Before the exam, you must e-mail me a self-evaluation of your assignment work (everything but the essays), taking into account the following criteria:
1. Did you do all the assignments?
2. Did you do them on time?
3. How well did you do them?

Include also a self-evaluation of your participation in class, taking into account the following criteria:
1. Your participation in class discussions
2. How prepared you were coming into classes
3. Participation in Facebook Group Wall & Prufrock Chat

Those who missed the chat— which counts as 3 class sessions, plus a quiz— must make up the missed work as follows:
1. Read the transcript for the chat.
2. Write a 250-word reaction to Prufrock, focusing on one strategy used by Eliot in the poem.
3. Post this in our Facebook page. If it’s too long, put it as a note on your page or upload into Scribd and then share the link.

If you were present, but didn’t participate in the chat, you should also do this assignment.

Greetings!

I have several announcements & reminders:

1. Today’s class will not meet at 1:30 pm.
2. Instead, we will meet online from 8:00 - 10:30 pm. Details below.
3. Essay #2 will be due on Wednesday. Bring a printout of your essay.

The details for tonight’s online class:

• The link for the chat is the following: http://conference.uprm.edu
• You need to come prepared having read “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” It is in our textbook (with footnotes and other good stuff) and in the following link: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1459
• There will be a brief quiz at the beginning of class to make sure you’ve done the reading and are prepared for the discussion.
• I strongly advise you NOT to search for explanations or analysis of the poem online. You will not need to understand the poem fully to successfully answer the quiz, though I encourage you to read the poem multiple times and attempt to make sense of it on your own.
• You will not need anything other than a reliable Internet connection and a browser (I recommend Firefox or Chrome). There are no software downloads, plugin installations, or anything needed for this chat.
• The service we’ll be using allows for voice and video, but the only way this works is when EVERYONE is using headsets. I will therefore disable this function: we will focus on the chat tool.

That’s it! I look forward to our epic Prufrock chat!

…is cancelled, but I have a little assignment for you.

Choose one option:

1. Write a concrete (visual) poem.
2. Take a prose text from whatever source, and format it to shape it into a poem.

Post the assignment in our Facebook page by Monday.

Description

For this essay, you must select a poem from our textbook that has not been discussed thoroughly in class. In addition to performing detailed analyses of your chosen poem, this essay assignment will require you to do some research and analysis outside of the poem—specifically on the poet’s life and poetics (influences, style, goals)—to inform your interpretation of the work. Your essay must have a clearly stated interpretation of the poem as its thesis, and detailed analyses of the text, its poet and his/her poetics as support. The final paper should be 3-4 pages long in MLA format (typed, double-spaced, with 1” margins, and a 12-point Arial, Times, or Times New Roman font). Any use of sources must be documented in impeccable MLA format—parenthetical citation (author’s last name & page number) and works cited page.

Recommended Procedure

The steps described below are a recommendation on how to proceed to prepare for and write your essay. Read them carefully and note that you won’t actually be writing your essay until part 3 of Step IV. Feel free to come see me at my office hours if you need any help.

Step I: Description—The first step one should always take when seriously exploring a poetic text is to carry out detailed observations of the text.
1. Paraphrase—What does the poem say? Summarize the poem in your own words, in detail. Formulate an initial idea of what you think the poem means, but allow yourself the flexibility to change your mind.
2. Language— Identify, underline, circle, count, tabulate and examine the following aspects of the language of the poem.

• Word choices, denotation, connotation, ambiguity
• Repetition, types/categories of words, parts of speech
• Key words in the poem, connotation, denotation, allusion
• Variations in grammar and/or syntax
• Figures of speech: metaphor, simile, allegory, symbol, etc.
• Images, use of imagery

3. Use of Sound—Read the poem aloud; sing it; repeat lines; get a feel for how the words feel in your mouth; savor the poem. Identify the uses of the following:

• Alliteration, Consonance, Assonance
• Meter (if any), Cadence, Rhythm
• Rhyme scheme (or lack of)

