English Poetry Essay Assignment

Write a coherent essay of approximately 750-850 words in which you discuss how the author of one of the poems we've read the semester conveys one or more of the poem's themes through the use of one or more of the literary elements we have discussed. Form and documentation must follow the MLA Style Sheet. Primary source in-text citations are required. Make certain that the essay is written in consistent third person.

*You may also choose any poem from the textbook, any of the poems found in the blackboard poetry folder, or any poem from the Favorite Poem project Video)

For more guidance, please see "Poetry Explication Outline and Tips" in the Poetry folder.

Feel free to use the following thesis statement (only if you want to):

In [author's name]'s poem, ["poem title"] [he/she] conveys the theme[s] of [...] through the use of [list one, two, or three elements that help to convey that/those theme(s)].

Example: In Yusef Komunyakaa's poem, "Facing It," he conveys the theme of survivor's guilt through the use of imagery, figurative language, and the archetypes of darkness and light.

Use the poem, "the planned child" by Sharon olds

Incorporate thoughts from my discussion:

The theme of "The Planned Child" is about a mothers love for her child. The child struggles with feeling like he was conceived with an instruction manual when he wanted it to be natural and from the heat of the moment. All though, in reality the mother probably tried to have a baby that way with no luck, but wanted a child so badly that she would do anything to have one. Sure, the child was planned, but even more so, the child was wanted. Imagery was used at the scene when the child was drinking wine with a friend. The friend was the one who first brought it to the child's attention that he was wanted more than anything. The speaker was referring to the child when it said, "I took the wine against my lips as if my mouth was moving along that valve wall in my mother's body." You can almost see the child's eyes widen as his perspective completely changes and realizes that his mother's world wasn't good enough without him in it. Earlier in the poem the child describes the fact that he was planned is just like taking the cardboard out of a shirt and using it as his backbone. The cardboard is symbolic of him feeling very plain and lifeless when he wanted his soul to come from something of passion and love and the heat of the moment. He feels almost as if he is some puppet that was designed with no love or heart, but despite how he came into this world, it doesn't change the heart of a mother and her love for her child.