Writer ________________________________________________
Genre / Assignment __________________________________
Working Title ________________________________________
Poem Draft Evaluation
Check-marks
indicate areas that need work.
Comments:
I.
General Assignment Requirements / Format
_____
_____
_____
_____
No more than one poem appears on a page
Poem is typed on plain white paper (use 12-point Times New Roman font)
Poem is labeled as to type/form/assignment (e.g., “Sonnet Assignment”)
Poem has an appropriate title, separated from the poem by four spaces
Other: ________________________________________________________________
II.
Content of Ideas
_____ Poem has significant content/theme (emotional, intellectual, philosophical)
beyond the apparent or “surface” meaning: What is it really about?
_____ Poem is unified around a clear focus/theme
_____ Poem shows sufficient development of theme
_____ Poem explores the complexity of human emotion and experience, avoiding
oversimplification, sentimentality, and surface treatment
_____ Poem avoids the “Seven Sins of Poetry” (page 52 of Three Genres)
_____ Poem has an impact on the reader
Other: _______________________________________________________________
III.
Mastery of Genre
_____ Conventions of the form/type are handled with skill
_____ Poem remains distinctly contemporary regardless of genre
Other: _______________________________________________________________
IV. Form / Structure
_____ Form of the poem on the page (use of stanza breaks, margins, and “white
space”) is appropriate to the ideas expressed
_____ Parts of the poem are in the best possible order
_____ The poem leads to a “narrative climax”
_____ Line breaks, enjambment, and caesurae are used effectively
_____ Rhetorical techniques (such as anaphora—repetition of a word or phrase) are
used effectively to reinforce structure
Other: _______________________________________________________________
V. Style of Expression
A. “Showing” vs. “Telling”
_____ Poem contains concrete, sensory images rather than vague generalities and
abstractions
_____ Poem avoids direct “preaching,” letting the reader draw his or her own
conclusions from the details provided
_____ Writer utilizes ambiguity and suggestiveness appropriately
Other: _______________________________________________________________
B. Diction
_____ Diction shows the writer’s awareness of denotation, connotation, tone
_____ Poem avoids archaic language, outworn clichés, stale or predictable
metaphors, or other trite expressions
_____ Poem is not overwritten (“My mind thrashed for answers/And as I
plunged into the void of despair,/My soul gushed forth bitter tears/And
my heart pounded against the wall of his indifference”)
_____ Writer explores unusual juxtapositions of words and ideas
Other: _______________________________________________________________
C. Prosodic Features (“Music” – sound, rhythm)
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
Assonance, alliteration, and other sound repetitions are used expressively
Rhyme is used appropriately in the poems/genres that require it
The attempt to “get a rhyme” does not impede the poem’s development
Metrical patterns are used effectively in the poems/genres that require them
The rhythmic potential of language is evident even in non-metrical phrases and
cadences
_____ Prosodic features reinforce the ideas expressed
_____ Prosodic features do not call undue attention to themselves
Other:________________________________________________________________
D. Other Stylistic Concerns
_____ Choice of point of view/speaker/voice is effective and consistent
_____ Poem shows compression and economy, avoiding redundancy and
irrelevancies; only the essentials are included
_____ Imagery and figurative language (metaphor, simile, etc.) is fresh,
imaginative, and appropriate to the poem’s subject and emotion
Other:________________________________________________________________
VI.
Command of English Mechanics
_____ Grammar, punctuation, and syntax are used to achieve clarity and emphasis,
as well as originality
_____ Words are spelled correctly
Other: _______________________________________________________________