Shakespeare by matthew arnold theme

English 28 Analytical Essay Two: Comparison and Contrast of Poems

Your assignment is to write a comparison and contrast essay about two of the poems from our textbook. You must choose the first poem from our text, and discuss the poem's theme, language usage, and metaphorical reference(s). You must choose a second poem from our text, and discuss the impact of word choice throughout it and why effective word choice is essential for this poem's theme.

Here is a list of the poems we are reading for this course, including some suggested themes: William Shakespeare, “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?” (love), Langston Hughes, “Harlem (A Dream Deferred)" (racism), Langston Hughes, “Theme for English B" (racial identity), John Donne, “Death, Be Not Proud” (death), John Donne, “The Flea" (love, lust), William Blake, “The Tyger” (creation, evil), John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (truth, beauty), Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself (Section 11)" (fantasy), Matthew Arnold, “Dover Beach" (war), Emily Dickinson, “Because I Could Not Stop for Death" (death), William Butler Yeats, “The Second Coming” (the Apocalypse), William Butler Yeats, “Sailing to Byzantium" (fantasy), Robert Frost, “Mending Wall" (diplomacy), William Carlos Williams, “The Red Wheelbarrow" (beauty), T.S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (regret), Stevie Smith, “Not Waving but Drowning” (depression), Dylan Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” (death), Nikki Giovanni, “Dreams" (hope, ambition), Robert Browning, “My Last Duchess” (jealousy, murder), Gabriel Spera, “My Ex-Husband” (divorce), Wilfred Owen, “Dulce et Decorum Est” (the horrors of war), John Donne, “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” (death), Andrew Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress” (love, lust).

You may use one of the following two subjects for your essay, or come up with one of your own:

1. “How do William Shakespeare’s poetic speaker in ‘Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day’ and John Donne’s poetic speaker in ‘The Flea’ convey their feelings to the women they love? Identify the similarities and differences between the tones of these two love poems.”

2. “How do John Donne (in ‘Death, Be Not Proud’) and William Blake (in ‘The Tyger’) use personification in their poems? What are the differences and similarities between the subjects (death and the tiger) that these poets assign human characteristics to?”

Because you are writing a comparison and contrast essay, you must focus on at least one similarity and one difference between the poems you choose. You can relate your comparison and contrast to one or more poetic elements, such as speaker, persona, tone, denotation, connotation, symbol, metaphor, simile, and personification.

The final draft of your essay should be two or more double-spaced pages in length, plus a works cited page. Your essay should have a title as well as a thesis statement. You should support each of your claims with at least one direct quotation from each poem. After answering the above questions as part of the prewriting process, develop a Thesis Statement. Consult the sample essay on pages 480-482 in your McMahan book for help on formatting an essay about poetry.

Your Works Cited page should look like this:

Works Cited

Donne, John. "The Flea." Literature and the Writing Process. Ed. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X. Day, Robert

Funk, and Linda Coleman. 9th ed. Boston: Longman, 2011. 487. Print.

Shakespeare, William. "Shall I Compare Thee To a Summer's Day?" Literature and the Writing Process. Ed.

Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X. Day, Robert Funk, and Linda Coleman. 9th ed. Boston: Longman, 2011.

487. Print.