ENG 112 : Poetry Essay Note: don’t upload an electronic copy to Moodle/Turnitin just yet. Length: 3-4 pages. Typed, double-spaced, with standard 1-inch margins, 12pt font, and Work Cited. Number your pages and staple. William Butler Yeats once said that when you have an argument with the world you write an essay, but when you have an argument with yourself you write a poem. Poetry’s advantage is that it can explore these complex arguments not only through its content (subject, characters, themes), but also largely through form (structure, layout, patterns of rhyme and meter, patterns of diction or imagery, repetition, etc.). TASK:Select two complete poems from our anthology (i.e. not the ones that are just fragments), a pair that you think does something interesting together. Write an essay that, by comparing and contrasting the poem’s form and content, forms an argument to suggest something significant the authors do with their subject. Put emphasis not merely on WHAT the poem is saying but HOW and WHY. (If you wish, one of the poems can come from outside the anthology). PURPOSE: To practice extensive brainstorming, sustained close-reading and analysis, and argument-based essay writing. CRITERIA: Papers will be graded on the sharpness of the observations, wisdom of the organization, precision of the writing/grammar/punctuation, the level of interest generated by the comparisons and contrasts, and the degree to which the observations have been crafted into a unified argument. Basic Writing Reminders: -For this assignment, outside research is not only discouraged – it is forbidden. Work only with what you can get from the poem itself. -Resist organizing your paper through a chronological treatment of each poem (papers that do this fall into the trap of merely retelling/summarizing the poem, whereas your true goal here is analysis). The strongest papers organize paragraphs around topic sentences that make a broad claim followed by specific details and evidence. Provide a concluding paragraph that recaps your point and brings out the larger significance involved in what you’ve demonstrated. End with a Works Cited listing the poems. -To increase flow in your writing, be sure each paragraph has a strong topic sentence. Good topic sentences usually contain some sort of transition from the last paragraph and an argument (not just an observation but a debatable argument that advances your point) for the present one. -Practice the important habit of granting writers poetic license to create speakers who are not themselves; rather than assuming the “I” in a first-person poem is the poet him- or her-self, it is safer to refer to them as the poem’s “speaker.” -Be specific. Avoid overly-general statements like "the diction is descriptive," "the poet uses diction and imagery to convey her theme," or "the form of the poem makes it flow." Instead always specify the type of diction/imagery/form/etc. and which specific theme/desc ...