ENGL 100 San Mateo Sex Without Love Poem by Sharon Olds Poetry Explication
Subject
Writing
Course
ENGL 100
School
College of San Mateo
Department
ENGL
Question Description
Essay 1: Poetry Explication
Your first major writing project for English 110 will give the opportunity to read poetry with our new methodology and analyze the development of an author's ideas throughout a poem.
In the first weeks of class, we learned how to read poetry, how to write about it, and with your openness and attention, how to enjoy it. We will read poems as we look at how poets employ special tools (the elements of poetry) to explore different subjects and themes, in short, to say something. This something, you will find, can be something profound, surprising, heart-wrenching, and even life-altering.
For your first take-home assignment, choose one poem and focus on the specific elements of poetry in the poem. Strictly focus your analysis of the meaning of the words as they are on the page. Use the methods we have learned from our readings of Mark Yakich's Poetry: A Survivor's Guide.
Your Portfolio should include the following:
A 5-page explication of one poem from the poetry packets that we have not discussed in class (or, if you and I talk about it first, one of your own choosing). The explication will tie into Mark Yakich's book with a quote or two of a relevant passage about the poet’s use of a) line, b) metaphor, c) symbolism, d) lyric, d) rhythm, or others we have covered in our reading.