EngL 1186: Final Essay Project
We have learned to examine a wide variety of poetic elements so far this semester—rhyme, meter,
form, sound patterns, and the like. The next step is to think about how these elements work together
with what you know about the poet’s biography and historical context.
For your final essay Poem “Night
Feeding” By Muriel Rukeyser 1913–1980 Muriel
Rukeyser. Analyzing it, using a combination of your ability to analyze a wide range of poetic
elements with research about your selected poet and his/her historical and cultural context. You may
select any poem you want as long as that poem is in your book or available online, or you can provide
me with a hard copy.
This essay includes a number of steps:
1. A proposal; the Poem selection and final paper proposal (50
points)—due Wednesday, November 19, 2014 by 11:59 pm
For this assignment, you should submit a brief outline that explains what poem you will be analyzing,
describes what you tentatively think the poem is about, and highlights 3-4 elements of the poem itself
that you think contribute to the poem’s meaning. Please start with your tentative thesis, and then
include a bullet point for each of the elements you will be analyzing. Bullet points should be followed
be a few sentences about what aspects of that element you think are significant.
Example: “For my final essay, I will be analyzing Sylvia Plath’s “Tulips,” which I think is about:
a)
Imagery: The color white plays a key role in this poem. Plath draws a connection between the
white of snow and the white of sheets and uniforms in hospitals; she contrasts this to the
exciting colors of tulips. The tulips are also personified, and become increasingly more
aggressive and dangerous over the course of the poem.
b) Form: Etc.
c) Sound Patterns: Etc…”
Note: this will not be all the analysis you will do on these elements, but it will get you started and help
me see if you are off on the right foot.
2. A biographical/contextual essay . Biography/context
essay (75 points)—due December 3, 2014 by 11:59 pm
This essay is a short, 2-3 page report about the historical context of your poem and the biography of the
author. For this, you will need to do research on your poem—the Literature Resource Center database
from academic libraries will be very helpful for this stage of the essay. You can access this database by
going to the library homepage, clicking on the “Articles” tab, and then selecting “Literature Resource
Center” from the dropdown menu. You can access this database from off-campus—the “Off-Campus
Access” link on the right side of the page will walk you through how to do this.
In the essay, you should describe two or three of the most important biographical/historical details you
learned about your poem and author that shed light on how you can interpret it. You can include this
information either by summarizing the sources you researched or by quoting them directly—in either
case, use MLA in-text citation, along with a Works Cited page at the end of the essay, to properly give
credit to your sources. You will fail this assignment if you do not cite your sources.
This essay should be organized around a thesis that summarizes the two or three key points that you
found in your research and that explains how this information might be useful when analyzing your
poem.
Example: “When analyzing Sylvia Plath’s poem ‘Tulips,’ knowing about her struggle with depression, her
multiple suicide attempts, and her stay at McLean Hospital can help the reader understand where much
of the imagery and darkness of the poem comes from.” In this example, the essay could then go on to
talk in more detail about Plath’s struggle with depression, her multiple suicide attempts, and the
medical treatment she underwent for these mental health issues.
At this point, you do not have to connect these issues to specific parts of the poem; this essay is simply a
biographical/historical report, rather than an analysis that connects this context to the poem itself.
Essays will be graded on the following criteria, with the most weight given to the first four. A central
argument or thesis that summarizes the key biographical/historical details you will cover Clearly
summarized biographical or historical details about your author or poem Support for your summary
from outside sources, which are clearly and correctly cited An organizational structure An engaging
introduction and conclusion Well-crafted sentences and paragraphs Good grammar and spelling
3. Final paper presentation (50 points)—
due December 7, 2014 by 6 pm
For this presentation, you will present your poem and your interpretation to the class in one of two
formats:
a)
A PowerPoint presentation, This presentation should have at least 5 slides that include the
following elements: your poem, your overall interpretation of the poem (in other words, the
thesis of your essay), and at least 3 elements of the poem or contextual/biographical details that
support this reading. If you choose this option, work to make sure your presentation is engaging
and doesn’t overwhelm your readers with too much text on each slide. Creativity in slide design
(pictures, visually appealing formatting, etc.) is a plus.
