Your essay should be a response to this prompt:

Choose one poem from ((We did not rear the father by charles fort, What work is by Philip Levine, Singapore by Mart Oliver, Blackberries by Yusef Komunyakaa, The Mill by Edwin Arlington Robinson, So Mexicans are taking jobs from Americans by Jimmy Santiago Baca, The Lady in the Pink Mustang by Louise Erdrich, The Secretary Chant by Marge Piercy, The Restaurant Business by James Tate) and one or two poems from

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(Forgiving my father by Lucille Clifton, Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden, My papa’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke, My Father, in Heaven, Is Reading Out Loud by Li-Young Lee, Say You Love me by Molly Peacock), and discuss how the idea of family is created in the poems that you have chosen. In what ways is the poem’s speaker creating an idea of family based on the work its members perform? What are some similarities and differences among the speakers’ visions of family? Do you see any connections between the two poems you have chosen?

You have the option to add a third poem, which must come from (Forgiving my father by Lucille Clifton, Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden, My papa’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke,

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My Father, in Heaven, Is Reading Out Loud by Li-Young Lee, Say You Love me by Molly Peacock). You will not necessarily write a more successful essay by adding a third poem to it, however if you think a third poem could help to develop your idea about family in the poems, then you should add it.

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Writing Process and deadlines for each phase:

Topic idea deadline: Thursday, January 30

Outline and annotated poem deadline: Tuesday, February 4

First draft (with works cited page) deadline: Monday, February 10

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Final draft (with works cited page) deadline: Tuesday, February 19.

Basic content and form requirements:

-clear thesis statement and developed paragraphs that advance the thesis.

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-demonstration of analysis that is supported by evidence from the textbook and from at least one academic source outside of the textbook.

-demonstration of close reading with attention to formal elements of poems, such as sound, word choice, symbolism, and more.

-clear organization and sustained focus on the prompt and the poems (not the poets)

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