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ENC 1102 Poetry Essay
ENC 1102
Poetry Essay
Length: 550-750 words
(Essays that do not meet the minimum word count will be reduced one letter grade.)
Purpose
The purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate your ability to read a poem closely and write an
organized, insightful analysis. This essay should be a product of your own thoughts and ideas, so you
should develop your own thesis statement. Your thesis should express a position (or argument)
regarding the poem(s) you are discussing. Your goal is to shed light on a particular aspect of the works
so that your reader comes away with a new or different perspective.
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Write My Essay For MeExamine any poem from our textbook and demonstrate how its imagery helps communicate its
general theme (central idea). Be sure that you discuss imagery (NOT symbolism or figures of
speech—those are different from imagery), and be specific in noting how each key image
contributes to the poem’s total effect.
When you make a point about a poem, provide a direct quote from the poem to back up what you
say. You should have at least two quotes from the poem per body paragraph
Format Requirements
• Type your paper in MLA format: 12-point font, double spaced, with the proper heading in the
top left corner of the first page and your last name and page number in the top right corner of
every page.
• Use parenthetical references to line numbers when you refer to words, phrases, or lines from a
poem (see “Citing a Poem” below).
• Include a Works Cited entry for each poem.
Citing a Poem
• When citing from the poem, use line numbers instead of page numbers. For example:
Blake uses words and phrases such as “chartered” (1), “cry of fear” (6), and “manacles” (8) to suggest
that the city’s inhabitants are oppressed and even imprisoned.
• If you quote more than one line, separate the lines with a slash: /. For example:
In Plath’s poem, the mirror describes itself as unemotional and detached: “I am silver and exact. I have
no preconceptions. / Whatever I see I swallow immediately / Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike”
(1-3).
• If you quote more than three lines from a poem, these lines should be “block defined” or set off
from the rest of the text. Space in ten spaces from the margin. For example:
The first stanza of Langston Hughes’s “Lenox Avenue: Midnight” emphasizes the connection
between jazz music and life:
The rhythm of life
Is a jazz rhythm,
Honey.
The gods are laughing at us. (1-4)
POINTS TO REMEMBER
1) Do not simply explain what the poem means. If you are discussing two poems, for example, you
need to analyze the differences or similarities—go beyond simply pointing them out.
2) First person is acceptable for reader-response type writing such journal assignments, but for critical
essays, you should use third-person point of view. Avoid using first person (I, me, my, mine) or
second person (you, your, yourself, yourselves) unless you are quoting directly from the story.
3) Each time you make a point or observation about the poem, use specific evidence from the work to
support what you are saying. For poems, use parenthetical references to line numbers, not page
numbers
4) Your conclusion should re-cap your thesis while wrapping up your thoughts. A good concluding
paragraph does more than echo what has already been said. It closes the issue or discussion leaving
the reader enriched with a new perspective. One way to begin your concluding paragraph is to refer
back to your thesis statement.
5) Fiction is in the “eternal present.” Discuss the poem in the present tense.
6) You should include the author’s full name in the first sentence of your essay. For all later references,
use only last names, such as Frost, Dickinson, Brooks, or Atwood. Do not use an author’s first
name. Also, do not use a familiar title in front of author’s names.
7) A good essay will
• begin with an effective introductory paragraph.
• have a strong thesis statement at the end of the introductory paragraph
• be unified (focused on the thesis).
• be coherent (flow smoothly from one idea to the next).
• contain adequate support from each poem.
• demonstrate good critical thinking.
• end with a concluding paragraph that sums up the ideas in the essay.
• be free of major grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors.
