12 P a g e English 1B – Essay Two (Poetry – Theme).docx

12 | P a g e
English 1B – Essay Two (Poetry – Theme) Length: 6-7 pages
Due date: Check Canvas
The Task: Select one of the options from below and write a five
to six-page essay that, through
explications of the poems, explores the themes mentioned
below.
Option One: Using Elizabeth Bishop’s “Quai D’Orleans” and
“One Art,” compose an essay that considers
the ways that Bishop explores the nature of loss and memory.
Your discussion and conclusion should
must draw on connections between the two poems. Make sure
that you discuss the tone of each poem.
Make sure that you include any literary devices (metaphors,
alliteration etc.).
Option Two: Using Seamus Heaney’s “Death of a Naturalist”
and “Blackberry Picking” explore the
childhood lessons that the poet illustrates in each poem. What
are those lessons? How does the tone of
each poem differ? Focus on the similarities of the poems (the
differences should not be your focus). Do
not skip any language of the poem. You must pay careful
attention to the tone of each poem—and how
that tone shifts. Make sure that you also pay close attention to
the music of the language. Make sure that
you include any literary devices (metaphors, alliteration etc.).

Option Three: Using Seamus Heaney’s “Blackberry Picking”
and Galway Kinnell’s “Blackberry Eating”
explore how each poet writes about the pleasures and / or
disappointments of gathering and eating
blackberries. Focus on the similarities of the poems (the
differences should not be your focus). Do not
skip any language of the poem. You must pay careful attention
to the tone of each poem. Make sure that
you also pay close attention to the music of the language. Make
sure that you include any literary devices
(metaphors, alliteration etc.).
Option Four: Using Emily Dickinson’s “There’s Been a Death
in the Opposite House” and “I Heard a Fly
Buzz When I Died,” explore how Dickinson considers death in
both poems.
Option Five: Using Robert Frost’s poems “Bereft” and “Desert
Places” consider how Frost explores the
way we project our emotions into how we experience the
landscape. Make sure that you discuss the tone
of each poem. Make sure that you include any literary devices
(metaphors, alliteration etc.).
Option Six: Using Robert Frost’s poems “Desert Places” and
Wallace Stevens’ “The Snow Man” consider
how each poet explores the way we project our emotions onto
the winter landscape. Make sure that you
discuss the tone of each poem. Make sure that you include any
literary devices (metaphors, alliteration
etc.).
To Prepare: To help you better prepare for the essay, I want
you, before you begin, to print out copies of
the poems you are writing about and then, in the margins,

summarize, word for word, what the poet is
describing/discussing. I’d also like you to write down your
initial reflections and analyses about what you
might infer from the language of the poems. This way, before
you begin writing, you will have engaged
the poems closely enough to provide you with enough material
to shape your initial writing direction.
Note: your writing task will be much easier if you take the time
to read the poems many times so that you
will be very familiar with what happens in them.
Audience: As you did for the last essay, I want you to write as
if you are writing to your fellow
classmates— which means that you will be writing for an
audience who is familiar with the poem. DO
NOT USE “I” OR “YOU” FOR THIS ESSAY.
Structure: Unlike the previous essay, this time you must provide
a formal introduction, a thesis statement,
and a conclusion that draws together everything you have
discussed (and explains, ultimately, how the
theme is explored in the poems you have written about).
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Citation: Since you will be writing about two different poems,
you will need to differentiate between
them. If the poems are written by the same author, then use an
abbreviated version of the title (for
example: “Death of a Naturalist” = “Naturalist”). Cite the line
number (s) as well. If you write about
“Blackberry Picking” and “Blackberry Eating,” then use the

