Paper One

Close Reading

Draft due Friday, Oct. 3

Final version dueWednesday, Oct. 15

Choose one of the poems wehave studied so far (by Shakespeare, Donne, or Shelley), and write a 3-4 pagepaper in which you investigate how the sonnet form contributes to the poem’sargument. What the poem’s argumentis is not always immediatelyobvious, so you should make some claims about what the poet is ultimatelytrying to communicate. You shouldpay close attention to the details of diction and punctuation, singling outindividual words and constructions for attention. You should consider how the poet uses figurative languageand imagery and what those tropes gesture toward and evoke in our imaginations.

Where does the poem exhibittension? Where does it becomedramatic? What seems odd orunusual in the language, or where do we get hung up when we start reading? How does the poem combine emotion andthought in a recipe for beautiful expression? How do form and content work together to produce a poeticeffect, or how are they at odds with each other?

One way to begin thisassignment is to contemplate what sticks for you in your own mind after youclose the Norton. Those bits thathaunt you are usually the best places to start your analysis. Your goal here is to write a thesisthat connects the miniscule parts of a poem to its overall message and tosupport that thesis with text-based evidence.

Papers that replicatearguments we have made in class will not receive the highest grades; however,you may use our class discussions as a springboard for your own argument.