Advanced Placement Poetry Project
Analysis and Digital Literacy
As we move through our study of poetry, it will become obvious that poetry does not just happen.
Instead, it is a reflection of the author, his time period, and his influences. While a great deal of our
response to poetry relies on our interpretation and experience, we cannot divorce the poem or the poet
from the time period in which he wrote. The poetry project will ask you to think critically about poetry
and to respond and synthesize your understanding of poetry through a technological medium.
Step One: Choosing your poem –February 3, 2012
Once you choose your poem from the Grab Bag, you may not exchange or choose another poem. This
poem is your poem. Make friends with it. Snuggle with it. You will be a couple for a LONG time.
Step Two: Annotating your poem—February 7, 2012
Using the structure of TP-FASST and SOAPSTone, investigate your poem. You will also want to annotate
your poem as we have done with other poems in class.
Step Three: Understanding the context of your poem—February 15, 2012
Place the poem in its historical context through research. Determine when your poem was written and
explore the influences that might have led to its writing. This will include historical events AND
information about the literary time period. Also, complete background research about the author of
the poem and consider the impact of the author’s life experiences on the subject and content of the
poem. You may also want to look for critical analysis of your poem for help in this area. This
investigation will lead you to a mini research paper exploring the cultural, historical and biographical
context behind the poem. Your research papers should include in-text citations, a work cited page, and
should consult a variety of print and non-print sources, including critical commentaries about the poet
and/or the poem.
Step Four: Communicating your poem digitally—February 23, 2012
This part of the project expects you to synthesize your knowledge gained from steps two and three in a
digital format as you create Hyper Poetry. Your task is to create an Illuminated Poem based off of your
interpretations of the poem and your understanding of its context and influences. First, you will create
a word-processed version of your poem. Then, based on your annotations, impressions, and
investigation of the poem, you will insert hyperlinks to provide additional information about
cultural/historical aspects of the poem, as well as music and/or images evoked by certain images or
lines, definitions of terms or unfamiliar words, and anything else that may shed light on the poem’s
meaning, express your own reading experience, and enhance the reading experience for others. You are
expected to insert at least five to seven hyperlinks for your poem. These hyperlinks should include links
to factual information as well as links that contribute to a deeper understanding of the poem’s themes
or layers of meaning. You may also wish to share commentary about your links or on the text through
the use of endnotes or footnotes. After you have completed your Hyper Poetry, you will upload it for
classmates to view.
Step Five: Explicating your understanding—February 29, 2012 (Yours); March 6, 2012 (Theirs)
Based on the sum of these experiences (the annotation and literary exploration as well as your research
about historical and personal context), write a poetry explication exploring the ways in which your poem
communicates its theme. You will receive an additional handout detailing the process and content of
this essay. Then, choose one of your classmate’s poems as the focus of your second explication. Use
their hyper-poem to develop your understanding and inform your analysis.
Example Hyper Poem:
[ Stanza 2]
Daddy, I have had to kill you.
You died before I had time—
Marble-heavy, a bag full of God,i
Ghastly statue with one gray toe
Big as a Frisco sealii
[Stanza 7]
An engine, an engine
Chuffing me off like a Jew.
A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belseniii.
I began to talk like a Jew.
I think I may well be a Jew.iv
i
Figure 1: These two stanzas from a hyper poem on Sylvia Plath’s
“Daddy” show typical hyperlinks and footnotes.
In Stanza 2: the hyperlink on lines three and four leads to a photo of a
marble statue from the National Archaeological Museum, Athens,
Greece; the hyperlink on line five leads to a photo of a seal on a BBC
site
In Stanza 7: the hyperlink on lines one through three leads to a page
about International Holocaust Remembrance Day on the website of the
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; the hyperlink on line five
leads to an excerpt from an article by Robert Phillips on the poem
“Daddy”
By comparing him to a marble statue, the poet makes the reader think of the coldness and heaviness of marble,
and also evokes a sense of authority and power.
ii
It’s a very grotesque image to imagine someone’s toe as large as a seal. According to Plath’s biography, her
father died of complications from diabetes, but this is a very unsympathetic way to mention his condition.
iii
The engine refers to the trains that took Jews to Nazi concentration camps.
iv
In Robert Phillips’s article analyzing the poem, “Daddy,” he says that Plath writes as if her father is a Nazi and she
is a Jew in order to “dramatize the war in her soul,” “kill her father’s memory,” and “become an independent Self.”