Essay 2 – Poetry essay assignment
Your assignment is to write a descriptive essay about a poet based on a reading of no more than three of his or her poems. Your description could focus on the poet’s prominent themes, use of language, or use of poetic forms.
Choose any poet we have read in this class EXCEPT SHAKESPEARE. Research your poet and find one or two more poems by them. Consider the two or three poems together and use them to write your descriptive essay.
Your thesis should be a statement describing the poet. For example, “Edgar Allan Poe was a master of rhyme schemes.” Or “Louse Gluck’s poetry uses language to create ambiguous dreamscapes.”
How long should the essay be? 3-4 pages or 750-1000 words
Do I have to do research? No, but you can if you want. You do have to find additional poems. Be sure to cite all your sources.
How will it be graded? Here is the rubric. As usual, you must be able to check off as complete all of the following:
The essay has a thesis describing one of the poets we have studied in class. (A thesis is usually near the beginning of the essay, perhaps in the introduction.)
The essay supports its thesis with an in-depth discussion of 2 or 3 poems.
The essay has an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.
The essay includes in-text citations where needed.
The essay includes a Works Cited page with correctly formatted MLA-style citations of all works cited in the essay.
The essay is organized into unified paragraphs. (Unified paragraphs contain one main idea and supporting points for that idea. When there are not unified paragraphs, the essay goes on and on without paragraph breaks, or the essay is jumbled and the ideas are not organized logically.)
The essay is formatted in MLA style (1” margins, double-spaced throughout, etc.)
The essay is submitted on Blackboard in one of the following file formats: .doc, .docx, .pdf (Essays submitted in other formats will fail. If you don’t know how to export a .doc or .pdf file from Google docs or Pages, learn that skill.) Do not send essays in email.
The essay is submitted by the due date of Nov. 16, 2020 at 11:30 pm.
