Poetry Essay Assignment Requirements Following are the requirements for your poetry essay: · I would prefer that you analyze a poem from the *textbook* that we did not cover in class. Other poems must be cleared through me. · Post the words to your poem below your essay for my reference. · Use MLA formatting. Please see your Easy Writer or visit Purdue University, owlatpurdue website https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/ · Use third-person pronouns (he, she, etc.). Do not use first-person (I, we, etc.) or second-person “you” or any of its forms. · Must have detailed analysis with sound supporting details. · Avoid vague statements that contain no real information · Watch for grammar and spelling errors. · Do not use contractions · Use same format as the example essay that I have posted for your reference. · Format your essay in the following manner: I. First paragraph: Background information on the author. a) You may tie in something about the author’s life with the poem as the controlling idea for your essay. If you do not, you must have a controlling idea for the paper. Example: In Arlington’s “Richard Cory,” the theme of the poem is that people are not always the way they seem on the surface.” II. Second paragraph: a) Begin explaining the first stanza or section of your poem. b) Explain the poem in logical sections of thought. Punctuation can help you with this c) Explain any poetic devices [See poetry terms posted under Content.] Make sure to note if the poem is free verse or formal. III. Third paragraph and so forth: Follow the same pattern as noted above until you reach the end of the poem IV. Last paragraph: Conclusion a) Sum up the details of your poem Joseph 1 Sara Joseph Composition II Dr. Gerald Franks 11 February 2013 His Heart Was a Desert Place Robert Frost was born on March 26, 1874, and died January 29, 1963. Although he was an American poet, his work was first published in England. Frost is noted for his realistic depictions of life in rural settings and his use of American colloquial speech, especially rural life in New England. He is noted for being one of most popular and famous twentieth-century, American poets, and he won the Congressional Gold Medal in 1960 for his work, along with receiving four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry. Despite his fame and accomplishments, Frost’s life was plagued with tragedy. When he was 11, his father died of tuberculosis, leaving the family with only eight dollars. In 1900, Frost’s mother died of cancer, and in 1920, he had to commit his younger sister Jeanie to a mental hospital, where she died nine years later. Frost and his mother also suffered from depression, which was inherited by his daughter Irma, who in 1947 was committed to a mental hospital. His wife Elinor and he had six children; however, his son Elliot died of cholera; his son Carol committed suicide. His long list of losses did not stop there; his daughter Marjorie died of complicati.

1. Poetry Essay
Assignment Requirements
Following are the requirements for your poetry essay:
· I would prefer that you analyze a poem from the *textbook*
that we did not cover in class. Other poems must be cleared
through me.
· Post the words to your poem below your essay for my
reference.
· Use MLA formatting. Please see your Easy Writer or visit
Purdue University, owlatpurdue website
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
· Use third-person pronouns (he, she, etc.). Do not use first-
person (I, we, etc.) or second-person “you” or any of its forms.
· Must have detailed analysis with sound supporting details.
· Avoid vague statements that contain no real information
· Watch for grammar and spelling errors.
· Do not use contractions
· Use same format as the example essay that I have posted for
your reference.
· Format your essay in the following manner:
I. First paragraph: Background information on the author.
a) You may tie in something about the author’s life with the
poem as the controlling idea for your essay. If you do not, you
must have a controlling idea for the paper. Example: In
Arlington’s “Richard Cory,” the theme of the poem is that
people are not always the way they seem on the surface.”
II. Second paragraph:
a) Begin explaining the first stanza or section of your poem.
b) Explain the poem in logical sections of thought. Punctuation
can help you with this
c) Explain any poetic devices [See poetry terms posted under
Content.] Make sure to note if the poem is free verse or formal.

2. III. Third paragraph and so forth: Follow the same pattern as
noted above until you reach the end of the poem
IV. Last paragraph: Conclusion
a) Sum up the details of your poem
Joseph 1
Sara Joseph
Composition II
Dr. Gerald Franks
11 February 2013
His Heart Was a Desert Place
Robert Frost was born on March 26, 1874, and died January 29,
1963. Although he was an American poet, his work was first
published in England. Frost is noted for his realistic depictions
of life in rural settings and his use of American colloquial
speech, especially rural life in New England. He is noted for
being one of most popular and famous twentieth-century,
American poets, and he won the Congressional Gold Medal in
1960 for his work, along with receiving four Pulitzer Prizes for
Poetry. Despite his fame and accomplishments, Frost’s life was
plagued with tragedy. When he was 11, his father died of
tuberculosis, leaving the family with only eight dollars. In
1900, Frost’s mother died of cancer, and in 1920, he had to
commit his younger sister Jeanie to a mental hospital, where she
died nine years later. Frost and his mother also suffered from
depression, which was inherited by his daughter Irma, who in
1947 was committed to a mental hospital. His wife Elinor and
he had six children; however, his son Elliot died of cholera; his
son Carol committed suicide. His long list of losses did not
stop there; his daughter Marjorie died of complications from
childbirth, and his daughter died Elinor died three days after she
was born. Only two of children, Lesley and Irma, outlived their
father. Not even his wife would outlive him; she died of heart

