Essay 2: Poetry
Length: 700-800 words
MLA Style Formatting and Documentation
Topic:
Every poem has a “central message” or important idea that it wants to communicate. In the discussion
boards, you’ve already identified what you think are the “big ideas” in the poems we’ve read. The poetic
conventions of diction/language usage, imagery, and metaphor (conventions that we have studied in
this unit) usually communicate a poem’s central message.
Pick one or two of the poems we have read in this unit. Determine what you think is the poem’s central
message (everyone will have their own idea of what this is) and discuss how the conventions of
diction/language, imagery, and, if it is helpful, metaphor communicate the poem’s/poems’ central
message.
Organization:
Use the information below as a guide for organizing your essay. Your essay must have an introduction,
2-3 body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph.
Introduction:
Begin by introducing the author and title of the poem. Then, briefly describe the situation of the
poem (what the poem is about). End the introduction with your thesis statement: the thesis
statement will say what you think is the poem’s central message or most important idea.
Body Paragraphs:
Your essay will have 2-3 body paragraphs. Each body paragraph will explain how a poetic
convention (diction, imagery, metaphor) communicates the poem’s central message.
Sample Organization of Body Paragraphs
Paragraph 1: Introduction and Thesis Statement
Paragraph 2: Diction (Denotation/Connotation). Explains how word usage communicates the
poem’s central idea.
Paragraph 3:Imagery (Types of images). Explains how different types of imagery communicates the poem’s central message.
Paragraph 4: Conclusion. Why are the ideas discussed in your essay important? What
social/cultural relevance do the poem have for readers?
Grading Criteria:
Essay Structure (Introduction, thesis statement, body paragraphs, conclusion, and
transitions between essay’s parts)
Poetry Documentation (uses slashes to separate poetic lines when quoting more than
one line in a poem. Cite line numbers in parenthesis.)
Paragraph coherence and development (paragraphs are unified around a single topic
sentence; ideas are developed with quotations and paraphrased material from the
story; transition words and phrases link sentences.
Literary term/s (for all poetry terms you use in the essay, quote or paraphrase the
definition from the textbook and cite the page number)
MLA Formatting/Documentation (heading, header, Times New Roman sized 12 font,
double spaced; Works Cited and Parenthetical Citations)
Grammar/Mechanics (Free of errors such as comma splice, sentence fragment,
pronoun errors, awkward sentence structure)
The poem is My Papa’s Waltz
BY THEODORE ROETHKE
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43330/my-papas-waltzhttps://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43330/my-papas-waltzhttps://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43330/my-papas-waltzhttps://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43330/my-papas-waltzhttps://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43330/my-papas-waltzhttps://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43330/my-papas-waltzhttps://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43330/my-papas-waltzhttps://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43330/my-papas-waltzhttps://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43330/my-papas-waltz
The following is my discussion post over this Poem:
I think that the tone of Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” is sad. The poem shows a scene of abuse and trauma, instead of a happy and affectionate waltz between a father and son. The connotations of the word “waltzing” suggest a dance that is not smooth and graceful, but rather rough. The boy is described as “clinging” to his father’s shirt, in my opinion, suggests fear and desperation rather than affection. The word “beat” implies violence and physical harm, while the word “battered” implies a sense of injury and damage. The use of the word “death” suggests that the boy’s experience with his father was not great. The word “death” has a negative connotation implying sadness and grief.