First essay assignment

I'm handing this out in class tomorrow, but I thought I'd post it here in case anyone looks at the class blog today. If you do happen to see this before class, please leave a comment so I can properly reward your perspicacity with a gold star or something suitable.

Choose any poem that we have previously discussed in class (except “Incident” since I am giving you a sample essay on that poem) and write a paper on the following topic. No matter which poem you write on, you will be trying to demonstrate your familiarity with the basics of poetry. Think about the way that what a poem means is expressed in both its content and form. Also remember that poetry is always in some sense about language; both the literal and figurative levels of language are important to any discussion of poetry.

Topic:

A common structuring device used by poets, and other writers, is to build their texts around a series of contrasts, conflicts or oppositions. All the poems we've read and discussed in class can be thought of as embodying some form of "conflict" or “opposition.” In some cases the poem is directly about a conflict, in other cases contrasting imagery is used, or an opposition between form and content is apparent. In some way then, all the poems contain one or more conflicts, or a series of contrasts. Pick one poem and discuss how language, imagery and metaphor are used in the poem to express the conflict(s) or opposition(s) you want to discuss. Does the poem suggest a possible resolution of the conflict?

Here are some quick examples to start you thinking. Larkin's poem takes up conflicts between parents and children as well as conflicts between the sentimental image of families and their reality. In Gavin Ewart’s poem, the speaker’s “dream” is set in sharp contrast to his inability to bring it about, as is the triviality and ridiculousness of the existing world compared to what the speaker implies “the real” should be. In Jones’s poem the mental and emotional state of a father is contrasted with that of his child and in Stafford's, the contradiction of mutually exclusive emotions and choices are some of the oppositions which that poem addresses. Of course, there are many other ways to think about “conflict” or “opposition” as an element of each of these poems, so don’t feel limited by the suggestions here.

The poems we have discussed in class are:

“This Be the Verse,” Philip Larkin
“Traveling Through the Dark,” William Stafford
“Black Cat,” Rainer Maria Rilke
“Dream of a Slave,” Gavin Ewart
“One Art,” Elizabeth Bishop
“Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note,” Leroi Jones
“Morning Song,” Sylvia Plath

You may also write on Philip Larkin’s “An Arundel Tomb” (found below) if you feel up to working on a poem not previously discussed in class.

Due: Wednesday, February 29
Length: 3 pages typed, double-spaced, and stapled.

Don’t forget to title your essay. A title is one of the elements which distinguishes a piece of formal writing from an informal series of notes. Your title should reflect something pertinent to your discussion. "Paper One," "Essay," "Poetry Paper," and the like are not adequate essay titles. Neither is the title of the poem you are writing about.

Titles of poems are put within quotation marks ("Black Cat"), and the author is referred to by their complete name in the first citation, thereafter use only the last. Do not use constructions like "Mr. Larkin," or "Sylvia."