3. failure in 1938. Frost’s loss and grief affected him profoundly,
and he reveals his depth of his despair in his poem “Desert
Places,” which captures Comment by Computer Services:
Entire paragraph is a brief introduction to the author
Comment by Computer Services: specific details
Comment by Computer Services: specific details
Comment by Computer Services: specific details
The entire essay uses specific details, meaning it does describe
or explain in vague, non-specific terms. Comment by Computer
Services: Thesis statement. The author of the paper decided to
have “the point of her paper” revolve around the poet’s
relationship to the poem. You may do this, or you may choose
to focus your poem on some other element of the poem.
Whatever it is, you must have a “point” that your essay is
written around and supports.
Joseph 2
the sense that Frost has gone past grief and loss and now only
feels a void of emptiness. As he says in his poem, “I have it in
me so much nearer home / To scare myself with my own desert
places.”
The title “Desert Places” is important to the meaning of
the poem and is symbolic of what Frost’s mental state at the
time he wrote the poem. A “desert” is a barren place where only
the barest of vegetation can grow. If one becomes lost in the
desert, he or she can die because it is so barren and void of life-
giving sustenance. By the time that Frost had written this poem
in 1936, he had already lost his parents and three of his
children. The toll that this would have taken on him would
have been horrendous and would have to have left him
emotionally numb, which is reflected in the lines, “And lonely
as it is that loneliness / Will be more lonely ere it will be less -
- / A blanker whiteness of benighted snow / With no
expression, nothing to express.” Frost poem reflects the toll
that his losses have taken on him, and the emptiness that a
person feels when they have ever surpassed the grieving stage.
Comment by Computer Services: Your own reasoning as to

4. “why” you think your interpretation of the poem is valid. Give
specific details to your support your position. Note how the
author brings in Frost’s loss of family and ties it in with the
poem itself. Comment by Computer Services: poetic
terminology Comment by Computer Services: You “must”
use quotes from the poem to support your supporting evidence.
Comment by Computer Services: conclusions
The poem is a quatrain, and the first stanza sets the tone
and setting. It is dusk, and the snow and night are “falling
fast.” He’s walking by a field and almost passes it without
notice; however, he becomes aware that “the ground is almost
covered smooth with snow.” It is a scene that usually evokes a
sense of peace and awe in most people; however, the lines “But
a few weeds and stubble showing last,” gives us the first
indication that he is using symbolism to state that this scene is
not comforting to him and that even the virgin snow is blighted
with weeds, which show through its white purity. After the
losses that he has suffered, he would never again be able to feel
total joy and tranquility since the ghosts of his losses would
still hover close, reminding him that life is extremely fragile
and is full of pain. Comment by Computer Services: You must
state what type of poem it is. Please refer to the list that I
posted in Content for poetry information. Comment by
Computer Services: Analyze your poem in an organized order.
This poem is separated into quatrains, and the author explains
each quatrain. You may have to analyze a section of thought.
Comment by Computer Services: Uses poetic terminology
and explains what they are in her support Comment by
Computer Services: The author blends quotes from the poem
into her sentences. Comment by Computer Services: quote
Comment by Computer Services: good solid support
details.
Joseph 3
The second stanza talks about how he does not belong here,
“The woods around it have it - - it is theirs.” This could be
symbolic of the fact that we are simply walking through life,

5. and it actually does not last and is not a place where we will
always belong. It could also mean that although the setting
belongs to the creatures who live in the field, “the loneliness
includes [me] unawares.” Without realizing that the setting of
the snow-laded field is affecting him, he suddenly realizes that
this lonely setting has included him in its aloneness.
Comment by Computer Services: Analysis of second stanza
Comment by Computer Services: sums up the next section
Comment by Computer Services: quotes Comment by
Computer Services: develops her argument and stand on the
poem
In the third stanza, he continues to talk about how barren it
appears to him “With no expression, nothing to express.” The
snow cannot express its loneliness, but the impact of the scene
has become evident to him, and it is caught up in it
unintentionally. Comment by Computer Services: analysis
of third stanza Comment by Computer Services: quote
Comment by Computer Services: This stanza needs more
development, but the information is good.
In the fourth stanza, he personifies the scene around him
by speaking to it directly when he says, “They cannot scare me
with their empty spaces.” He then almost challenges the barren
snow scene to compare its emptiness to his own, and not even
space “where no human race is” can compare to his because he
has in him “so much nearer home / To scare [myself] with [my]
own desert places.” Comment by Computer Services: fourth
stanza Comment by Computer Services: uses poetry terms to
analyze the material Comment by Computer Services: quote
Comment by Computer Services: development, also uses
more quotes
In Frost’s poem, the scene itself symbolizes what he feels
inside himself, and through personification, he addresses it
directly to let the reader know what is going on inside him. By
using visual imagery, he creates a scene in our mind that evoke
an image of what it feels like to be devoid of emotions due to
tragic losses in one’s life. Comment by Computer Services:

6. conclusion Comment by Computer Services: poetry term