stated paragraphs totaling two to three pages write
about one of the paired sets of poems listed below. Each pair contains one of
the assigned poems from this week’s reading and an additional poem from the
textbook.
Robert Frost Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (page 548)
and Virgina Scott Snow (pages 764–765)
Louis Simpson American Poetry (page 555) and Mark Strand
Eating Poetry (pages 593–594)
William Wordsworth Daffodils (I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud)
(page 595) and Amy Lowell Patterns (pages 921–923)
William Butler Yeats When You Are Old (page 713) and Dorothy
Parker Afternoon (pages 928–929)
Langston Hughes Theme for English B (pages 861–862) and Sherman Alexie On the
Amtrak from Boston to New York City
(pages 883–884)
Refer to our lectures and the assigned sections from the
textbook Poetry in the English Language and How to Read a Poem, then consider
the following questions.
What is the subject of each poem?
What relationship to historical context does each poem bear?
Where does each poem fit in the tradition of poetry?
What are the primary similes, metaphors, or symbols used in
creating each poem’s meaning?
What are the similarities between the subjects of each poem?
How does each poem differ in its consideration of the
subject?
What linguistic and rhetorical devices is the poet using,
and what are their effects?
This assignment asks you to understand the lecture material
fully. You do not have to answer the questions in the order given here, but you
do need to answer all the questions in your paper. The essay should conform to
essay standards, and should not be a set of unconnected answers to the
questions. The essay should have an introduction, thesis, body, and conclusion.
Use APA citations and references. Make sure that the essay follows APA formatting
with Times New Roman 12-point font, double spacing, a title page, and headers.
There is no requirement to conduct research for this essay. However, if you do
conduct research outside of your text and the essays mentioned above, all
sources used must be scrupulously cited in APA format.
