essay over poetry

English 2360

Dr. Blair

Extra Credit

For extra credit in this class you may write a short paper (approximately 2-3 typed pages) according to the guidelines below. You must follow the instructions below EXACTLY--essays which fail to do so will receive a zero.

This paper must be a close reading of one poem taken from one of the following webpages. NO OTHER POEMS WILL BE ACCEPTED. YOU MUST INCLUDE A PRINTED-OUT COPY OF THE POEM YOU CHOOSE WITH YOUR PAPER:

1. Poetry, October 2019 issue:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/issue/150912/october-2019#toc

2. Crazyhorse:

https://crazyhorse.cofc.edu/genre/poetry/

3. Ninth Letter, Summer 2019 issue:

http://www.ninthletter.com/web-edition/summer-2019/summer-2019-poetry

For the purposes of this paper, a “close reading” is a more-or-less line-by-line explanation of what you perceive to be the meaning, significance, and intent of the poem. You should support your explanation by specific reference to the individual lines, words, and images in the poem. It must be a complete essay, with an opening and closing, and arranged into paragraphs. It will be graded according to four criteria: insight, thoroughness, effort, and clarity. The first two are self-explanatory; effort is how much evidence the paper shows of investment of time and thought, and clarity encompasses accuracy of thought and the grammatical and syntactical cleanness of the prose. Hint: picking a short, simple, obvious poem will handicap you, because it will suggest that you weren’t trying very hard.

The paper will be graded on the following scale: “A”=6 points added to your overall semester average; “B” 4 points; “C”=2 points; “D”=1 point; and “F”=gets you nothing. There will be no plus or minus grades.

THIS ESSAY MUST BE TYPED & PRINTED OUT AND WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED AS AN EMAIL ATTACHMENT—IT MUST BE A PAPER COPY. IT IS DUE ON MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25TH (THE CLASS BEFORE THE THANKSGIVING BREAK). EXTRA CREDIT ESSAYS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED UNDER ANY CONDITION AFTER 11/25/2019!