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English 1B Paper #2—Critically Analyzing and Interpreting Poetry
For this assignment, you will choose ONE well-known, published 19th, 20th, or 21st century English
language poet and write a 1,250+-word paper that interprets three of his/her/their poems within a
biographical context. In other words, you will provide selected background information about your
poet and explain each of your three chosen poems from the perspective provided by that background
information.
Biographical aspects could include the poet’s personal history and/or published
viewpoints (revealed through interviews, autobiographies, critical essays, public
speaking events, etc.). Your paper should demonstrate how knowing about
something significant in the poet’s own life leads to a clearer, deeper, and/or
more meaningful understanding of each of the three selected poems.
It is important to remember that in this paper, you are presenting the
noteworthy results of your biographical analysis and interpretation of the three
poems, not simply offering an overview of your poet’s life and body of work.
Structure
Your paper’s introduction should include an explicit thesis statement that identifies the poet AND
claims a specific connection between your poet’s life and the three selected poems.
The body of your paper should provide the biographical information necessary to prove your claims
about the poet and the detailed analysis, interpretation, and explication of each poem necessary to
prove your claims about their meaning. Instead of simply telling us what each poem is about, you will
show us, using whichever biographical and literary elements you find necessary to develop your
argument fully and logically.
Development
In addition to the three poems, your paper will require at least TWO credible scholarly sources from
outside our content modules. When choosing these sources, please avoid student papers, homework
help websites, most personal blogs, “notes” websites such as eNotes, LitCharts, and CliffsNotes, and
material from open source or test prep websites such as Wikipedia, Shmoop, 123HelpMe, or
Studymode; try the RCC library databases instead. You might also want to look at the “Literary
Research” tutorial on our Online Resources page inside our Canvas class, as it offers several poetry-
specific tips.
There is no need to include in your
paper the full text of each poem. Instead,
within the body of your paper, do line-by-
line (for shorter poems) or stanza-by-
stanza (for long poems) explication,
analysis, and interpretation to directly
support your claims.
In your paper, avoid using the second
person (you, your, you’re, and yours) or
first person singular (I, me, my, mine)
point of view. Instead, write in the third
person (preferably) or first person plural
(we, us, our, ours).
Grading
In addition to this prompt’s requirements, your paper is expected to follow all guidelines stipulated in
the syllabus, including those associated with formatting and submission. Its overall grade will consist
of the following:
On-time, on-task submission of the first draft assignment, second draft, peer reviews, and final draft assignment: 65 points
Final draft uses appropriate syntax, diction, style, and voice: 10 points
Final draft demonstrates effective unity (explicit thesis statement; no irrelevant sentences): 10 points
Final draft employs effective support; all inferences backed by facts; meets minimum word/source count: 10 points
Final draft maintains effective coherence: logical order, effective transitions, fair and accurate source integration: 10 points
Final draft offers correct MLA formatting, citations, and works cited list: 10 points
Final draft sentences are free of distracting errors in grammar, usage, punctuation, and mechanics: 10 points
Total points possible: 125
89.5%-100% = A 79.5%-89.4% = B 69.5%-79.4% = C 59.5%-69.4% = D 0%-59.4% = F
You will find specific instructions for this paper’s first draft assignment, second draft, peer reviews, and final draft
assignment in Canvas during the particular week in which each part is due.
If you seek help with this essay from a WRC instructor or tutor—whether virtually or in person—be sure during the
consultation to refer to a physical or electronic copy of this prompt.
Writing Conventions for Poetry
The basic conventions for writing about literature addressed in the Paper 1 prompt still apply for this
paper. What you see below are some of the more poetry-specific guidelines for source incorporation and
citation.
1) When quoting only two or three consecutive lines from a poem, use a forward slash with a space on either
side to indicate the end of each line except the last:
Whitman similarly describes the soul’s position in the universe in these lines: “And you
O my soul where you stand, / Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space” (6-
7).
If a stanza break occurs in the quotation, use two forward slashes to indicate the separation:
In “The Waste Land,” T.S. Eliot begins an extended analogy with the lines, “I read, much of the
night, and go south in the winter. // What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow / Out of
this stony rubbish?” (18-20).
2) Cite line numbers in parentheses after the quotation marks and before the period when quoting complete
lines, as in the previous example. When quoting only a phrase, cite the line number immediately after closing
the quotation marks, even if your sentence continues:
In the italicized portion of the poem, the bird sings a carol in praise of “lovely and soothing
death” (13) to help the speaker overcome his grief.
3) Adjust the punctuation of the last line you quote to make it fit your sentence. Here is how a line from
Whitman’s “When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d” reads: “To adorn the burial-house of him I love?”
However, notice how it appears in this example:
The speaker brings visions of the varying beauty of the entire country as he says, “To
adorn the burial-house of him I love” (80).
4) If you need to change a word, a capital letter, or some punctuation WITHIN the line or lines you quote,
enclose the changed letter or mark of punctuation in square brackets:
The speaker brings visions of the varying beauty of the entire country “[t]o adorn the
burial-house of him [he] love[s]” (80).
