Week 3: Reading and Annotation Writing Assignment – Due Friday Jan 20.
READ: A Book of Luminous Things, 179-195 and 214-235. (Most or all of “People among
People” and all of “Women’s Skin” before you start.
In Poet’s Companion, read the chapters “Writing the Erotic,” “The Shadow,” and “The Music of the Line” (page 46-63 AND 104-114) before doing the annotation (due Friday 1/20) and creative assignments (due Monday 1/23).
ANNOTATE: Choose a poem that you find especially beautiful, strange, or challenging; one you wish to understand more deeply.
Use the following list of questions to generate an informal paper about the poem you chose. You might want to answer each question in turn, or you could focus closely on a particular element such as imagery or persona. Make sure you address the final question: why do you think the poet wrote this poem?
I’m looking for 2-3 pages (double spaced) of thoughtful inquiry into the structure, subject, and effect of the poem. If you’re not sure what to write, answer each question thoughtfully.
Looking at Poetry: Questions to Ask
 What’s the title of the poem?
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What is the first line?
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What is the last line?
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What images do you notice ?
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Are these images linked together or similar in some way? Do some images repeat?
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What feelings or emotions does the imagery suggest?
 What information does the poem give you about the poem’s “speaker” or persona – does it say where the person is? Any biographical details like age, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, marital status, health, work, etc.?
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What is the person doing? Thinking? Feeling?
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What information does the poem give you about the world – botany, history, language, politics, cooking – what can you learn from it?
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What does the speaker seem to be most concerned about?
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How long is the poem (number of lines)?
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Is it arranged in stanzas? Are the stanzas of regular length, or do they vary? How many lines per stanza?
 How long are the lines (number of words? of syllables)? Or, what’s the range between shortest and longest line?
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Does the poet end sentences at the end of lines (end-stopped), or do sentences wrap around and end in the middle of a line (enjambed or run-on)?
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Is rhyme used at the end of lines? Within a single lines? Some other way?
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Are there patterns of repeated words, or repeated lines? Describe those patterns as best you can.

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Read the poem out loud . What parts of the language seem most interesting, alive, or musical? Which words or passages capture your attention as you read them?
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If you had written this poem yourself, what would be your motivation – why might you write such a poem?
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Why do you think this author wrote the poem?