english

Lyric Poetry Analysis

The varied collection of poems that we have read and analyzed includes those of the narrative, dramatic, and lyric type. Probably represented by Kelly Mays in greatest number, lyric poems usually report the intellectual and emotional experience of a single first-person speaker, who records his or her thoughts and observations in a compact and succinct form. Some of the lyric poems appearing in the Norton represent those by Ada Limón (755), Phillis Wheatley (765), Rita Dove (820), Tracy K. Smith (822), Christopher Marlowe (827), Maxine Kumin (853), Sarah Cleghorn (880), Walter De La Mare (882), Theodore Roethke (853), and William Blake (886). Your task for this assignment requires investigating a poem or two from this list to determine the meaning of its (their) intellectual and emotional content.

Claim (Thesis). Make a clear, arguable claim that states what meaning the lyric produces. For instance, you might argue that Marlowe’s poem urges immediate consent to produce high and lasting pleasure. If you choose to investigate two poems, link them together somehow. You might link Marlowe to Cleghorn, for instance, because the poem of the second author contrasts with the first in its insistence that pleasure must be terminated. Remember that your claim must be debatable, and, therefore, it requires your providing a strong supply of evidence for demonstration.

Development. Assemble enough relevant and detailed evidence to sufficiently backup the claim, and integrate it through a combination of quotations and paraphrases. Moreover, craft an introduction, body, and conclusion to give your essay the shape and focus demanded by its audience as well as give a suitable title.

Audience. Attend to your academic audience’s needs. Anticipate its knowledge level, concerns, and values.

Cohesion. Deploy words, phrases, and clauses as well as varied syntax (word order) to link the major sections of the text. The sense of cohesion generated should also clarify the relationship between the claim and evidence.

Conventions. Modify your language to create a formal, objective tone that demonstrates standard English conventions of usage and mechanics while attending to the formatting and documenting norms of MLA Style (including the use of in-text citations and a Works Cited page). Such norms include the use of one-inch margins, headers, double-spacing, and Times New Roman or Calibri font size twelve. The essay should be 800-1000 words in length.