Poetry analysis paper

the chosen poem : Death , be not proud be by (john Donne).

Choose a poem we have studied in class and write an essay in which you analyze the poems literary elements (parts of the poem and figures of speech) and use this analysis to interpret the meaning of the poem; in other words, you need to demonstrate how the poem uses literary elements, such as metaphor, simile, personification, symbol, metonymy, etc., to communicate or convey its message, as you understand it. To make the essay as enjoyable as possible, I recommend that you choose the poem you were most drawn to and feel you have the most to say about. Also, given the brevity of the paper, I recommend that you focus on only the two to three literary elements you believe to be most important in the poem.

Directions:

For the introduction, after writing a hook that engages your reader, you will need to provide the following necessary information in three to five crisp sentences: title of the poem, poets name (biographical facts, if relevant), and a brief summary of the poem. Moreover, for the thesis, you will need to identify the literary elements you will be focusing on and connect them to the theme of the poem. (Remember, a theme is what the poem is trying to teach you about human nature or experience. A theme is not a topic or subject, which can be captured in a word or two, such as abortion or infidelity. Rather, a theme should be a one to two sentence statement that captures the poems lesson).

This is what the thesis should look like: In Barry Ramirezs Interstellar, he uses symbol, metaphor, and metonymy to explore the theme that when we are young, we make impulsive decisions to impress others which, in turn, are embarrassing.

For the body paragraphs, you should focus on one literary element per body paragraph. You will need to provide quotes of the parts or lines of the poem you are highlighting with citations at the end of sentences. For example: The speaker says, into musical shells of ears/entered a stone forest (Herbert 26-27). Then, you will need to break down or analyze the quotes and work to connect them to the theme of the work, as you have interpreted it. Additionally, for your body paragraphs, you are required to include quotes from at least three articles from scholarly journals found on an approved database (Academic Search Complete, JSTOR, or Gale) to support your position or highlight a position that you disagree with. (If you cannot find articles directly related to your poem, then you should seek and use articles on the topic of the poem).

For the conclusion, you should reflect on how successful the author is in achieving his or her goal or message and give a personal statement about the topic; in other words, briefly discuss how you relate to the topic of the poem. You are allowed to use first person (I) throughout the paper and in the conclusion.

The paper should be 3-4 pages (not including the Works Cited list). The paper should be in MLA format, which includes, but is not limited to, double-spaced, 1 margins, headers with your last name and the page number, 12 point, Times New Roman font, and a Works Cited list.

Any paper that lacks in-text citations and/or has sources that are fictitious or not verifiable will receive a 0. All works cited citations of online sources require a hyperlinked URL at the end of the citation.