Using the following introduction, write a 600 word essay (do not count the introduction as part of the 600 word count) using this introduction.

Love has always been a popular theme in literature and culture. Love songs like “April Love” celebrate the joys of first love while songs like Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night” celebrate chance encounters. Shakespeare wrote of the tragedy of love in Romeo and Juliet, the petty squabbles of lovers in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the pain of rejected love in Hamlet. Among the many themes explored in Ishmael Reed’s New and Collected Poems 1964-2007 are poems that address the theme of love. Within Ishmael Reed’s poetry, his speakers explore the romance and lust, joys and pains, triumphs and tragedies, practicalities and politics of love in the modern world.

Primary Sources

• “American Airlines Sutra” (Reed 69)
• "I'm Running For The Office Of Love" (Reed 284-286)
• "For Dancer" (Reed 209)
• “Grizzly” (Reed 241-242)
• “Love Crime” (Reed 310-311)
• "Open Heart" (Reed 299-301)
• "Our Love Was Like a Forest Fire" (Reed 346-349)
• "Pocadonia" (165-168)
• “To a Daughter of Isaiah” (Reed 138)

Reed, Ishmael. New and Collected Poems 1964-2007. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2007. Print.

Requirements:

• Length: Your essay must be a minimum of 600 words.
• Documentation Format: You must include an MLA formatted Works Cited page that includes correctly formatted internal citations for all source material used.
• Sources: You are restricted to poems listed from New and Collected Poems 1964-2007. You must include in your essay a significant analysis of at least three of the poems.
• Number of sources: You must make frequent references to specific details in each poem (properly documented).
• Format: The essay must be in MSWord format (.doc or .docx)
• Warning: Do not read or refer to resources beyond those available in our course.

For this essay, do not use any sources other than the poems themselves. You may use a dictionary to help you with words with which you are not familiar, but do not refer to the dictionary definitions in your essay. Base your discussion of the theme on your own close reading of the poems you have selected.

Document your sources by identifying the poems (titles in quotation marks), the title, page number, and line number, for example: ("Grizzly," 241, line 6). When referring to lines within each poem, you may identify them by line number. When quoting from the poems, quote exactly. Do not change punctuation or capitalization except, as needed, end punctuation. Be sure to use a slash ( / ) to indicate a line break in the original poem. Remember, if you do not need the punctuation at the end of your quote, you may eliminate it or replace it with the punctuation you need to end your sentence. For example, in the following sentence about Shakespeare's poem, "That Time of Year Thou Mayst in Me Behold," the comma at the end of the line from the poem is unneeded, but a period is needed to end the sentence:

Notice the / indicating the line break and the period which ends the sentence replacing the comma in the original.

Proofread carefully the final draft for spelling, grammar, and punctuation as well as clarity, conciseness, and completeness. The final draft should be typed, double spaced, one inch margins, in Arial or Times Roman 12 pt. Your essay should be a minimum of 600 words (two typewritten pages, about five handwritten pages) in length.