3. Analyze your poem through close
reading
Scan the poem
Search for
paradox, irony, ambiguity, and
tension: review presentation 6
for help
Find Poetic Conventions: review
presentation 7 for help.
Determine how the parts work
together.
Think about what you know
about the poem so far.
4. Revisit the questions New Critics ask
1. How does the work use imagery to develop its own symbols?
2. What is the quality of the work's organic unity In other words, does
how the work is put together reflect what it is?
3. How are the various parts of the work interconnected?
4. How do paradox, irony, ambiguity, and tension work in the text?
5. How do these parts and their collective whole contribute to or not
contribute to the aesthetic quality of the work?
6. How does the author resolve apparent contradictions within the work?
7. What does the form of the work say about its content?
8. Is there a central or focal passage that can be said to sum up the
entirety of the work?
9. How do the rhythms and/or rhyme schemes of a poem contribute to
the meaning or effect of the piece?
5. Write your thesis
Revisit the answers to the questions a new
critic asks.
Pick the two or three that you think are the
strongest responses to the poem.
Now revise the answer into a thesis format.
Consider what the poem does and how it
works together.
6. Outline your essay
Consider the parts and aspects of the
poem that you will analyze to support your
thesis.
Remember to use clear topic sentences
and to limit your paragraphs to one idea.
Put textual evidence in each paragraph.
Explain why you are using the examples
you include
Tie each paragraph back to your thesis.
7. REVIEW YOUR WORK
Read what you have
written.
Is your thesis clear?
Does it pose an
argument?
Does each paragraph
support your thesis?
