Dr. Scott Andrews
English 355
Writing about Literature
Fall 2011
Analysis of “forgiving my father”
After reading Michelle Clifton’s “forgiving my father,” the “Writing about Poetry” chapter from A Short Guide to Writing about Literature, and the “Unifying the Work” chapter from Texts and Contexts,write an essay of at least 500 words (no more than 600) that analyzes a particular element of poetry (speaker, tone/diction, structure, or figurative language) which can be understood as illustrating a tension and its resolution within the poem.
For your essay, you should focus clearly on just one of the elements of poetry discussed in A Short Guide to Writing about Literature. Of course you can mention other elements, but you should focus your discussion, your examples, and your explanation on just one. One goal of this aspect of the essay is to demonstrate your understanding of this element of poetry in general.
For your essay, you should define a tension that can be found in the poem. Tension can be defined in many ways, and we can say that many tensions run through a poem, so you want to focus your attention on a particular tension. One tension could be thematic or dramatic, such as the speaker’s feelings toward her father or her mother. There are other emotional tensions that could be discussed. Another tension could be located in the reader. Sometimes a poem will create confusion within a reader (such as confusion about the identity of the speaker, the speaker’s audience, or the speaker’s situation, etc.), and the poem will then resolve that confusion in interesting ways.
For such a short essay, you will want your thesis to be focused. You are not trying to say everything there is to say about the poem or about the element of poetry you have chosen for your discussion. You will want to say something very particular about the element and about how it is used to illustrate the poem’s tension and its resolution.
The elements of poetry discussed by Barnet and Cain all consist of language. They are effects created entirely by language. Therefore, I expect your essay to cite specific uses of language for the element you discuss. That does not mean you quote at length. There is not enough room in such a short essay for that. But it does mean your essay should be, in part, a discussion of language and how it is used to create the poem and its effects on the reader.
Your essay will be typed and double-spaced with one-inch margins. It will be printed in Courier or New Courier font (12 pt.).