Description
To learn to write an analysis about a poem for a general audience.
To analyze a poem using literary terminology.
To articulate the poem’s overall meaning based on the “lens” of a literary theory. You all used new criticism (Links to an external site.) for essay 1. This is where you looked closely at the text and only at the text. You are welcome to do this same type of analysis for essay 2.
However, you also have the option to analyze it using another theory (e.g. queer theory, feminist theory, historicism, psychoanalytic theory, etc.). This gives you a specific way to look at an analyze the poem.
- Prompt:
- you can choose which poem you want from the poems below.
- Write an essay on ONE of the poems listed below where you analyze it, using up to 4 literary devices, in order to interpret the poem’s overall meaning.
Poem Choices:
"A Dream Within a Dream" by Edgar Allan Poe (Links to an external site.)
"Always For The First Time" by André Breton (Links to an external site.)
"Eloisa to Abelard" by Alexander Pope (Links to an external site.)
"Gretel in Darkness" by Louise Glück (Links to an external site.)
"The End and the Beginning" by Wislawa Szymborska (Links to an external site.)
"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost (Links to an external site.)
"Woe Are You?" by Don Mee Choi
Requirements:
1000+ words (approx. 4 pages) not including the Works Cited page; MLA formatting (Links to an external site.).
Remember to include your word count at the end of your essay, and also a Works Cited page that cites your poem. Outside/additional sources are not required, but if you choose to use one to help you with your analysis, then you must make sure to quote and cite it, and include it on your Works Cited page. Failing to do this can look like plagiarism and you risk failing the assignment.
- Reminders:
Use your chosen literary devices (examples: tone, word choice, imagery) to explain what the poem “means.”
If you only analyze the above ^^ then you are using new criticism as the literary theory for your analysis. You have the option to use another literary theory to guide your analysis.
- Use examples from the text to convincingly support the claims you're making.
When quoting extensively, take time to explain the specific parts (letters, sounds, words, punctuation, etc.) in the quote that prove your point.
Avoid simply restating each line, but analyze and discuss the words/lines with a purpose.
- Use the present tense when describing or discussing events in the poem. In writing about literature, the convention is to always use the present tense throughout. The idea is that the poet is currently communicating thoughts to you in the present time.
Ensure you have correctly spelled all names and titles. Put the name of the poem in double-quotation marks. When referring to the poet, write out his/her full name (and later references can be last name only).
Don’t confuse the poet with the speaker of the poem - they are different.
Explanation & Answer
View attached explanation and answer. Let me know if you have any questions.
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"A Boy Named Sue" Poem Analysis
The poem "A Boy Named Sue" by famed American poet Shel Silverstein is a brief
criticism of his father, but with a bittersweet feel. Employing exacting and florid metaphors, Shel
tells us that he blames his father for giving him the name Sue, which he blames for his
misfortunes. Shel describes his relationship with his father from birth, blaming him for the title
because he associated it with trouble. Generally, he does not like the name. Shel has also
performed the poem as a song in its acoustic version. Literary devices such as imagery, rhyme,
Anaphora, and apostrophe are employed.
Throughout the poem, Shel expresses his dissatisfaction with his name and his father,
who gave him that name. In the first stanza, he introduces the audience to his father and his
brewing dissatisfaction with him. He also introduces his mother, whom he appreciates for raising
him after his father abandoned them. In the second stanza, Shel builds up the tension between
himself and his father. He expresses his shame by describing how people laughed at him, and he
had to fight out of frustration, saying, "Some gal would giggle, and I'd see red, and some guy
would laugh, and I'd bust his head."
Moreover, he says that life is tough for someone named Sue. In the third stanza, Shel
describes the depth of his enmity with his father by stating that he made a vow that after being
cursed by the name Sue, he would seek vengeance. Shel uses the fourth stanza to establish the
elements of timing and location in the poem. He also describes some conditions that he finds
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himself in. In the fifth stanza, Shel uses imagery to paint a picture of him, his mother, and his
father to describe the times they were together as a family. Again, in the sixth stanza, Shel uses
imagery to describe a violent encounter with his father, who cut his ear. In the seventh and eighth
stanzas, Shel intimates that his father's naming him Sue was nothing out of a joke but out of his
father's cruelty. His father tells him that he had to call him Sue in anticipation of the world being
cruel (Silverstein n.p). He shows that his father's act of naming him was out of self-awareness
and not ignorance, as he may have earlier thought. In the last stanza, Shel describes another
encounter between him and his father where, after an initial violent confrontation, they make up
and finally settle their differences. However, Shel still decries the name-sue that his father gave
him.
Rhyme
Shel uses rhyme to create the musical sounds and aspects in the poem. A combination of
rhyming words and sentences creates a harmonious environment in the poem; several rhyme
schemes enhance the poem's musicality, reinforce its repetition, and enhance its recitation. In the
first verse, Shel creates a rhyme scheme with the first two stanzas at their ends (Silverstein n.p).
In the first stanza, the ending word is three when he describes the age at which his father left
them and his mother. In the se...
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