Job Description Assigned to Poets.
Answer the question below in an essay of at least 8-12 paragraphs. It is essential that your essay includes specific references to the articles in the reading set, and that you attribute any material that you summarize, quote or paraphrase to its source‑ using the page numbers in the reading set. Base your essay on the information contained in this set of readings, not on your experience, on outside readings, or on courses that you have taken. Be sure to summarize and define any appropriate key terms related to your position. You may use only a dictionary (hard copy, no electronic devices can be used) and your reading set. Question: Jay Parini states, “. . . poets cannot simply choose to separate themselves from the life of their times. . . . [I]t has always been part of their job description to point to things wrong and right about the human condition in its present manifestation” (pp. 18-19). Do the poems in this reading set reflect the responsibilities and “job description” that Parini assigns to poets? Consider this issue using ideas from the readings in this set, employing ideas that support your position as well as ideas that disagree with your position. Your essay must quote and/or paraphrase and work directly with material from at least five (5) of the pieces in this reading set. In addition, define and employ key terms that seem to be central to the arguments of your sources, and, therefore, to your argument as well. Some examples of key terms that might help you with your argument are: formalism, modern idealism, civility, atrocity, National Socialism, generation of silence, etc.