Using these poems about parents and children, select two poems and write a comparison/contrast essay focusing on a theme related to the relationship between parents and children.
Selected Poems
Robert Hayden, "Those Winter Sundays"
Rita Dove, "Daystar"
Sharon Olds, "Rites of Passage"
Marvin Bell, "Ending with a Line from Lear"
Seamus Heaney, "Digging"
Dylan Thomas, "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night"
Resources
In this assignment, students are comparing and contrasting two poems on a common theme.
- Essay map on how to organize an essay on two poems with a common theme.
- Example of an essay on two poems with a common theme.
Requirements:
- Length: Your essay must be a minimum of 500 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 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) 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.
Essay Map
Introduction
Lead
Briefly summarize some of the conflicts that can arise between parents and children.
Thesis
The thesis statement (and topic sentences) should focus on common perspective or experience families.
Author "First poem" and author "Second poem" (examine, explore, reveal, . . . ) [some significant, important, relevant, or valuable idea commmon to both poems about families.
Body
Topic Sentences
Create a topic sentence specific to each poem. You may do the poems in any order. The order of poems in the body of the essay should match the order of poems in the thesis. Students must think about what makes the best choice for beginning and ending the exanination of the common theme. Do you want to end on a more positive experience or a more negative experience? Does one poem explore the theme more deeply than the other (the deeper exploration should be last)?
Each body paragraph will begin with a thesis statement on the individual poem examined in that paragraph. The theme of the topic sentence will be specific to the poem under consideration and will support the common theme given in the thesis for the essay.
Supporting Details
- Use specific details from each poem by incorporating brief quotations--key words or phrases--that reveal the relevant details from each poem.
- Each sentence of the body paragraph should help explain the argument you have given in the topic sentence by indicating specific details from the poem.
- For each poem, show why the speakers feel as they do, and the justifications for their reactions.
- Only write about one poem in a particular paragraph. Write all about one poem and then all about the other. Do not go back and forth between the two poems.
Conclusion
Having explored the experiences of the speakers in each poem, what significant, important, relevant, or valuable realization can be reached?
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