Assignment 2: Poetry
For this assignment you have two choices. Option 1 is an essay on poetry, relating to Units 3 and 4. Option 2 is an essay on drama, specifically, on Shakespeare’s Othello, relating to Unit 5. Please note that whichever option you choose for Assignment 2, you are still required to study and master the material in all three units. Assignment 3 (which you should look ahead to now if you have not already done so) requires online postings to discussion forums and is related to Units 3, 4, and 5.
Total Marks: 100
The value of Assignment 2 is 15 per cent of your final grade.
Option 1: Poetry (to be submitted after you have worked through Units 3 and 4)
If you are planning to complete the course in four months, Option 1 is due by the end of week 6.
The following pairs of poems explore similar subject matter. Choose one of the pairs and write an essay of no more than 800 words comparing and contrasting the two treatments of the same subject, focussing on such areas as tone, structure, imagery, language, point of view or other areas discussed in Units 3 and 4 regarding style. Make sure that your discussion of both poems makes your ideas about theme or meaning clear. Be sure to include a List of Works Cited (an alphabetical listing by author of the two poems on which your essay is based) and to provide line references in parentheses following all quoted material. If you choose the first pair of poems, be sure to read the notes on Klein’s poem at the end of Unit 4.
“Heirloom” by A. M. Klein (Geddes, 176) and “Keine Lazarovitch: 1870–1959” by Irving Layton (Geddes, 259)
OR
“War Photographer” by Carol Ann Duffy (Geddes, 708) and “Driving Through Minnesota During the Hanoi Bombings” by Robert Bly (Geddes, 498–499)
OR
“Neither Out Far Nor In Deep” by Robert Frost (Geddes, 55) and “Waterfront” by Roo Borson (Geddes, 763)
Option 2: Drama (to be submitted after you have worked through Unit 5)
This option for Assignment 2 relates to Unit 5 on Shakespeare’s Othello. If you are planning to complete the course in four months, it is due no later than the end of week 9.
Choose one of the following topics and write an essay of no more than 800 words:
• Discuss the significance and dramatic purposes of Lodovico.
• Discuss the significance and dramatic purposes of Emilia.
• Discuss the significance and dramatic purposes of the conversation between Bianca and Cassio, Act III, scene iv, 166–200.
• Discuss the significance and dramatic purposes of the soliloquy of Othello, Act III, scene iii, 258–76.
Be sure to include a List of Works Cited (even though this will likely consist only of an entry for Shakespeare’s Othello) and to provide act, scene, and line references in parentheses following all quoted material, as in (IV.iii.25–32). Remember that the titles of plays are either underlined or italicized.