poet’s last name and the line number.
Remember, you only need to cite the title / author in the
parentheses if you are either (a) quoting from
the poem for the first time (and you have not included the title
or poet’s name in your sentence) or (b) if
you are switching between poems.
Use the following for your works cited requirement (please note
EXACTLY how it is formatted)
Poet’s Last Name, Poet’s First Name. “Title of Poem.” English
1B Course Reader: Spring 2017. Ed.
Nathan Wirth. Novato, CA: Nathan’s Mind Inc. 2017. Print.
Outside Sources: I do not want you to reference any outside
sources.
Upload to Canvas: (1) A letter that discusses your difficulties
and/or successes writing the essay (2) Your
Final Draft. No printed copies will be accepted. Please make the
first page of the document your process
letter. You can find a sample process letter in this course
reader.
Formatting: All written work (except for rough drafts and notes)
must be typed and double spaced.
Pages must be numbered. Include a title. No large gaps between
paragraphs. Underline your thesis
statement. You must use Times New Roman 12 pt. If you don't
follow the proper formatting, I will return
the paper to you. It is essential that you meet the minimum
required page limit. If you do not, then
points will be deducted from your essay. You are always
welcome to write more than the minimum.

Process Letter: You are also required to include a brief letter
that outlines the difficulties and successes
you experienced while working on your essay. Your letter
should be a short reflection (at least a
paragraph) about your experience writing your essay. What did
you struggle with? What problems did
you encounter? How did you overcome them? What do you feel
satisfied about? Any concerns that you
want me to address when I read your essay?
Plagiarism: Here is the official CCSF policy on plagiarism:
"Plagiarism is defined as the unauthorized use
of the language and thought of another author and representing
them as your own." Plagiarism is a
violation of the rules of student conduct, and discipline may
include, but is not limited to," a failing
grade in an assignment, test, or class in proven cases of
cheating or plagiarism or other academic
dishonesty." My official policy is that you will receive a
failing grade for the assignment (0 points for the
assignment). If you should plagiarize a second time, then you
will receive a failing grade for the class.
14 | P a g e
Image of the Quai d’Orelans in France
"Bishop’s second and last
trip to France in 1937
became linked with a
horrifying car accident

involving her friend
Margaret Miller. Bishop had
been traveling in Burgundy
with Louise Crane (the
driver) and Miller when they
were forced off the road. As
a result of the accident,
Margaret lost her arm. This
dismemberment caused
Bishop major psychological
grief (she would try to write
a poem from the point of the
view of the arm for many
years): her guilt
(unwarranted as it was) perhaps made the lost arm synechdochal
for Bishop’s earlier traumas of loss
(and connection), in particular her loss of her mother to
madness."
-- from Susan McCabe's “‘Facing the Wrong Way’: Elizabeth
Bishop and the French Connection” --
Quai d’Orleans by Elizabeth Bishop (published in 1946)
for Margaret Miller
Each barge on the river easily tows
a mighty wake,
a giant oak-leaf of gray lights
on duller gray;
and behind it real leaves are floating by,
down to the sea.
mercury-vines on the giant leaves,

the ripples, make
for the sides of the quai, to extinguish themselves
against the walls
as softly as falling-stars come to their ends
at a point in the sky.
And throngs of small leaves, real leaves, trailing them,
go drifting by
to disappear as modestly, down the sea’s
dissolving halls.
We stand as still as stones to watch
the leaves and ripples
while light and nervous water hold
their interview.
“If what we see could forget us half as easily,”
I want to tell you,
“as it does itself—but for life we’ll not be rid
of the leaves’ fossils.”
15 | P a g e
Biographical Note for “One Art”
“There is no doubt that the crisis behind [“One Art”] was the
apparent loss to Bishop of Alice
Methfessel, the companion, caretaker, secretary, and great love
of the last eight years of her life.
Although its method is the description of the accumulation of
losses in the poet's life, its occasion is the
loss of Alice.”
Source:
Millier, Brett Candlish. "Elusive Mastery: The Drafts of
Elizabeth Bishop's 'One Art.'" Elizabeth Bishop:

The Geography of Gender. Ed. Marilyn May Lombardi.
Charlottesville, VA: Virginia UP, 1993.
Print.
One Art by Elizabeth Bishop (1976)
The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster,
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three beloved houses went.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.
-- Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

