Mr. McMahand
English 1101
Writing an Analysis of
Poetry
For your poetry analysis essay, which you
will compose in class, you need to compile all of your prewriting work and
textual annotations, using all of this material as a reference point for your composition. You should build beforehand a strong,
argumentative thesis as well as key points of support, using lines and images
from the selected poem as your guideposts.
Save time in class for proofreading and content editing: you may use
during this timed session a thesaurus, dictionary, laptop, and other reference
materials. Your essay should run three
to five hand-written pages, use double spacing, include a heading, title, and
appropriate in-text and end citations for all quotes.
Key points to remember when
composing a thesis statement
·
Start with open-ended
questions about the text, and don’t pose questions you can close with a
fact. Make your thesis argumentative.
And, by all means, do not write on what is most obvious about images or literal
events. Example of a poor thesis: William Carlos Williams explores Brueghel’s
pictorial of a rustic dance in the poem “The Dance.” (No duh!)
·
Center your thesis statement(s) on theme, metaphor, voice of the
speaker (tone and mood), conceit, simile, imagery, or structure. Choose any one of or a combination of these
elements, noting specifically how the poet constructs or deconstructs them. You
may also link intertextual ideas and images, connecting multiple texts through
similarities in theme, voice, structure, etc.
·
Choose themes that are not too obvious or too broad. Bad examples: power, subjugation, the eroticism of Empire, resistance, etc. Alone, these issues are too massive: strive
for a more structured, developed focus.
(See, for example, the Heaney-based thesis statements on the next
page).
·
Phrase your statements forcefully, academically, and with powerful
action verbs.
Good examples: The
poem complicates the notion of … These
metaphors
reveal…
These images suggest …
Good Thesis Statements
While a few
scenes in Demme’s adaptation exaggerate the novel’s supernatural element, the
film remains overall faithful to Morrison’s muted evocation of necromancy.
Kafka’s use of
changing perspectives in the story disrupts the reader’s expectation of a
reliable narrative “truth.”
Evoking a
ravished landscape and population, “Act of
The two
sonnets that comprise “Act of Union” contain symbols and images, which, apropos
to the poem’s title and erotic conceit, reveal a fluid and recursive struggle
for power between the conquering British and the defiant Irish.
Example of a Not So Good
Thesis …
(and why it does not work)
Sharon Olds’ “Saturn”
deals with a parent’s alcoholism and evil.
Whereas the first three statements promise a
rich and highly focused examination of text, this thesis about “Saturn” is
ultimately too broad for a four page paper.
You could write about evil all year, every year, until the super volcano
erupts. Better that you finesse your
interest in evil into a more pared down, controllable concept and application.
Try this revision on for size: The
speaker in “Saturn” invokes mythology and astrology to paint a pornographic
fantasy about an otherwise mundane life with an alcoholic father.
Guidelines in Writing about
Poetry
Prewriting
1.
Follow our class rules to reading poetry.
2.
Determine what is literally happening in your chosen poem(s). You should have
already looked up information about the poet(s) as well as unfamiliar
words and
allusions.
3. Fix
on a theme you wish to pursue, and using supporting “evidence” from the poem,
give an interpretation.
4. Try
to understand how the images, metaphors, conceits, etc construct or inform main
and secondary themes.
5. Get
started. Compile on paper all of your ideas; link passages, and consider just how
you will tie your ideas and textual passages together. Look back through your notes,
especially your textual annotations.
Class talk can only touch the tip of the proverbial
iceberg: dig deeper. Your prewriting work is due alongside your
rough and final
drafts.
Composing
1.
Remember, you do not have to begin by writing your introduction
first. You can
compose other paragraphs initially, if that helps you get started.
2. Your
introduction must include: poem title, author, background/general remarks,
and thesis.
3a. Your central paragraphs explain in as few
sentences as possible what is literally
happening in the poem. Take care
not to over-summarize the work. Next,
explicate the poem, looking critically and analytically at images,
metaphors, etc.
Your analysis will only hold meaning as it gestures back to your
thesis. Lastly,
integrate throughout this section any contextual remarks that draw
further meaning
out of the poem.
3b. Each paragraph following your
introduction begins with a topic sentence that is part
and parcel of your thesis. These
topic sentences, or minor claims, break the thesis
down into manageable pieces and lend focus to your individual
paragraphs,
allowing you further space to explore your ideas, one paragraph at a
time.
3c. Your body paragraphs should utilize
direct quotes and references to important
imagery, metaphors, similes, and any other pertinent poetic devices. Let the text
guide you in your use of context from
start to finish.
4. In
the conclusion, restate your thesis but in different words. Also, a sophisticated
writer is able to mention an alternative, albeit simpatico, reading of
the poem and
can suggest new ways to apply a theoretical focus on the work.
Editing
1.
Follows the MLA stylebook rules.
2. Check to see that you have introduced all
quotes and cited and documented each
one properly.
3.
Remember to use line numbers, not page numbers, when citing poems.
4.
General Advice: in all of your writing, not just in your thesis
statement(s), drive your
ideas forward with action verbs, not weak being verbs. Exercise word economy by
using as few puffy adjectives, vague pronouns, and adverbs as
possible. Stay in
present tense and compose in active rather
than passive voice.
The Final Product
You must turn in the following: the final
draft and all pre-writing work.