b) A short YouTube video in which you recite your poem, present your overall interpretation of
the poem (in other words, the thesis of your essay), and explain at least 3 elements of the poem
or contextual/biographical details that support this reading. I don’t know how to create videos
or upload them to YouTube—you should choose this option only if you are confident that you
can do this on your own or if you have a tech-savvy friend or relative who is willing to help you
out. You must submit this option as a YouTube video, rather than as any other sort of file—not
everyone has the same software to play videos with, and using YouTube will enable everyone to
view your presentation.
Regardless of which option you choose, you should conclude your presentation with a question or two
for your audience. You can ask questions that are merely designed to provoke discussion, or you can ask
questions about your analysis or argument. Presentations will be posted on D2L on December 8, 2014,
and all of your discussion posts that week will be
comments on your classmates’ presentations. You can use the feedback you get about your
presentation to refine your argument for your final paper.
4. Final essay (150 points)—due
Monday, December 15, 2012 by 6
pm
For this final 6-8 page essay, you should bring together everything that you have learned this semester
and all the work that you have done in steps 1-3 of this project.
Your essay should present an interpretation of your selected poem, with specific, detailed analysis of the
elements of the poem and its historical/biographical context that contribute to your interpretation.
Elements you could consider are: Sound patterns Imagery Rhyme Repetition Meter Form
Speaker’s voice Subject Style Historical and biographical context
Please note: You do not need to cover all of these elements in your essay. Rather, you should select
the elements that are most important in the poem and that contribute most strongly to the overall
interpretation of the poem that you want to put forward. The strongest essays, however, will be the
ones that take both the poem itself as well as its context into consideration.
When writing your essay, use my comments on your proposal and your biographical/historical essay and
your classmates’ comments on your presentation to revise and expand your thinking. You should feel
free to incorporate any of the writing you have done for any step of this project into this final paper, but
keep in mind—it will most likely need to be revised before you do.
Essays should be 6-8 pages each and organized around a central argument or thesis. Essays MUST
include outside research, and should include direct quotations from your selected poem. These texts
should be cited using MLA format. If you want to cite information covered in the lecture notes you
should cite it using the format for a speech or a lecture. If you have questions about MLA format,
there is a link to the Purdue Online Writing Lab under “Course Information” that is a great resource
for MLA style-related questions.
Essays will be graded on the following criteria, with the most weight given to the first four. A central
argument or thesis Support for that argument, as seen in specific lines of poetry and incorporation of
outside research Analysis that connects the textual support to the overall argument of the essay A
clear organizational structure An engaging introduction and conclusion Well-crafted sentences and
paragraphs Good grammar, spelling, and citation
NOTE: Essays that do not cite outside research will fail this assignment.
Final essays should be 6-8 pages (2000-2500 words), typed, double-spaced, in a 12-point font such as
Calibri or Times New Roman (nothing strange), and with 1” margins.
* Please submit all parts of this project through the appropriate D2L dropbox.*
Final Essay`s Poem
“Night Feeding” By Muriel Rukeyser 1913–1980 Muriel Rukeyser
Deeper than sleep
but not so deep as death
I lay there dreaming
and my magic head
remembered and
forgot. On first cry I
remembered and
forgot and did
believe.
I knew love and I
knew evil:
woke to the burning song and the tree burning blind,
despair of our days
and the calm milk-giver
who
knows sleep, knows growth, the sex of fire and grass,
renewal of all waters
and the time of the stars
and the black snake
with gold bones.
Black sleeps, gold
burns; on second cry I
woke
fully and gave to
feed and fed on feeding.
Gold seed, green
pain, my wizards in the
earth
walked through the
house, black in the
morning dark.
Shadows grew in
my veins, my bright belief,
my head of dreams
deeper than night and
sleep.
Voices of all black
animals crying to drink,
cries of all birth
arise, simple as we,
found in the leaves,
in clouds and dark, in
dream,
deep as this hour,
ready again to sleep.
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