Poetry Essay

Select one of the poems that you find there, and write a thoughtful response to the poem. Do NOT think this is an opportunity to write an autobiographical essay.

2. Do not give a plot summary. Develop a theme, and discuss that theme. Any use whatsoever of anything except the poem you are writing about (as an example, anything you might find on the internet) will earn you an immediate F on the assignment.

3. Although content is going to be primary, organization, spelling, and grammar are also important. Ensure that they are all under your control before you hand anything in. Err on the side of being over precise! Be sure to follow APA style. In other words, I expect you to do College Level writing. You should use this as an opportunity to show off your ability to think clearly, precisely, and logically, as well as write elegantly! It is hard for me to imagine that you could even begin to complete this assignment in less than 750 words.

To ensure a good grade you will probably want to do more!

4. Do not simply do a translation. I do not want a 'this means that' walk through of the poem. Ensure that you understand the poem thoroughly by doing a close reading (see the posted documents on how to do a close reading), but that is merely a preliminary step.

5. Assignment must be submitted in Microsoft Word format. Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour Light the first light of evening, as in a room In which we rest and, for small reason, think The world imagined is the ultimate good. This is, therefore, the intensest rendezvous. It is in that thought that we collect ourselves, Out of all the indifferences, into one thing: Within a single thing, a single shawl Wrapped tightly round us, since we are poor, a warmth, A light, a power, the miraculous influence.

Here, now, we forget each other and ourselves. We feel the obscurity of an order, a whole, A knowledge, that which arranged the rendezvous. Within its vital boundary, in the mind. We say God and the imagination are one. How high that highest candle lights the dark.

Out of this same light, out of the central mind, We make a dwelling in the evening air, In which being there together is enough. -Wallace Stevens, 1954