Assignment : Analytical Essay on Poetry
The essay assignment for to compose a paper of at least 800 words in which you interpret a symbol or symbols in one (or two) of the assigned poems below. You may choose any poem(s) from the reading list. If you get "stuck," read your chosen poem(s) again with a pen in hand so you can make notes. Do not hesitate to share your initial ideas with your classmates and the instructor.
As you begin to plan your essay, first, consider its contexts. For example, if you are writing about Langston Hughes's poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," you might mention that Hughes, a famed black poet from the Harlem Renaissance, wrote this poem when he was only 19 years old. Many consider this piece to be a praise poem honoring African American history because in it Hughes traces his ancestors' experiences back to Africa. Briefly introduce the poet and poem and then clarify your thesis (main claim). For instance, for the Hughes poem, a possible thesis is: "Hughes's poem uses the image of rivers to symbolize the black man's journey across time and continents." Then, dig in, excerpting and analyzing passages to support your ideas.
If this assignment seems daunting, check out the link to the Dictionary of Symbolism. Most of all, try to relax and have fun. You need not need to do outside research for this essay. Instead, look at the sample student essays on Mary Oliver's poem "August" and use your textbook to find other models. Information about the poet and the social contexts surrounding the poem can be found in our textbook..
Arrange your paper in APA style and include in-text and reference citations, also formatted in APA style.
Sharon Olds b. 1942 :
Born in San Francisco, Sharon Olds studied at Stanford University and earned her PhD in English from Columbia University in 1972, at which point she began writing poetry. She teaches creative writing at New York University. Author of eight volumes of poetry written in a personal voice with sometimes shockingly direct imagery, Olds published her first collection in 1980. "On the Subway" was published in The Gold Cell in 1987, as was her poem "The Possessive" (p. 16).
Poem- On the Subway by Sharon Olds
• The boy and I face each other. His feet are huge, in rblack sneakers laced with white in a complex pattern like a set of intentional scars. We are stuck on
• 5 opposite sides of the car, a couple of molecules stuck in a rod of light rapidly moving through darkness. He has the casual cold look of a mugger, alert under hooded lids. He is wearing red, like the inside of the body
• 10 exposed. I am wearing dark fur, the whole skin of an animal taken and used. I look at his raw face, he looks at my fur coat, and I don't
• 15 know if I am in his power- he could take my coat so easily, my briefcase, my life- or if he is in my power, the way I am living off his life, eating the steak
• 10 he does not eat, as if I am taking the food from his mouth. And he is black and I am white, and without meaning or trying to I must profit from his darkness, the way he absorbs the murderous beams of the
• 25 nation's head, as black cotton absorbs the heat of the sun and holds it. There is no way to know how easy this white skin makes my life, this life he could take so easily and
• 30 break across his knee like a stick the way his own back is being broken, the rod of his soul that at birth was dark and fluid, rich as the head of a seedling ready to thrust up into any available light.