NOTE: MAKE SURE YOU LOOK AT THE NEXT PAGE,
WHERE THE FORM OF THE VILLANELLE IS EXPLAINED
This will help you to understand the specific form of this poem,
which you need to know about in order
to fully grasp the poem.
16 | P a g e
Villanelle: a villanelle carries a pattern of only two rhymes, and
is marked most distinctively by its alternating
refrain, which appears initially in the first and third lines of the
opening tercet. In all, it comprises five tercets
(three line stanzas) and a concluding quatrain.
One Art by Elizabeth Bishop
The art of losing isn't hard to master; [this line is repeated in
the 2nd and 4th tercets as well as the final quatrain]
so many things seem filled with the intent [the ent sound is
found in the second line of all the tercets and the final
quatrain]
to be lost that their loss is no disaster, [a variation of the idea of
it not being a disaster is found in the 3rd and 5th
tercets and the final quatrain]
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster [fluster/master is
a slant rhyme]

of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or [last or /master
is a slant rhyme]
next-to-last, of three beloved houses went.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.
-- Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture [gesture/master
is a slant rhyme]
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master [note that Bishop alters
the line here]
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster. [note that
Bishop must use the word disaster here to complete the form of
the villanelle]
Slant Rhyme: a rhyme in which either the vowels or the
consonants of stressed syllables are identical, as in eyes /
light; years / yours.
17 | P a g e

Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney
All year the flax-dam festered in the heart
Of the townland; green and heavy headed
Flax had rotted there, weighted down by huge sods.
Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun.
Bubbles gargled delicately, bluebottles
Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell.
There were dragon-flies, spotted butterflies,
But best of all was the warm thick slobber
Of frogspawn that grew like clotted water
In the shade of the banks. Here, every spring
I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied
Specks to range on window-sills at home,
On shelves at school, and wait and watch until
The fattening dots burst into nimble-
Swimming tadpoles. Miss Walls would tell us how
The daddy frog was called a bullfrog
And how he croaked and how the mammy frog
Laid hundreds of little eggs and this was
Frogspawn. You could tell the weather by frogs too
For they were yellow in the sun and brown
In rain.
Then one hot day when fields were rank
With cowdung in the grass the angry frogs
Invaded the flax-dam; I ducked through hedges
To a coarse croaking that I had not heard
Before. The air was thick with a bass chorus.
Right down the dam gross-bellied frogs were cocked
On sods; their loose necks pulsed like sails. Some hopped:
The slap and plop were obscene threats. Some sat
Poised like mud grenades, their blunt heads farting.
I sickened, turned, and ran. The great slime kings
Were gathered there for vengeance and I knew
That if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it.

ÆOnomatopoeia: the formation of a word from a sound
associated with what is named (cuckoo, sizzle).
Æ Assonance: repetition of vowel sounds (hot, not, sod, hopped,
window sills)
Æ Alliteration: repetition of initial consonant sounds (heavy
headed, coarse croaking)
Æ Consonance: repetition of final syllable consonant sounds
(slap and plop)
18 | P a g e
Blackberry Picking by Seamus Heaney
Late August, given heavy rain and sun
For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.
At first, just one, a glossy purple clot
Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.
You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet
Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it
Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for
Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger
Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots
Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.
Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills
We trekked and picked until the cans were full
Until the tinkling bottom had been covered
With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned
Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered
With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's.

