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ENGL 603 – Application Essay 2

In this 750-1,000 word application essay, you will select a poem from the following list and analyze it using Marxist/Political, Deconstructionist, or Psychoanalytical 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 Marxist/Political Reading of a Poem:

· A Marxist/Political reading of a literary work focuses on the power relations that surround the story, its production, and its message, especially as they involved economic interests

· So to write such an analysis, you’d focus on the person or group benefitting from the message or situation described

· Consider the underlying belief systems present in the literary work, especially as they relate to money and power; whose interests are promoted? How?

· Consider, too, what values are reinforced or subverted, what classes are promoted and how, how economic forces are often working behind the scenes if not necessarily directly acknowledge. Note any references to ownership and how that shapes the work or situation described. If different social classes are represented, explore how they interact and (probably) conflict. What tensions arise from political or economic issues?

Developing a Deconstructionist Reading of a Poem:

· How is language thrown into freeplay or questioned in the work? For example, note how Anthony Burgess plays with language (Russian vs English) in A Clockwork Orange, or how Burroughs plays with names and language in Naked Lunch.

· How does the work undermine or contradict generally accepted truths?

· How does the author (or a character) omit, change, or reconstruct memory and identity?

· How does a work fulfill or move outside the established conventions of its genre?

· How does the work deal with the separation (or lack thereof) between writer, work, and reader?

· What ideology does the text seem to promote?

· What is left out of the text that if included might undermine the goal of the work?

· If we changed the point of view of the text - say from one character to another, or multiple characters - how would the story change? Whose story is not told in the text? Who is left out and why might the author have omitted this character's tale?

Developing a Psychoanalytical Criticism of a Poem:

· How do the operations of repression structure or inform the work?

· Are there any Oedipal dynamics - or any other family dynamics - at work here?

· How can characters' behavior, narrative events, and/or images be explained in terms of psychoanalytic concepts of any kind (for example, fear or fascination with death, sexuality - which includes love and romance as well as sexual behavior - as a primary indicator of psychological identity or the operations of ego-id-superego)?

· What might a given interpretation of a literary work suggest about the psychological motives of the reader?

· Are there prominent words in the piece that could have different or hidden meanings? Could there be a subconscious reason for the author using these "problem words"?