ENGL 371: CoPo
Dr. Scanlon
Fall 2010
Formal/Prosodic Analysis Paper
Length: 3-4 double-spaced pages (plus scansion appendix)
Due Date: Friday, October 8 by noon in my dept. mailbox
In this paper you will present an analysis of one of the poems listed below (or of another
you propose to me and I approve). You should consider any element of the poem’s form
that is appropriateits meter (and deviation from meter); stanza form; fixed form; rhyme
(exact, half, internal); sound (assonance, consonance, alliteration); line length, halfmeanings, and line breaks; use of enjambment, end-stopped lines, and caesuras; etc.
YOU MUST SHOW SCANSION, even if you do not intend to give meter primary billing
within your paper. Everyone should choose a minimum of ten contiguous lines from his
or her focus poem, type them on a separate sheet, and scan the stresses and feet by hand
giving their names (e.g., spondee) to the side. Attach that sheet to your paper. If overall
patterns of scansion are important to understanding a poem’s movement (as it was, for
instance, with Bishop’s “The Map”), you may wish to append a typed copy of the entire
poem show your scansion, syllabic count, etc., throughout.
Your analysis will focus primarily on formal elements of the poem rather than on
traditional thematic explication. But a thorough, sophisticated formal analysis will not
only tell me, for example, what the rhyme scheme IS but also what it MEANSthat is,
how it affects the poem’s presentation of its theme, imagery, tone, mood, etc. (The
ability to do that latter task meaningfully may distinguish an excellent from a competent
paper.) In your introduction, then, give me a thesis that sets out the foci of your paper
and presents some governing argument about the poem. I want to come away from the
paper with a clear sense of what you think the poem is about and how you think it works.
You may wish to consult a reference work like Miller Williams’s Patterns of Poetry or
Mary Kinzie’s A Poet’s Guide to Poetry. As you know, our Wordpress site also has links
to tutorials on and information about form.
A few hints:
 An excellent paper will use textual evidence extensively. When writing about
poetry, you should avoid quoting whole stanzas or chunks of poetry at once, since
it tends to diffuse analysis. Instead, quote single lines or phrases or words,
embedding them clearly in your discussion. Remember to honor poetic lines by
marking line breaks with a / (space on either side) when you quote. The line
number(s) should be in parentheses as a citation. (You may use “l.” or “ll.” the
first time but needn’t after that.) Four or more lines of poetry quoted as a chunk get
treated as a block quote and are represented with visual line breaks intact.

The paper will be stronger if, after a thorough analysis of form on your own, you
choose certain formal elements to focus on rather than giving me a three-page
laundry list. Obviously, choose those that seem most significant. It is usually
better to organize a paper like this by topic rather than simply following the poem
line by line, which may make threads of your analytic argument hard to follow.
So your governing thematic explication of the poem may well guide your
organization to some extent.

When you analyze scansion, you should include the poetic line in your text and
include the traditional symbols for scanning stressed and unstressed syllables (´
and ˘) and marking poetic feet (|). You may write them in. Show me your
analysis; don’t just say, “The first three lines are irregular.”
Poems for the Formal Paper
Bishop, “The Unbeliever” (22)
Walcott, “Sea Grapes” (97)
Plath, “Zoo Keeper’s Wife” (154-55)
Brooks, “the preacher: ruminates behind the sermon” (8)
Clifton, “memory” (124)