Tips for Writing Essays
About Poetry
Using Quotes to Support Your Claim
• In earlier classes, you probably learned
that when you write an essay, you
make a claim and support it with evidence.
• The same is true for essays about
literature!
– The difference is, the claim you are making is
about the literature, and the evidence you
support it with comes from the literature
itself, along with your explanation of the
evidence you chose.
When Quoting Poetry….
• You can quote several lines together, a single
line, or a few words, whichever suits your
purpose best.
• HOWEVER, you need to make sure that you
do not pull quotes out of context.
– Example of a quote out of context:
– Matthew Arnold is celebrating the beauty of
creation when he writes in “Dover Beach” that the
world is “So various, so beautiful, so new” (line
32).
• What is wrong with the quote use above?
• Let’s take a look at the original context.
MLA Format for Quotes from Poems
• If all of the words in your quote come from a single
line, MLA format requires that you follow the
quotation with the word “line” and the line
number in parentheses after the quote the first
time you use it, and just the line numbers each
time after that.
• Example of using quotes from a single line:
– In “Ozymandias,” Shelley creates irony by placing
words with connotations of grandeur and words with
connotations of destruction near one another. The
statue’s legs are both “vast and trunkless” (line 2), and
near the end of the poem it is described as a “colossal
wreck” (line 14).
MLA Format for Quotes from Poems
• Example of using two or three lines:
– The speaker of “Traveling through the Dark”
shows an almost uncomfortable awareness of his
place in the natural world when he says, “I stood
in the glare of the warm exhaust turning red; /
around our group I could hear the wilderness
listen” (lines 15-16).
• See p. 50 for textbook example of in-text
citation.
• See p. 55 for textbook example of works cited
for a poem in an anthology.
“To Lucasta Going to the Wars” p. 527
Context and Timeline
• Richard Lovelace was a strong supporter of the English
monarchy at a time when it was terribly unpopular.
• Lovelace is considered a Cavalier Poet
– Cavalier, which originally meant a soldier mounted on
horseback (hear the similarity to “cavalry”?) was originally
an insulting term used for supporters of King Charles I,
though they themselves adopted it and used it proudly.
– Cavalier poets are concerned with ideals of love, beauty,
honor, and elegance. Unlike their contemporaries, the
metaphysical poets (who were concerned with elaborate
metaphors), Cavalier poetry is straightforward and to the
point.
Historical Context for “Lucasta” cont.
• “To Lucasta, Going to the Wars” was written
in 1649, and it reflects Lovelace’s experiences
during a military campaign for Charles I that
would eventually lead to the English Civil
War.
• English Civil War began in October of 1642, and
continued off and on for the next seven years.
• King Charles I was executed in January of
1649. He is the first and only king of England
to be executed by order of Parliament.
Some portraits of Cavalier style
Charles I, King of England, from
Three Angles.
Another van Dyck portrait.
Lord John Stuart and his
brother Lord Bernard
painted by Anthony van
Dyck, 1638
Richard Lovelace, circa 1650
What observations can we make about these “contemporary
artifacts”? What might they tell you about the Lucasta
poem?
How do our own contemporary ideas about clothing, honor,
and masculinity color our readings of these paintings and the
poem?
Further Questions for “Lucasta”
• Describe the author’s attitude toward war. How
does it connect with his attitude toward love?
How are the two related?
• What 17th century cultural assumptions about
war, love, and honor are evident in this poem?
• Based on what we know about the historical
context of this poem, what do you think the
original audience would have found most
important in this poem?
• What reaction do you as a modern reader
have to this poem? What cultural contexts
account for the difference between your reaction and
the original audience’s?
“Dulce et Decorum Est” p. 642
Historical Context
• Wilfred Owen wrote what is widely considered
to be some of the finest war poetry in English
about his experiences in the First World War.
• Owen joined the armed forces 1915 out of a
sense of patriotic obligation and very quickly
underwent a transformation from patriotic,
high-spirited young man to a disillusioned, war
weary soldier.
• Owen survived most of the war, but was killed
on November 4, 1918 at the age of 25, seven
days before the Armistice agreement that
signaled the end of the fighting.