However, don’t overdo it with brackets. You don’t have to quote complete lines. You could simply begin and/or
end your quotation somewhere in the middle:
The speaker brings visions of the varying beauty of the entire country to “adorn the
burial-house” (80) of the one he loves.
5) If you are quoting more three consecutive lines of a poem and the quotation does not involve unusual
spacing, hit enter, indent one half inch (same as a paragraph indent—one tab), and omit the quotation marks.
The indented material should still be double-spaced, and each line from the poem should be on a separate line.
If something from the previous line carries over, indent the carryover amount an additional half an inch:
The speaker’s quest for spiritual enlightenment in an apparently meaningless world is
highlighted in the second stanza:
And you, O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect
them,
Till the bridge you will need be formed, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul. (6-10)
If the block quote does involve unusual spacing, reproduce it as accurately as possible:
Cumming’s successful juxtaposition of structure and imagery is especially apparent in the
poem’s last five lines:
Jesus
he was a handsome man
and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death
6) For non-poem sources not found online, use page numbers. For poems, always use line numbers. When
writing about multiple poems by the same poet, be sure to signal which poem:
Many of Williams’s poems exist in a naturalistic setting. “The Widow’s Lament in
Springtime,” for example, uses nature as a metaphor, as shown in lines 11-19:
Masses of flowers
load the cherry branches
and color some bushes
yellow and some red
but the grief in my heart
is stronger than they
for though they were my joy
formerly, today I noticed them
and turned away forgetting.
Meanwhile, “Spring and All” describes the scenery along the road to a hospital: “Lifeless in
appearance, sluggish / dazed spring approaches—” (14-15).
7) Don’t forget that when citing more than one work by the same author on a works cited list, you name the
author just once and alphabetize within that list of works by the title of the works:
Works Cited
Biography.com Editors. “Robert Frost Biography.” A&E Television Networks. 16 Apr. 2016,
www.biography.com/people/robert-frost-20796091.
Farmer, Maxwell. The Complete Biography of Robert Frost. Oxford UP, 1999.
Frost, Robert. “Fire and Ice.” A Guide to Robert Frost’s Poetry. Edited by Megan Smith. Penguin, 2003,
p. 27.
—. “Mending Wall.” The Academy of American Poets, 12 Apr. 2016,
www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/fire-and-ice.
—. “Out, Out-.” Poetry Foundation. 13 Apr. 2016, www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/238122.
—. “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening.” A Guide to Robert Frost’s Poetry. Edited by Megan
Smith. Penguin, 2003, pp. 97-98.
Sampson, Brent and Madeline Moore. Frost: An American Icon. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1990.
For additional help with writing research papers about poetry, see the e-book chapter “Writing about
Poetry,” the “Literary Research” tutorial on our Online Resources page in Canvas, the poetry modules in
the WRC-LAB Canvas course, the RCC Library databases, poets.org, and poetryfoundation.org.
Part 1: Proposal
Please copy and paste this template into a blank document; then specifically answer ALL of the following questions in complete sentences and in your own words. If you have a difficult time answering these questions, it might indicate that you should think further about your topic selection and how to make your topic more meaningful for you.
1) Which poet are you using, and why?
2) Which three of this poet’s poems have you chosen, and why?
3) What specific elements from your poet’s biography seem to apply to the analysis and interpretation of each of these poems?
4) What other critical lenses (historical, psychological, feminist, etc.) might you use in conjunction with biographical criticism Download biographical criticismto assist your analysis and interpretation of these poems, and why?
5) What is your tentative thesis statement?
6) What are your tentative main points in support of this thesis statement?
7) Where are your two outside sources going to come from (in addition to the three poems), and how will you ensure that they are scholarly and credible?
8) What are your anticipated challenges to writing this paper, and how do you plan to manage them?
Part 2: First Draft
Rough drafts are just that–rough! They are wordy, unformatted, unedited, experimental, incomplete, and absolutely necessary! They allow you to see how your ideas develop and how well you are expressing your purpose to your intended audience. They show you where the gaps are that you need to fill and help you figure out what to fill those gaps with. They also show you what you are doing well! Most importantly, they give you something to revise. After all, you can’t improve on something that doesn’t exist.
Using your proposal’s thesis statement and main points to guide you, please do BOTH of the following:
(A) Write a relatively complete (650+ words) first draft that (1) is on topic with the prompt, (2) is fully written (not in outline form) by YOU, and (3) contains some integration of the poems and some development from outside the poems, preferably credible biographical information about your poet and other relevant material from the RCC library databases.
(B) After you have completed your first draft, highlight, underline, bold, and/or label your thesis statement AND each of your main points in support of your thesis statement.
Grading for this assignment:
8 points for your on-time submission of an original proposal that fully and knowledgeably answers each question (see numbers 1-8 in Part 1 above).
12 points for your on-time submission of an original first draft that completely fulfills all the assigned tasks (see letters A and B in Part 2 above).
20 points = 100%
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