Poetry Response Assignment
A
s a child, you undoubtedly rollicked with
nursery rhymes and tongue twisters. As
you grew up, perhaps you relished singing
along with the radio/CD or playing a
musical instrument. Who among us has not
experimented with tongue twisters or puns or
knock-knock jokes? Unfortunately, somewhere
along the way, too many people lose the
enjoyment that comes from rolling a few lines of
poetry off the tongue or moving with the rhythm
poems create. I invite you to revisit that sense of
fun and excitement. Dive into a few selections;
swim among them and allow them to caress you,
cool you, splash over you, invigorate, and feed you.
Finally, let them guide you to a better
understanding of poetry in general and provide
you with a sense of security as you approach the
challenge of the AP test.
Laurence Perrine suggests, “People have read
poetry or listened to it or recited it because they
liked it, because it gave them enjoyment. But this
is not the whole answer. Poetry in all ages has
been regarded as important, not simply as one of
several alternative forms of amusement, as one
person might choose bowling, another, chess, and
another, poetry. Rather, it has been regarded as
something central to existence, something having
unique value to the fully realized life, something
that we are better off for having and without which
we are spiritually impoverished.”
John Ciardi writes, “Everyone who has an emotion
and a language knows something about poetry.
What he knows may not be much on an absolute
scale, and it may not be organized within him in a
useful way, but once he discovers the pleasure of
poetry, he is likely to be surprised to discover how
much he always knew without knowing he knew it.
He may discover, somewhat as the character in the
French play discovered to his amazement that he
had been talking prose all his life, that he had been
living poetry. Poetry, after all, is about life. Anyone
who is alive and conscious must have some
information about it.”
We are approaching poetry two ways. We are
studying some poems in class, learning about the
tools and devices poets use in their craft, talking
about what a poem means or how it made you feel,
or seeking answers to questions we raised while
AP Literature & Composition reading or studying. We might call this our
structured or formal study of poetry. But we are
also studying poetry informally through poetry
responses.
You will be writing a response to a poem every
week. Please look closely at the list of dates to
know when these responses are due. I have
provided a list of poems. Your first job is to get to
know them. Read each of them at least twice in
any order and at various times. Read aloud when
possible; read to others; read when you are in
different moods; read with varying tones,
inflections, and emotions. Discover how poems
change when you change. You will notice how the
poems will reveal themselves to you over the
weeks. Although you will respond on paper to only
one poem for each assignment, you want to
become acquainted with all the poems on the list.
For each assignment date, you will choose one
poem from the list and write a response to that
poem. These responses are to be a minimum of
about 200 words, or the equal of one typed page.
Upload your response (typed in MLA Format) to
turnitin.com by class time on the due date. Late
poetry reactions do not receive credit regardless of
the reason.
You may approach this assignment several ways.
Some students analyze the theme and respond to
meaning, while others start with literary
elements and move toward a theme. You may
choose to focus on specific images, language, or
lines. Perhaps the poem evokes a personal,
cultural, political, or social response from you. I
expect you to vary your approach to the poems
from week to week. Whatever you choose to do,
be sure you say something meaningful. I don't
expect you to like all the poems, but if you dislike
a poem because of its content or style, then
support that with specifics. Do not waste time
telling how you could not understand the poem.
Be sure to adhere to the paragraph structure we
have practiced in class!
Poetry Response Due Dates
(uploaded by 8:50 AM):
3rd Quarter:
4th Quarter:
2/15, 2/22, 3/1, 3/8, 3/15
4/5, 4/12, 4/19, 4/26
Adapted from Danny Lawrence, Career Center, Winston‐Salem, North Carolina, and Skip Nicholson, South Pasadena High School
Choose one of the following poems for each of the poetry responses. Remember, you should
read each poem every week. All are found in Meyer, The Bedford Introduction to Literature, 8th
ed. on the indicated pages. Use a poem once only during the quarter. Write on one poem only
for a poetry response.
I absolutely do not want to see what the vast internet resources have to say about these poems
or the poets. I am interested in building YOUR literary analysis skills. Build your academic
stamina and venture an analysis without the internet crutch.
I do expect to see clear, scholarly academic writing. That means you should work on logical
structure and clear sentences in which you “unpack” each thought before moving to the next
one. Please read your work before you submit it; perhaps ask a parent to read it as
well. All responses are due on turnitin.com by 8:50AM on each due date. No late responses
will be accepted.
So…grading…We’ll keep it simple. Students get no credit under any circumstances for papers
that are late, poorly written, or unacceptably brief. Although this is not a formal essay, please
take pride in your finished product--no hurried or sloppy work. I will read and keep track of the
type of response you submit. I won’t comment on them, nor will I put a grade on the paper.
If you turn in all the responses-and all are ‘good faith’ efforts-you get an A for the assignment. It
will count as a written essay grade for the quarter. If you are missing one, you get a B, missing
two, a C, missing three, a D, missing four or more, an F.
Yousif al‐Sa’igh, “An Iraqi Evening,” p. 1309 Robert Morgan, “Overalls,” p. 1051 Margaret Atwood, “February,” p. 910 Sharon Olds, “Rites of Passage,” p. 1047 Elizabeth Bishop, “The Fish,” 781 Marge Piercy, “The Secretary Chant,” p. 770 Anne Bradstreet, “To My Dear and Loving Husband,” p. 1241 Henry Reed, “Naming of Parts,” 943 Gwendolyn Brooks, “We Real Cool,” p. 860 Shakespeare, “When, in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes,” p. 1344 Randall Jarrell, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner,” p. 832 Theodore Roethke, “My Papa’s Waltz,” p. 999 Shelley, “Ozymandias,” p. 1344 E. E. Cummings, “In Just—,” p. 1034 Cathy Song, “The Youngest Daughter,” p. 857 John Donne, “Death, be not proud,” p. 1058 Phillis Wheatley, “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” p. BC‐C H. D., “Heat,” p. 881 Robert Hayden, “Those Winter Sundays,” p. 771 Walt Whitman, “When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer,” p. 1352 Seamus Heaney, “The Forge,” p. 1013 Richard Wilbur, “A Late Aubade,” 846 Robert Herrick, “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time,” p. 842 William Carlos Williams, “This Is Just to Say,” p. 1353 Langston Hughes, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” p. 1162 William Wordsworth, “The world is too much with us,” p. 1009 John Keats, “La Belle Dame sans Merci,” p. 1335 William Butler Yeats, “Sailing to Byzantium,” p. 1359 Linda Pastan, “Pass/Fail,” p. 1252 Millay, “I will put Chaos into fourteen lines,” p. 1011