An ars poetica is a poem that addresses the art of writing poetry. Some wellknown ars poetica poems include
Write an essay that explores Ishmael Reed’s sense of the art of poetry using the following poems as support.
- “Man or Butterfly” (57)
- “Beware: Do Not Read This Poem” (60-62)
- “If My Enemy is a Clown, a Natural Born Clown” (65-66)
- “A Secretary to the Spirits” (174-175)
- “The Reactionary Poet” (197-199)
- “Paper-Weight” (328)
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 the assigned poem and the secondary sources..
- 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) and the authors. 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:
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.