We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.
But when the bath was filled we found a fur,
A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache.
The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush
The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.
I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair
That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.
Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not.
Blackberry Eating by Galway Kinnell
I love to go out in late September
among the fat, overripe, icy, black blackberries
to eat blackberries for breakfast,
the stalks very prickly, a penalty
they earn for knowing the black art
of blackberry-making; and as I stand among them
lifting the stalks to my mouth, the ripest berries
fall almost unbidden to my tongue,
as words sometimes do, certain peculiar words
like strengths or squinched,
many-lettered, one-syllabled lumps,
which I squeeze, squinch open, and splurge well
in the silent, startled, icy, black language
of blackberry -- eating in late September.
19 | P a g e
There's been a Death, in the Opposite House by Emily
Dickinson

There's been a Death, in the Opposite House,
As lately as Today --
I know it, by the numb look
Such Houses have -- alway --
The Neighbors rustle in and out --
The Doctor -- drives away --
A Window opens like a Pod --
Abrupt -- mechanically --
Somebody flings a Mattress out --
The Children hurry by --
They wonder if it died -- on that --
I used to -- when a Boy --
The Minister -- goes stiffly in --
As if the House were His --
And He owned all the Mourners -- now --
And little Boys -- besides --
And then the Milliner -- and the Man
Of the Appalling Trade --
To take the measure of the House --
There'll be that Dark Parade --
Of Tassels -- and of Coaches -- soon --
It's easy as a Sign --
The Intuition of the News --
In just a Country Town –
I heard a Fly buzz – when I died by Emily Dickinson
I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air –
Between the Heaves of Storm –

The Eyes around – had wrung them dry –
And Breaths were gathering firm
For that last Onset – when the King
Be witnessed – in the Room –
I willed my Keepsakes – Signed away
What portions of me be
Assignable – and then it was
There interposed a Fly –
With Blue – uncertain stumbling Buzz –
Between the light – and me –
And then the Windows failed – and then
I could not see to see –
20 | P a g e
Bereft by Robert Frost
Where had I heard this wind before
Change like this to a deeper roar?
What would it take my standing there for,
Holding open a restive door,
Looking down hill to a frothy shore?
Summer was past and the day was past.
Sombre clouds in the west were massed.
Out on the porch's sagging floor,
Leaves got up in a coil and hissed,
Blindly striking at my knee and missed.
Something sinister in the tone

Told me my secret my be known:
Word I was in the house alone
Somehow must have gotten abroad,
Word I was in my life alone,
Word I had no one left but God.
Desert Places by Robert Frost
Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast
In a field I looked into going past,
And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,
But a few weeds and stubble showing last.
The woods around it have it—it is theirs.
All animals are smothered in their lairs.
I am too absent-spirited to count;
The loneliness includes me unawares.
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.
They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars—on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.
21 | P a g e
The Snow Man by Wallace Stevens
One must have a mind of winter

To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;
And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter
Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,
Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place
For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.
Running head: HIV/AIDS
1
HIV/AIDS
2

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) that has not been
attended to medically leads to Acquired Immunodeficiency
Syndrome (AIDS). The HIV virus cannot be eliminated by the
body like other viruses. This virus attacks the CD4 cells found
in the immune system weakening its ability to fight infections.
It is the reason that a person with HIV may be vulnerable to
diseases that other may not be such as tuberculosis. Reduction
of CD4 cells due to the presence of HIV in a person who is not
under medication leads the body signaling its sick with the
cropping up of infectious disease due to weakened protection.
HIV uses the CD4 counts to multiply itself in the process
diminishing these important cells. This multiplication of HIV
cells has step steps and is widely known as the HIV life cycle.
The seven steps are bidding, fusion, reverse transcription,
integration, replication, assembly and budding (Services, 2016).
AIDS occurs when the final stage of HIV is reached and is fatal
within three years. Not everyone who has HIV eventually gets
AIDS.
I chose this infectious disease as I realized that a few years
back this topic was very common as people were being urged to
get tested and know their status. There were also high levels of
stigma associated with this disease and thus people who were
infected kept it to themselves. Later on, as the public became
more educated on the matter those affected and were brave
enough started to come together to form support groups where
they were educated more on the disease, healthy living and
supported each other. However, the intensity of the debate has
dwindled significantly over the last few years and HIV/AIDS no
longer makes it to the news that often. Choosing this infectious
disease was to due interest of knowing the recent trends on this
field. Without a cure, having been found yet, there are

