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| MAJOR ASSIGNMENTS |
For this assignment, you are to read a book of contemporary poetry then select 1-3 poems from the book to write a 2-3 page paper on. You may write your paper on any book you want, but if you need a place to start, check out the list of contemporary poets link on the web site. You don’t need to buy another book in order to complete this assignment. You can check out books by most of these poets at the university library, or you can request copies of them for free by interlibrary loan. The purpose of the paper is to choose one or more poems (1-3) from the book to take apart, which will require you to read the poems very closely—not to figure out what they mean—but to figure out how they are succeeding as poems. In other words, you need to explain what poetic devices they are using that make them enjoyable to read. Some questions you can ask of the poems you choose to write about include: How is the poem using images? (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell), How is the poem using language/sound? (onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance, consonance, dissonance, internal rhyme, end rhyme, slant rhyme), How is the poem creating tension? (caesura, line breaks/enjambment, irregular syntax), or How is the poem using imagination? (metaphor, simile, personification). Once you’ve chosen the poem(s) you are going to take apart, read them closely, asking yourself questions about the poetic devices they are using successfully. For the paper, you may write about a single poem, analyzing multiple poetic devices used within it. Or, you may write about multiple poems (2-3), analyzing different poetic devices in each one. Either way, you need to incorporate quotes from the poem(s) you are analyzing in order to illustrate/support the claims you are making about how the poetic devices help the poem(s) succeed.
The class presentation is a “sub-assignment” of the analysis paper. For the analysis paper, you are to select a book of contemporary poetry to read and analyze. For the presentation, you are to select one poem from that book to “take apart” for the class. You are to read the poem aloud, then give a five-minute presentation in which you explain how the poem uses 1- 2 poetic devices successfully. Poetic devices you may choose to focus on include: onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance, consonance, dissonance, internal rhyme, end rhyme, slant rhyme, caesura, line breaks/enjambment, irregular syntax, metaphor, simile, or personification. The poem you choose to give your presentation on does not have to be one of the poems you analyze in your paper, though it will save you a lot of work if you go ahead and analyze it for both assignments. For more information about the paper and/or “taking apart” a poem, review the analysis paper prompt or come talk to me.
For this assignment, you are to compile an anthology of twenty-five contemporary poems from current literary magazines. You can find these poems by reading through the literary magazines the library subscribes to or by reading the sample poems and/or sample issues that are available on literary magazines’ websites. As you come across poems you like, photocopy or print them out. Important: as you print out or copy each poem, make sure you have the whole poem, the author’s name, and the name of the literary magazine it’s from. At the end of the semester, you will turn in copies of the 25 poems you liked most. Along with the poems, you must turn in a one-page introduction to your anthology that describes the type of poems you feel drawn to and explains what characteristics the poems have that you find appealing. The anthology, consisting of the twenty-five poems and introduction, should be turned in at the end of the semester in a pocket folder.
At the end of the semester you are to turn in a final portfolio. Your portfolio should contain: eight poems (four first drafts along with four revisions of those drafts) and one short story. Your grade for the portfolio will be based on the amount and quality of revision. |
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