No one is born knowing how to be a good parent. Parents, like all people, are shaped by their environment, the places they have lived, the people they have met, the examples of their own parents and grandparents. Children often struggle with how their parents raised them well into adulthood. Sometimes, as adults, grown children come to understand and even accept their parents, despite their flaws and their failures. Lucille Clifton's poem "forgiving my father" and Robert Hayden's poem "Those Winter Sundays" examine two adults who look back on their childhood experiences of their fathers.
In an essay of at least 800 words examine the behaviors of each father and how the speakers of each poem have come to some resolution about their feelings for their fathers.
Focus on one poem in each body paragraph. The topic sentence for each paragraph should argue the significance that the situation has for the speaker. An argument should be developed to explain that significance supported by significant and important details from the poem. Cite significant details frequently from each poem. The goal is to create a paragraph for each poem that demonstrates the significance and meaning that the situation has for the speaker of each poem.
Primary Sources
Resources
- Essay map on how to organize an essay on two poems with a common theme.
- Example an essay on two poems with a common theme.
Requirements:
- Length: Your essay must be a minimum of 800 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 two 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, students may use a dictionary to help with words with which they are not familiar but should not refer to the dictionary definitions in the essay.
Students must use MLA style documentation. Internal citations should identify the author and line number for the poems.
Note: Students must also include an MLA Works Cited page.
Students should proofread carefully their final drafts for spelling, grammar, and punctuation as well as clarity, conciseness, and completeness. The final draft should be typed, double spaced, with one inch margins, in Times New Roman 12 pt. The essay should be a minimum of 800 words.
The essay will be evaluated based on how well students develop their arguments with significant support from the poems (thesis, topic sentences, supporting details from the poems); clarity, cohesion, and conciseness; correct use of MLA format; and grammar and spelling.
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 adult children wrestling with understanding their fathers after difficult childhood experiences with them
Lucille Clifton's "forgiving my father" and Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays" (examine, explore, reveal, . . . ) [something about adult children coming to terms with their negative childhood experiences with their fathers]. Do not use this exact wording, but your thesis should reflect a similar idea.
Body
Topic Sentences
Create a topic sentence specific to each poem. You may do the poems in any order. The Clifton poem ends on a much more negative note. Think about your essay. Do you want to end on a more positive experience or a more negative experience?
- Lucille Clifton's "forgiving my father" (examines, explores, reveals, . . . ) [something about the difficulty she has in forgiving a father who failed to provide for his family and may have been abusive]. Do not use this exact wording, but your topic sentence should reflect a similar idea.
- Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays (examines, explores, reveals, . . . ) [something about the realization the son has about his father's behavior when the son was a child]. Do not use this exact wording, but your topic sentence should reflect a similar idea.
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 these two adult children who struggle with their feelings for their fathers, what significant, important, relevant, or valuable realization can be reached?
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