English Homework Help

Choose any poem from the Poetry Foundation site and begin crafting your ORIGINAL Poetry Analysis Essay.

POETRY FOUNDATION: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/

Poetry essays will analyze a poem from the text, paying close attention to poetic elements, literary techniques, and any social transfer evident in the poem’s situation. Review the Poetry Essay Guidelines.

Begin with crafting a concise, clear thesis, an assertion or claim you make about the poem and its elements. A sample thesis may be: “In ‘We Real Cool’, poet Gwendolyn Brooks delivers a quick, rhythmic poem with clear imagery, strong sense of audience, and an admonishing tone warning about the dangers of dropping out of school.”

• With a strong thesis, you can begin to organize your essay into the points of analysis detailed in your thesis
• Developing your body paragraphs to speak to your main points (from the example thesis, we’d have body paragraphs for each element — imagery, audience, and tone) involves using source material both from the poem and from outside sources you investigate to support YOUR own analysis
• A solid summary of your essay’s main points, a re-stated thesis (in a new fresh way: hint, hint use synonyms) and you’re on your way!

See Poetry Essay Guidelines for more details. And feel free to revisit the Poetry Analysis resource in the previous lesson.

There are more than enough resources in the lesson to help you write your analysis.

Your reading of the poem is just as valid as anyone else’s. Your job as a writer is to make your claim about the work then back it up with evidence. Apply yourself and investigate your own ideas.

Here’s a mantra to help you steer clear of Shmoop and SparkNotes and others like ’em: