Assignment: Analyze one of the poems listed below, showing how some particular aspect (or aspects) of the poem's meaning is generated by the combined effects of its formal elements. Some of the formal elements you should consider: voice, diction, imagery, tone, rhyme, and sound qualities (alliteration, consonance, assonance, etc.). While not all of these elements will be particularly noteworthy in a given poem, you should choose a poem that is rich enough to generate a discussion of at least a few of these aspects. Use the handout on poetry reading to generate the raw material for your argument.

This is a short paper; therefore, I am not looking for a complete summation of the poem, tied up in a nice, neat, little package. If possible, you should focus on some tension or contradiction in the poem—between what the poem says and how it says it, between the present tense of the poem’s telling and the past tense of the events that are told, between different ideas or themes that the poem seems to be expressing. At all costs, avoid merely paraphrasing the poem’s content. Remember, this is not prose; it is a poem using the tools of poetry to build a multi-leveled architecture of meaning. Ultimately, I want your paper to give me some sense that the poem in question is doing something complex with language and meaning.

Although you shouldn’t feel like you need to account for every aspect of a poem’s meaning, your paper should nonetheless have some kind of thesis that argues a particular relationship between the poem's content and its form; or rather, how its content is shaped by its form. For example, if you were to write on Wordsworth’s "Strange Fits of Passion," you might initially come up with the following thesis statements:

• Wordsworth’s "Strange Fits of Passion" is about the way that the passion of love can overrule the rational mind.
• Wordsworth’s "Strange Fits of Passion" uses alternating iambic tetrameter and trimeter to create a fast-paced, galloping rhythm.

While both of these statements are absolutely true, neither of them would make a good thesis for this assignment because the former is devoted entirely to the poem's content and the latter entirely to its form. A more integrated thesis might look something like this:

• In Wordsworth’s "Strange Fits of Passion," the simple diction and fast-paced rhythm are offset by a surprising solemnity in the poem’s conclusion.

The thesis shouldn’t give everything away—ideally, it should make the reader want to say, "Hmm, that sounds interesting, but I’ll need some more explanation and support." That explanation and support will form the bulk of your paper.

Poems:

• Wordsworth: "She dwel’t among th’untrodden ways," "Three years she grew in sun and shower"
• Coleridge: "The Eolian Harp," "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison" (these are longer, so you will really need to focus on a specific aspect)
• Shelley: "Ozymandias," "Sonnet: Lift not the painted veil"
• Keats: "Sonnet: When I have fears," "To Autumn"
• Barbauld: "To the Poor"

Note: For a fuller and more precise discussion of poetic devices, consult the following glossaries of poetic terms: