Final Essay Assignment

3 Responses to Final Essay Assignment

1. dlee says:

   May 11, 2012 at 4:41 am

   I have been working on this final essay and am having a difficulty writing the required paper length of 4-6 pages. I have essentially analyzed the two poems with respect to their formal properties and am stuck with only 2 pages at most. The only possible way I could see the paper being anywhere close to 4-6 pages is if I were to summarize and analyze the content of the poems themselves, however it doesn’t seem like that is what the assignment is asking for.

   How lenient are you on the length of the paper? Seeing as how this paper is 25% of my grade, I am rather concerned as to how I could possibly write 4-6 pages without “fluffing” the paper up.

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2. Prof. Gold says:

   May 11, 2012 at 5:57 am

   I’m not lenient at all on the length of the paper — 4-6 pages (double-spaced) is the required length.

   Are your two pages single or double spaced? I find it hard to believe that a careful analysis of these two complex poems could be done well (or carefully) in two pages. As you work to develop your ideas, you might take a look through _Western Wind_ to remind yourself of the many aspects of poetic form and language that you might analyze. But most of all, I think you should read these poems again and again until you have really digested them and strengthened your analysis.

   If you’d like me to look over a draft, please send it by email and I can give you a few pointers.

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3. Prof. Gold says:

   May 11, 2012 at 6:56 am

   Just to add: I’m much less concerned with having you identify formal poetic properties of each poem than I am in having you pay extremely close attention to the language of the text in an effort to get at its meaning. What are the most important lines in the poem and why? What lines in the poem seem to have multiple meanings and why? What do these poems have to tell us about language in general and poetic language in particular?

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