essay

Poetry Essay

Assignment Requirements

Following are the requirements for your poetry essay:

· I would prefer that you analyze a poem from the *textbook* that we did not cover in class. Other poems must be cleared through me.

· Post the words to your poem below your essay for my reference.

· Use MLA formatting. Please see your Easy Writer or visit Purdue University, owlatpurdue website https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

· Use third-person pronouns (he, she, etc.). Do not use first-person (I, we, etc.) or second-person “you” or any of its forms.

· Must have detailed analysis with sound supporting details.

· Avoid vague statements that contain no real information

· Watch for grammar and spelling errors.

· Do not use contractions

· Use same format as the example essay that I have posted for your reference.

· Format your essay in the following manner:

I. First paragraph: Background information on the author.

a) You may tie in something about the author’s life with the poem as the controlling idea for your essay. If you do not, you must have a controlling idea for the paper. Example: In Arlington’s “Richard Cory,” the theme of the poem is that people are not always the way they seem on the surface.”

II. Second paragraph:

a) Begin explaining the first stanza or section of your poem.

b) Explain the poem in logical sections of thought. Punctuation can help you with this

c) Explain any poetic devices [See poetry terms posted under Content.] Make sure to note if the poem is free verse or formal.

III. Third paragraph and so forth: Follow the same pattern as noted above until you reach the end of the poem

IV. Last paragraph: Conclusion

a) Sum up the details of your poem

Joseph 1

Sara Joseph

Composition II

Dr. Gerald Franks

11 February 2013

His Heart Was a Desert Place

Robert Frost was born on March 26, 1874, and died January 29, 1963. Although he was an American poet, his work was first published in England. Frost is noted for his realistic depictions of life in rural settings and his use of American colloquial speech, especially rural life in New England. He is noted for being one of most popular and famous twentieth-century, American poets, and he won the Congressional Gold Medal in 1960 for his work, along with receiving four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry. Despite his fame and accomplishments, Frost’s life was plagued with tragedy. When he was 11, his father died of tuberculosis, leaving the family with only eight dollars. In 1900, Frost’s mother died of cancer, and in 1920, he had to commit his younger sister Jeanie to a mental hospital, where she died nine years later. Frost and his mother also suffered from depression, which was inherited by his daughter Irma, who in 1947 was committed to a mental hospital. His wife Elinor and he had six children; however, his son Elliot died of cholera; his son Carol committed suicide. His long list of losses did not stop there; his daughter Marjorie died of complications from childbirth, and his daughter died Elinor died three days after she was born. Only two of children, Lesley and Irma, outlived their father. Not even his wife would outlive him; she died of heart failure in 1938. Frost’s loss and grief affected him profoundly, and he reveals his depth of his despair in his poem “Desert Places,” which captures Comment by Computer Services: Entire paragraph is a brief introduction to the author Comment by Computer Services: specific details Comment by Computer Services: specific details Comment by Computer Services: specific details The entire essay uses specific details, meaning it does describe or explain in vague, non-specific terms. Comment by Computer Services: Thesis statement. The author of the paper decided to have “the point of her paper” revolve around the poet’s relationship to the poem. You may do this, or you may choose to focus your poem on some other element of the poem. Whatever it is, you must have a “point” that your essay is written around and supports.

Joseph 2

the sense that Frost has gone past grief and loss and now only feels a void of emptiness. As he says in his poem, “I have it in me so much nearer home / To scare myself with my own desert places.”

The title “Desert Places” is important to the meaning of the poem and is symbolic of what Frost’s mental state at the time he wrote the poem. A “desert” is a barren place where only the barest of vegetation can grow. If one becomes lost in the desert, he or she can die because it is so barren and void of life-giving sustenance. By the time that Frost had written this poem in 1936, he had already lost his parents and three of his children. The toll that this would have taken on him would have been horrendous and would have to have left him emotionally numb, which is reflected in the lines, “And lonely as it is that loneliness / Will be more lonely ere it will be less - - / A blanker whiteness of benighted snow / With no expression, nothing to express.” Frost poem reflects the toll that his losses have taken on him, and the emptiness that a person feels when they have ever surpassed the grieving stage. Comment by Computer Services: Your own reasoning as to “why” you think your interpretation of the poem is valid. Give specific details to your support your position. Note how the author brings in Frost’s loss of family and ties it in with the poem itself. Comment by Computer Services: poetic terminology Comment by Computer Services: You “must” use quotes from the poem to support your supporting evidence. Comment by Computer Services: conclusions

The poem is a quatrain, and the first stanza sets the tone and setting. It is dusk, and the snow and night are “falling fast.” He’s walking by a field and almost passes it without notice; however, he becomes aware that “the ground is almost covered smooth with snow.” It is a scene that usually evokes a sense of peace and awe in most people; however, the lines “But a few weeds and stubble showing last,” gives us the first indication that he is using symbolism to state that this scene is not comforting to him and that even the virgin snow is blighted with weeds, which show through its white purity. After the losses that he has suffered, he would never again be able to feel total joy and tranquility since the ghosts of his losses would still hover close, reminding him that life is extremely fragile and is full of pain. Comment by Computer Services: You must state what type of poem it is. Please refer to the list that I posted in Content for poetry information. Comment by Computer Services: Analyze your poem in an organized order. This poem is separated into quatrains, and the author explains each quatrain. You may have to analyze a section of thought. Comment by Computer Services: Uses poetic terminology and explains what they are in her support Comment by Computer Services: The author blends quotes from the poem into her sentences. Comment by Computer Services: quote Comment by Computer Services: good solid support details.

Joseph 3

The second stanza talks about how he does not belong here, “The woods around it have it - - it is theirs.” This could be symbolic of the fact that we are simply walking through life, and it actually does not last and is not a place where we will always belong. It could also mean that although the setting belongs to the creatures who live in the field, “the loneliness includes [me] unawares.” Without realizing that the setting of the snow-laded field is affecting him, he suddenly realizes that this lonely setting has included him in its aloneness. Comment by Computer Services: Analysis of second stanza Comment by Computer Services: sums up the next section Comment by Computer Services: quotes Comment by Computer Services: develops her argument and stand on the poem

In the third stanza, he continues to talk about how barren it appears to him “With no expression, nothing to express.” The snow cannot express its loneliness, but the impact of the scene has become evident to him, and it is caught up in it unintentionally. Comment by Computer Services: analysis of third stanza Comment by Computer Services: quote Comment by Computer Services: This stanza needs more development, but the information is good.

In the fourth stanza, he personifies the scene around him by speaking to it directly when he says, “They cannot scare me with their empty spaces.” He then almost challenges the barren snow scene to compare its emptiness to his own, and not even space “where no human race is” can compare to his because he has in him “so much nearer home / To scare [myself] with [my] own desert places.” Comment by Computer Services: fourth stanza Comment by Computer Services: uses poetry terms to analyze the material Comment by Computer Services: quote Comment by Computer Services: development, also uses more quotes

In Frost’s poem, the scene itself symbolizes what he feels inside himself, and through personification, he addresses it directly to let the reader know what is going on inside him. By using visual imagery, he creates a scene in our mind that evoke an image of what it feels like to be devoid of emotions due to tragic losses in one’s life. Comment by Computer Services: conclusion Comment by Computer Services: poetry term