High Quality Assignments Required - NOT SIMPLE ESSAYS - BIS ONLY IF YOU CAN - DUE 3 DAYS

ENGL 603 – Application Essay 1

In this 750-1,000 word application essay, you will select a poem from the following list and analyze it using either New Critical or Structuralist principles. This paper requires no outside sources, only your use of critical methods drawn from your reading; you may find the questions listed below of some help as you develop your paper.

Poem Options:

· “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44885/annabel-lee)

· “Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio” by James Wright (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47733/autumn-begins-in-martins-ferry-ohio)

· “Dreams” by Langston Hughes (https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/dreams)

· “God’s Grandeur” by Gerard Manley Hopkins (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44395/gods-grandeur)

· “Kubla Khan” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43991/kubla-khan)

· “My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun” by William Shakespeare (https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/my-mistress-eyes-are-nothing-sun-sonnet-130)

· “Not Waving But Drowning” by Stevie Smith (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46479/not-waving-but-drowning)

· “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken)

· “The Tyger” by William Blake (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43687/the-tyger)

· “Ulysses” by Alfred Lloyd Tennyson (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45392/ulysses)

Developing a New Critical Reading of a Poem:

· Remember that the interpretation relies on formal elements of the poem—its tension, ambiguity, paradox, irony

· The goal is to explain how these formal elements are both complex but ultimately unified

· The central question New Critics ask is how the literary elements develop the poem’s theme

· To arrive at this conclusion, spend much time close reading the poem to get a sense of all the various parts—imagery, form, structure, rhythm, rhyme (as well as the ones named above or any other literary devices you see)

· Keep an eye on how all these various parts work together to communicate an overarching theme; this theme should emerge out of the resolution of the poem’s apparent contradictions

Developing a Structuralist Reading of a Poem:

· Structuralism has a lot of options in practice; basically, you pick one of the structuralist’s theories about narrative and see how it plays out in the poem

· For example, you could discuss Northrop Frye’s theory of genres and categorize the poem according to his terminology

· You could also analyze the underlying narrative pattern at work (using something like Todorov’s theory)

· Or you could apply Genette’s theory of narrativity, considering how the story (plot) and the form (distance of author, audience; time story is told and how much time is devoted to certain elements; and atmosphere of story) work together

· You could consider, too, Jonathan Culler’s ideas about the codes of interpretation necessary to make sense of the poem

· Levi-Strauss’s concern with binary oppositions may also yield you some insight into the construction of your chosen poem; basically you’d answer the question, what binary oppositions does this poem rely on, and how does the tension between them further the plot?