Poemin Helen Vendler’s text
English 251 Dean Paper #1
Typed Rough draft due Th., 9/13. Paper due9/20.
Please write a four to five-page paper on any one poemin Helen Vendler’s textthat you have never written on before. If you choose a poem that she discusses extensively, you will probably end up using some of her commentary. If you do use her commentary, you must cite her parenthetically by page number. Be sure to consult Vendler’s section, “Writing about Poems,” 271-287, which includes information on how to introduce and format quotes of poetry.
Your paper should present a thesis early in the essay. The thesis should make a claim about more than the meaning or theme of the poem. You should suggest how different techniques, structures and uses of language contribute to the meaning. Be sure to illustrate your observations with direct quotes from the text. Do not refer to or use any outside sources. Write your paper in the present tense and avoid over use of the first person. The paper should follow the MLA format (including a Work Cited page), with quotes documented parenthetically by line numbers. If your poem is less than two pages long, type out the poem and include at the end of the paper.
Specific Points on Writing about Poems
Write in present tense.
Title: provide a title that indicates the poem you are writing on and suggests your argument about the poem. Example: The Illusion of Choice in “The Road Not Taken”
Use author’s full name at first mention; subsequently refer to author by last name.Refer to the speaker or narrator, rather than the poet.
Introduce all quotes. Example: Margaret Atwood begins her poem by stating a negative, announcing, “The torture chamber is not like anything / you would have expected” (1-2).
Vary your introductions to quotes; don’t keep repeating, “He says, . . .”
Make sure your quotes make sense. For example, Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” begins:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood. And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; (1-5)
To quote a section of this in the following way will make no sense to the reader: He stood there, as the narrator recounts, “And be one traveler, long I stood / And looked down one as far as I could” (3-4).
Quotation marks come before the parenthetical citation.
Quotes of more than four lines should be formatted as block quotes. These, too, must be introduced. Block quotes do not get placed in quotation marks.
Be sure to quote accurately.
Your introduction should make some point about the poem, not just describe it. Is your thesis in your conclusion?
Integrate discussion of technique into your analysis of meaning.
Hit hyphen (-) key twice to make a dash (–).
Agr.= Agreement. The first few lines of the poem lead the reader to believe they are about to embark on a sweet story.
Cs=comma splice Several characteristics suggest this is a sonnet, the poem is 14 lines long.
Works Cited examples:
Atwood, Margaret. “Footnote to the Amnesty Report on Torture.” Poems Poets, Poetry: An Introduction and Anthology. Ed. Helen Vendler. Boston: Bedford/St Martin’s, 2010. 73-75.
Vendler, Helen, ed, Poems, Poets, Poetry: An Introduction and Anthology. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2010.
(Vendler only gets listed if you actually cite her in the paper.)
