Essay #2

Due: Tuesday, March 11

Guidelines

  • Read again the critical remarks on Eliot's "Prufrock" [N 767] by Miller, Christ, North, Spurr, and Blasing.
  • In approximately 800-1100 words (3-4 pages), discuss any two of these five critical extracts in terms of the different claims they make for Eliot's poem. You will need to give a brief account of each argument and explain its value for your reading of Eliot's poem.
  • Determine the main thesis of each set of remarks (what is being argued about the poem). Then: Consider the way in which the author supports his or her claims. Consider the way she quotes, the use to which she puts the quoted material. What is the author's overall evaluation of Eliot's poem? How do the remarks you select relate to each other? In what ways might one support the other? contradict the other?
  • Pay attention to the terminology of each extract. Is there terminology in common? Refer to Abrams and the dictionary (as well as sources online) for terminological clarification. Do the two critics you select use the same terms in different ways? Do they use the same term to very different ends?
  • Note: You may refer to the short extract from Mitchell in the addition to the other two extracts which you select.
  • When quoting from Eliot, please refer to the line numbers. When quoting ambiguously from the critical authors (i.e., when it is unclear which author you're quoting), refer to the specific text by the author's last name, as per MLA format. E.g.: (North).
  • Again: Because this is a short paper, the heading should consist of no more than your name and the date, single-spaced, at the top of the first page. No title.
  • As for the rest of the paper: 12-point font, double-spaced, one-inch margins. Please number the pages.
  • Please spellcheck and proofread your work.


    • Essay # 1

    Due: Thursday, 13 February.

    Guidelines

  • Because this is a short paper, the heading should consist of no more than your name and the date, single-spaced, at the top of the first page. No title.
  • As for the rest of the paper: 12-point font, double-spaced, one-inch margins. Please number the pages.
  • Length: 3 complete pages; approximately 800-1000 words. Papers which fail to achieve a reasonable length will be returned and counted as late.
  • Follow the standard format for quoting lines of poetry discussed in class.
  • Please spellcheck and proofread.
  • Choose one of the following poems:
  • John Donne, "The Flea" [N 186]
  • Emily Dickinson, # 1545 ("The Bible is an antique Volume–") [N 641]
  • Wallace Stevens, "The Snow Man" [N 718]
  • Peter Porter, "A Consumer's Report" [N 1000]
  • Geoffrey Hill, from "Lachrimae" [N 1029]
  • Sylvia Plath, "Morning Song" [N 1030]

    • For this first essay assignment, you must produce a brief semantic analysis of one of the above poems. That is, demonstrate how certain parts of the poem work–and do so together–to produce effects of meaning, the "semantic effects" of the poem. In particular, concentrate on the role of metaphor and/or metonymy, simile and/or synecdoche, in this production of meaning. Is there a main or extended metaphor or a series of distinct metaphors or metonyms? What other figures (e.g., allegory, symbol, personification, paradox, hyperbole, understatement, etc.; again: see Abrams in "Figurative Language") are at work in the poem? What role is taken by the poem's construction of the speaker?

    Again, be sure to quote and to refer consistently to the precise language of the poem.

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    Short Assignment

    For Thursday, January 23rd.

    Go through the Norton reader. Select a poem that grabs your interest. Read the poem a few times. Determine what the main question of the poem is for you. This question should be one whose answer (your efforts to answer) would form the basis of a possible essay.

    What else interests you about this poem? Why did you select this poem?

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