ASSIGNMENT 31:
A gathering of contemporary poets
For this, the concluding assignment of the course, you have a chance to show what you have learned. This will be an open,
relatively undirected writing assignment. To prepare for it, first of all read and study the five poems on our syllabus. Read,
in addition, the discussions in our anthology of the poets, and of "American Poetry Since 1945" (pages 2403-2412, but in
particular pages 2407-2412).
Your assignment is either to select one poem for a close, extensive critical reading, or to select two of the poems for a
contrastive reading. You may decide to write about any aspect of the poetry under discussion, any technical feature of the
writing, any thematic problem that seems worthwhile, or any way of interpreting the poem(s) in context with the historical
events that surround and even prompt them.
The interpretive essay you write should be about 750-1,000 words in length. In it, you should state a general thesis, then
develop and defend that thesis in an orderly exposition that makes careful use of detail from the text(s) under analysis. You
may compose the essay by reading only the poems themselves, or by referring the discussion, as needed, to the discussions of
contemporary poetry in our anthology, or, if you desire, by consulting other outside sources. Any reference to, or use of,
material outside the poems must be properly documented, however. If you are in need of suggestions for writing, perhaps some
of the following very general topics will help you to pinpoint something more specific to write about:
- the tension between the Ideal and the Real;
- the conflict between the individual and his/her society;
- the ways that Nature influences Man's perception and/or, in turn, the ways that Man changes Nature;
- the problems of gender and ethnicity: for example, how one's identity is shaped by social conventions of gender, or
ethnic heritage, perhaps also how the individual struggles against such stereotypes.
These are only suggestions. The final choice is yours.
Reading Assignment
- Silvia Plath, "Lady Lazarus" (pp. 2774-2747).
- Adrienne Rich, "Diving into the Wreck" (pp. 2719-2721).
- W.S. Merwin, "For a Coming Extinction" (pp. 2683-2684).
- Robert Pinsky, "A Woman" (pp. 2782-2783).
- Louise Gluck, "Terminal Resemblance" (p. 2798).
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