4. Structure

• Open and closed lines, enjambment
• Line length (in syllables, accents, metrical feet, number of words or characters, and so on), line shape, etc.
• Stanzas, Strophes, Stanza types.
• Poetic Types: Sonnet, Villanelle, Haiku, Sestina, Ode, Elegy, etc.
  •  
    1. Assignment (fulfilling requirements, quality of thesis, and depth of analysis),
    2. Organization (clarity of thesis, thorough paragraphing, overall organization),
    3. Development (relevance of claims, adequacy of support, and textual evidence),
    4. Sentence Structure, Word Choice, and Grammar (weaknesses will be identified in these areas, but they will not affect grade significantly unless they get in the way of understanding the essay).
    • Formatting: punctuation, spelling, capitalization, font sizes & variation, etc.
    • Use of space on the page, unusual spacing, etc.
    • Note any unusual graphical elements used in the poem.
    • Speaker, Tone, Irony
    • Spatial and temporal setting
  5. Visual elements

  6. Other elements

  Step II: Analysis—Once one has described the poem thoroughly, one should think about what these elements contribute to the poem.
  1. What is the poet doing with each element described in Step I?
  2. Which elements are significant to understanding the poem? Why or why not?
  3. What patterns can you identify in the poem? Where is there variation? Do the patterns and/or variations signal something important in the poem?
  4. Are there any convergences of elements? What do they highlight?
  Step III: Research
  1. Research any allusions, references, vocabulary, or relevant contexts that help you understand the poem.
  2. Research the poetic form, type, or poetic tradition. How is the poem using or challenging it?
  3. Study the poet, reading other poems by him/her to get a sense for common themes, symbols, and poetics (his/her approach to poetry).
  4. Research poetic, historical, and cultural contexts relevant to the poem. Start by identifying the year the poem was published, the nationality, ethnicity, and gender of the poet.
  5. Avoid researching other analyses and/or interpretations of the poem. Since it is the very same type of thing you are doing, you may find that you are convinced by their interpretation, and that you feel that you have nothing new to contribute. If you then start adopting the ideas, and support, you are no longer writing about your own ideas, so even if you document the use of ideas in the essay to avoid plagiarism, you may end up repeating someone else’s ideas, which is also bad. This kind of research is most useful after you have written at least a draft of your essay, so your ideas have already been formulated, then you can engage the other essays you find and/or use them to support your arguments.
  Step IV: Interpretation—This last step is actually an ongoing process. As you read, describe and analyze the poem, your interpretation will be taking shape, solidifying with the evidence you observe in the text. Remember, that just because a poem can have multiple readings, doesn’t mean that all readings are supportable.
  1. Go back over your analyses and descriptions and try to see what it all means. What does each element contribute to your understanding of the poem? What do you think the poem means?
  2. Formulate your interpretation as a thesis statement, and select analytical elements that support your thesis.
  3. Write your essay, in which you try to convince your readers of your interpretation of the poem. To be persuasive, you must provide details from Steps II and III that support your reading of the poem.

  Don’t forget to enjoy the process of discovery!

  Guidelines

  This essay must be about 1000 words in length, typed, double-spaced, with 1” margins, and in a conservative font (about 4 pages). You must have a title page with the following information: Your Name, Date, Course and Section Number, the Assignment (Essay #1), and the Title of Your Essay. Underneath the final draft, include all previous drafts and available prewriting. The essay is due on Monday, November 14.
  

  Evaluation

  Your essay will be evaluated in the following areas, with areas 1-3 carrying most of the weight of the grade:

  An essay that satisfies all the requirements of the assignment with a clear sense of organization and adequate development earns a “C” in this class. An essay that achieves the goals at an above average level of proficiency, with only minor problems in one or two areas earns a “B.”  The “A” is reserved for nearly flawless, elegant essays that excel in all the criteria described above. Essays that do not fulfill the minimum requirements for the assignment earn a “D.”  Only essays that are not turned in or are plagiarized earn an “F” in this class, and may result in a failing grade in the course.

Sorry folks, I’m battling a nasty flu and can’t make it today. We’ll find a way to make up the class.

Take care,

Leonardo