ENG 3015 Close Reading Assignment
Length: 750-1000 words (2-3 pages, double-spaced, 1” margins, standard font)
DEADLINES:
Tuesday, September 29 (Romanticism)
Tuesday, October 27 (Victorian era)
Tuesday, November 17 (Modernism)
You may bring me a printed copy in class oremail a copy () by the end of the day.
For this assignment, you’ll write a close analysis of a poem or part of a poemfrom your course packet. (Be sure to indicateclearly which poem you’re analyzing.) Each due date corresponds to the end of our discussion of a literary historical period, and the poem you choose should be from the period just concluded. If you write about a poem we discussed at length in class, be sure to offer a reading that is not simply a recapitulation of the class discussion (though you may build upon it). In other words, this short essay is meant to highlight your insights not just your ability to recall information from lecture. I recommend focusing on a shorter poem or on a selection of fewer than 20 lines. If you would like help choosing a poem or selection to analyze, come speak with me or send me an email.
While you won’t be simply repeating material from class, this close reading will be a chance for you to employ some of the skills you’ve already been working on in our discussions in class (attention to style, lexis, character, genre, meter, rhyme, etc.). But a good close reading will also synthesize the discrete details that it analyzes; in other words, it will show how the poem comes together as a whole—how the recognition of those discrete parts builds to a fuller, more holistic interpretation. This interpretation is your argument about the poem; it should be clear somewhere on the first page and should also be reflected in a descriptive title for your close reading (that is, not “Close Reading Paper”).
I recommend that you read the poem you’ve chosen several times before you begin writing, making annotations as you go to keep track of patterns, tensions, and puzzling moments. It’s always a good idea to look up words to determine historical or multiple meanings; use the Oxford English Dictionary (available at which gives both useful etymological (word origins) and detailed historical information so that you can determine whether a word had a particular definition when your poem was written. Again, don’t hesitate to ask for help if you’re new to this.
Advice: This is not the place to play it safe. You should make your sentences count and your claims should be as bold as possible while still being supportable by the evidence of the text. That means eliminating fluffy generalizations (“Throughout time, poets have written about love” = BARF). Every claim about the poem should be supported by textual evidence, and all evidence should be carefully explained for your reader. (How exactly do you read that line? That phrase? That word? We don’t live inside your head.) I’ve also posted on the course blog links to some helpful cites about writing a close reading.