Emily Dickinson poems about death.
write an essay in which you explore these poems in the light of one of the many topic lenses listed on Arguing about Literature Chapter 4 pp 102-03 2nd ed. or Ch. 3 p 82 1st ed. Read several poems within your chosen cluster in order to find two which seem to complement each other. Then consider the poems in the light of the topic lens bullet list. This topic lens will give your essay unity. For instance, if you choose two Emily Dickinson poems about death, you might look at them through the boundaries lens, exploring how and why Dickinson blurs the boundary line between life and death. In your introduction, introduce the poems/poets along with your issue and then clearly state your claim about these two poems. In the body of your essay, support your claim with topically driven paragraphs which draw upon both poems. Your claim needs to be broad enough to encompass and draw upon both poems. Before you can apply the topic lens to the poems, you must come to a clear understanding of its implications. Divisions, conflicts, and multiple forces within the self. First, what are the implications of this lens? What does it mean that you may have divisions, or conflicts, or multiple forces within yourself when, obviously, you are just one person. Come to a clear and deep understanding of the implications of this topic, and then apply the topic lens to the analysis of two of the poems for this week. Does this topic resonate within the personas of these poems? How so? Provide evidence from the poems as well as your own reasoning about that evidence in order to develop your analysis. Boundaries, including the processes through which these are created, preserved, and challenged. First, what are the implications of this lens? What is a border? Are we talking physical, mental, spiritual, economic, sexual, or figurative? Does it depend on the literature? How is a border created, preserved, and/or challenged? Think of examples. Come to a clear and deep understanding of the implications of this topic, and then apply the topic lens to the analysis of two or three poems within a cluster. Does this topic resonate within the personas of these poems? How so? Provide evidence from the poems as well as your own reasoning about that evidence in order to develop your analysis. Synthesize the Poems Usually it is best to clarify throughout your essay a series of supporting general ideas that link aspects of the poems together. In this kind of synthesis essay, each section discusses one connecting aspect of both poems so that both pieces are represented throughout the entire essay. Another option is the one-side-at-a-time option in which you discuss one poem completely and then the other poem completely, attempting to draw connections back to the first poem in the second half of your essay. But as you can imagine, this type of essay has a tendency to be unbalanced and is harder to write; the connections are more difficult to make for writer and for reader; for this reason I do not recommend one-side-at-a-time. Yet another option is the essay which focuses primarily on one poem, using the other to help illuminate that poem. You most likely remember a student example from our text which uses this technique.