A Video on Wilfred Owen and
“Dulce et Decorum Est”
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c49tRplMh-Y
Further context for “Dulce et Decoum
Est”
• World War I saw the first use of such
developments in modern warfare as the
machine gun, airplanes, and chemical
warfare (mustard gas and other nerve
agents).
• An estimated 8.5 million soldiers died in
the fighting, and that number does not
include wounded and civilian deaths. The
world had never seen anything like this in
terms of the number of dead, and it earned
WWI the title “The War to End All Wars.”
Questions for “Dulce et Decorum Est”
• Compare Owen’s attitude toward war to
Lovelace’s. What traditionally held ideas about
war and honor is Owen responding to?
• What is the significance of the quote that is used
for the title and for the last two lines of the
poem?
• What images in this poem are particularly
striking to you? How might they have appeared
to a public faced with modern warfare for the
first time?
• p. 527 and p.642
“Dulce Et Decorum Est” (poem)
vs “The Things They Carried” (short story)
• “Dulce Et Decorum Est” seeks to shock its readers
by portraying the horrors of war and eliciting an
emotional reaction.
• Compare this with the flat, unemotional tone of
“The Things They Carried.”
• What does each author accomplish by using the
particular tone he chose?
• Is the time gap between the poems a significant factor in
the choice of tone?
• Why did Wilfred Owen want to shock his contemporary readers
and make them upset?
• Why would an unemotional tone reach contemporaries of
(author of Things Carried) better than an emotional one?
“The End and The Beginning” p. 648
• What is this speaker’s attitude toward
war?
• What is the significance of line 20?
– How is it related to the “other side of war” that
this poem discusses? The side that no one
wants to talk about?
•
•
•
•
No glory
No horrific enough
Drudgery
Sometimes seen as “women’s part in war”
• What is the significance of the final image?
“The Things They Carried,” “What
Were They Like?” and “Facing It”
Literature of the Vietnam War
“The Things They Carried” p. 269
• Historical Context:
• Vietnam War
• 1960s
• The so-called “Cultural Revolution” was also happening
at this time: Hippies, Black Power, Free Love, Socialism
• Pictures and Facts from the Vietnam War
• (student project—song is NOT from Vietnam Era)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP4GaprkAJg
• Too long to show in class, but I thought you might
like to hear some of the VERY influential music of
the Vietnam Era
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oryAN_e9Lso
“The Things They Carried” p. 269
• What is the significance of the long lists of
“things” that each man carries?
• What are “the things they carried”? What does
it mean to “carry” something?
• Find some places where the use of this word is
especially significant.
• This story uses repeated phrases and
contrasting paragraph lengths as literary
devices.
• Find one phrase that is repeated and one “onesentence paragraph.”
• What is the purpose of the repetition or the
shortness of the paragraph you chose?
“What Were They Like?”
(handout in class)
• Read two ways.
• Comment on the structure of this poem.
– What did you think of the “question and answer”
format?
– There are two speakers in this poem.
• Who do you think they are? What tone does each
speaker use? What do they remind you of?
• What images in this poem are especially
effective or interesting to you?
– How do the images contribute to the poem’s
theme?
“Facing It” p.646
• What is the significance of the title? What was
your immediate reaction to reading just the title
without knowing what the “it” is the poet is
facing?
• One of the central images of this poem is the
reflective surface of the Vietnam Memorial. Why
is the theme of reflection, or mirroring, important
in this poem?
• What other contrasting images do you find in this
poem? What purpose do those contrasts serve?
Some Pictures of the Vietnam
Memorial in D.C.
Comparisons and Contrasts
• How do these three works intersect with each
other? Consider especially:
– The poem’s attitude about the war
– Soldiers’ experiences in “The Things They Carried”
and “Facing It”
– Anti-War poetry “What Were They Like” is an antiwar poem, but what about “Facing It”?
• Some say that “The Things They Carried” has a
flat and unemotional tone .
• What does O’Brien accomplish by doing this?
• What does the use of this tone say about the subject
matter (war/the wartime lives of soldiers)