Each Poem Must Be

How do poets express self, identity and the concept of home in their work? Do they use poetic devices, imagery, rhythm, allusions, meaning, tone, mood, or something else? The language of identity reveals our values and our heritage.

Assignment: Write a compare and contrast essay (approximately 750-1000 words) regarding two poems that reflect the theme of identity

Each poem must be:

1. Printed-then each line of the poem marked numerically (note that songs can and should be condensed into one page)
2. Marked up with sense, structure, tone, mood, poetic devices, topic
3. Referenced in a properly formatted bibliography at the end of the essay. You can use books or the internet
4. Include quotes in your essay. I will show you how to reference poetry quotes. No quote bombs.

Timeline:

Tuesday, Nov. 24th- Choose poems and find likeminded people to compare ideas. Mark up your poems and begin outline.

Wednesday, Nov. 25th- Venn Diagram and graphic outline comparing the poems.

Thursday, Nov. 26th–Begin outline for essay

Weekend homework –finish outline.

Monday, Nov.30–In-class essay

Tuesday, Dec. 1 – In-class essay. Essay due at the end of class.

Steps

1. Choose two poems from the list
2. MARK THEM UP with sense, structure, tone, mood, poetic devices and topic. Use the internet to research!!! You can research the meaning, the historical background, the purpose, the biography of the poet, the social context- anything. This will help enhance the “sense” of your poem.
3. Do a compare and contrast graphic organizer.
4. Decide what traits need to be compared. The meaning? The purpose? The devices? The tone? The mood? The history? The author’s influences?
5. Do an outline- Mandatory!!!

Possible websites to use:

Follow these simple rules when quoting and citing poetry.

1) When you quote exact words, phrases, or lines from poems, set the quotations off with quotation marks and cite the line from which the textual material comes in parentheses at the end of the sentence containing it. Punctuate your sentence — that is, put your punctuation mark outside the end parenthesis.

Ex.: According to the poem, “tender is the night” (35).

2) When you quote consecutive lines of poetry (lines that follow each other in the poem), use a virgule (/) to indicate where the lines “break” (are separated) in the poem. Then, in your parenthetical citation, list the first and last line quoted, separating them with a hyphen (dash).

Ex.: According to the poem, “tender is the night, / And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne, / Cluster’d around by all her starry Fays” (35-37).

3) When you quote four or more consecutive lines of poetry, use “long quotation” or “blockquote” formatting. Introduce the quotation with a short signal phrase; begin the quotation on the following line; indent the quotation twice; double space; punctuate exactly as in the text; cite lines parenthetically at the very end, outside the final punctuation. Do not punctuate the parenthetical citation.

Ex.: The poem describes the night thus:

… tender is the night,
And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,
Cluster’d around by all her starry Fays;
But here there is no light … (35-38)

4) When you use quoted material from multiple lines but do not quote those lines consecutively, put a comma between the line numbers in your parenthetical citation and make sure the order of the line numbers in the parentheses corresponds to the order of the quoted material in the sentence.

Ex.: The speaker tells us that, “tender is the night”; however, “here there is no light” (35, 38).

5) Do everything else as you would if you were quoting prose. Use ellipses (three dots) to show where you have removed words (ex. “on the … wings of Poesy” (33).). Use brackets to show where you have made minor adjustments to grammar (ex. The speaker states that “Darkling [he listens]” (51).).

6) Remember that as a writer you get to decide where to begin and end quoting the text: cut off quotations before awkward, unnecessary punctuation marks.

Ex.: The poem states that, “haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne” (36).
NOT: The poem states that, “haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,” (36).

7) Always proofread quotations: double-check that your quotations are accurate and that you have not made any changes to the text in transcribing it into your paper.

Compare and Contrast Essay for Poetry with Quotes Rubric