Art Institute of Washington EN102 Spring 2014 Semester Poetry Critique Assignment Due 5.19.14
For this first critique, you will need to either interpret or evaluate one of the poem(s) found in the text. You should use one of these questions as the main basis of your response, but you can definitely answer other questions as support for your main thesis or claim. Your essay should NOT use any outside sources.

This critique should come from your own point of views and ideas. Other things to be mindful of when you are writing your essay:
1). Choose only ONE question as the basis of your response, even though you can use other elements to support this one main question.
2). Your essay should be at least 750-1000 words long, double-spaced, and in proper MLA format with in-text citations and a works cited page.
3). Your essay is worth 100 points towards your final grade. You will be graded in the following areas: Thesis, Development of Ideas, Organization, Style, and Grammar. I will be grading this first draft. If you want to improve it afterwards, you can do that.

4). When you email me your essay, please don’t forget to also complete your Student/Teacher Memo as well. Make sure your file is a .doc or .docx file. If it is in any other format, I won’t be able to open it and you won’t receive credit for this assignment. You need to email at [email protected] and [email protected]. You will need to email me your essay by midnight the day it is due.
5). When you come into class next week, please be sure that you have any notes, outlines, brainstorming, etc. to receive credit for your Poetry Critique.

You can either handwrite or type these notes on the work you’re choosing. Good luck with your assignment and I look forward to reading your essays!
Interpretation of Poetry Critique Prompts
1. Characterize the speaker of any poem. Present a sketch of the speaker’s character by referring to the language of the poem. Consider not only what the speaker says but the manner in which it is said and what it reveals about the speaker.

2. Describe the narrative element in any poem. Consider how important its “story” or narrative material is, and what would be gained or lost without it. Consider also how the narrative dimension of the poem would work as a story, play, or essay.
3. Explicate the opening lines of a poem. Explain the significance of the lines in the context of the poem overall.
4. Explicate the closing lines of a poem. Consider how they can be related to earlier lines.

5. Select two or more key lines from a short poem (or groups of lines from longer ones). Explain their significance and consider their relationship to one another.
6. Read five or more poems by the same poet and discuss the features they have in common.
7. Analyze a single poem that is representative of a poet’s work. Explain what makes the poem representative.
8. Analyze the diction or word choices of a poem. Consider other words the poet could have chosen.

Examine the denotations and connotations of the words the poet chose. Use your analysis of the diction to develop an interpretation of the poem.
9. Analyze the imagery of a poem. List the poem’s significant details (if a long poem) or all the details if it’s short. Discuss what the images contribute to the poem’s tone, feeling, and/or meaning.
10. Analyze the figurative language in a poem. Identify and explain each figure of speech and discuss its function in the poem overall.
11. Discuss the ironic dimensions of a poem. Identify examples of irony, and explain their significance and effect.

12. Identify the allusions in a poem and explain what they contribute to your understanding of it.
13. Analyze the structure of a poem. Consider both its overall structure and its small-scale structure-how the individual parts are themselves are organized. Identify the main parts of the poem and comment on their relationship to each other.

14. Analyze the sound effects of a poem. Explain how the sound contributes to its sense and spirit.
15. Analyze the rhythm and meter of a poem. Identify its prevailing metrical pattern. Acknowledge any deviations from this meter and comment on the significance of these deviations. Consider what the poem’s rhythm and meter contribute to its overall meaning and feeling.
Evaluation of Poetry Critique Responses
16. Discuss the values exemplified in one or more poems.

Consider, that is, the cultural, moral, social, or ethical norms that either appear explicitly in the poem(s) or are implied by it. Identify those values, relate them to your own, and comment on their significance.
17. Compare two poems, evaluating their literary and linguistic merit. Explain what the two poems have in common, how they differ, and why one is superior to the other.
18. Evaluate a poem from the standpoint of its literary excellence. Explain why you consider it to be an effective or ineffective poem.