thousands of people living with this disease and I wish to take a
peek at what their daily life is like.
The United States government, upon the discovery of HIV virus
in 1981, moved fast to learn more about the disease which has
since been described as an epidemic. Many bodies such as the
Center for Disease Control, committee on AIDS Research
established by National Research Council of National Academy
of sciences amongst many other have made use of many
resources in order to conduct research and educate the public on
HIV/AIDS as part of their mitigation efforts. Government has
funded HIV/AIDS prevention programs that has successfully
prevented over 350, 000 new infections which has been seen as
an indication that these programs can achieve more. It has been
achieved through the national HIV/AIDS strategy which
outlines tools that can effectively be employed. CDC has
established a department solely dedicated to HIV/AIDS matters
and has conducted surveillance, research and funding so that its
impacts can be greater in preventing the epidemic (National
Center for HIV/AIDS, 2011). This strategy has been updated to
2020 with more emphasis on prevention and care.
Numerous investigations, research studies and other
surveillance have been conducted over the years each taking a
different perspective on the matter. These have led to the
establishment of goals of departments dealing with HIV/AIDS
issues. There has been an identified need for all people who are
infected to know their status so as to start their Anti-Retroviral
Treatments. This is after research showed that this treatment
improves quality of life in addition to reducing chances of
infection. It would go a long way in helping boost prevention if
HIV-positive people knew their status. Once status is confirmed
they would be put under care as soon as possible so that the
virus is suppressed. HIV care Continuum is employed to keep
surveillance on the population and strategies developed
accordingly. Other investigations have shown that the south
experiences the largest HIV burden in the US due to the coasts
there that attract people of all walks of life. Measures have been

drafted to strengthen prevention programs in these places. Race
has also been used in studying this epidemic with blacks being
the worst affected in the south and especially amongst the
black-gay community. It has also been established that in the
south people who are positive are most likely to not be aware of
their status. Priority populations such as the transgender have
also been the center of analysis regarding HIV/AIDS. Generally,
it is an epidemic that has transformed many aspects of the
social, economic, political and other societal institutions.
Studies that relate this epidemic to a wide range of aspects have
been performed over the years including but not limited to its
relation to substance abuse, environmental issues and mental
health (HHS, 2016).
HIV/AIDS emerged in the US in 1981. It was new epidemic and
rapidly spread which was later attributed to demographic
factors. Like many other infectious diseases, HIV/AIDS is
traced back to an animal. During its emergence, there were no
drugs that could control it with the ART having been discovered
much later. HIV/AIDS continues to reemergence in a way that
scientists cannot make accurate predictions about the disease.
Government findings and investigations of disease indicate that
there are about 50, 000 new infections annually. There are
already 1.2 million people living with AIDS in the United
States. These figures are differently skewed amongst the diverse
populations in the country. Blacks are the most affected with a
large percentage possibly living with HIV compared to whites
whereas the Hispanics/Latinos are three times more likely to be
living with it compared to whites. Men who have sex with other
men regardless of race and ethnicity have a higher chance of
being infected. 90% of HIV-positive people live in 23 states
whereas 50% of them reside in 5 states. In the past HIV/AIDS
has caused many deaths and led to increased victimization.
Current there are many ongoing programs to combat
victimization with human rights being insisted for all. ART has
also become an important part of the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Ongoing research pertaining this disease still seeks to find a

cure. There is also research that seeks to understand how ARTs
achieve so much in the fight against this epidemic.
References
HHS. (2016, 12 21). CDC. Retrieved 3 9, 2017, from
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/policies
National Center for HIV/AIDS, V. H. (2011). Strategic plan-
Division of HIV/AIDS prevention 2011-2015. Washington DC:
US Department of Health and Human Services.
Services, D. o. (2016, November 30). Center for Disease
Control and Prevention. Retrieved 3 9, 2017, from
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/whatishiv.html

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