Poetry Research Paper Honors British Literature This semester, you will be writing a literary research paper rather than a historical research paper. As with your literary seminars, literary research papers are primarily your own original analysis supported by secondary sources. You will choose a British poet from the list and cover 1-3 of his/her poems (all must be poems we have not and will not cover in class) in your paper, making a focused analytical argument (pertaining to style, theme, literary devices, tone, imagery, etc.) While this paper is essentially asking you to use the Formalist theory, you may choose to use others. Your finished paper will be 5-6 pages, typed and double-spaced. I will not be editing the rough drafts, so you must rely on your peer editors. Choose wisely. Requirements and Due Dates Due Extensive Literary Analysis/Explication Turn in typed copies of the poems you will cover, with lines clearly marked (every five lines is fine) For each poem, include a typed line-by-line explication, identifying and analyzing literary devices, diction, syntax, punctuation—anything that may be pertinent to your paper. This may be numbered or in bullet form, but make sure it is a thorough analysis, not mere labeling. Thesis and Annotated Bibliography Your thesis should name your poet, your poems, present an argumentative focus, and the significance of that argument. (Sure you’ve identified dark imagery related to death, but why should we care?) Your annotated bibliography should be an alphabetized bibliography in MLA style of at least five sources that you have read and intend to use. At least three must be books or articles from an online database. Immediately after each citation, briefly summarize the source’s argument and how you plan on using the source in your paper. This should be 3-5 sentences per source. Rough Draft Should be typed, double spaced, 5-6 pages, MLA style. Treat this as a final draft. Note: Organize your paper thematically or stylistically, not as a line by line explication of independent poems. Include appendix with copies of poems. Include Annotated Bibliography Final Draft Includes everything required for rough draft, only way better. Final draft is stapled to the back.
Value
2/17
/25
3/1
/25
3/17
/25
3/29
/100
British Poets Sir Thomas Wyatt Sir Walter Raleigh Sir Philip Sidney John Donne Robert Herrick Andrew Marvell John Dryden Alexander Pope William Wordsworth Samuel Taylor Coleridge Percy Bysshe Shelley John Keats George Gordon, Lord Byron William Blake Robert Burns Alfred Lord Tennyson Robert Browning Elizabeth Browning Matthew Arnold Thomas Hardy Christina Rossetti A. E. Housman Gerard Manley Hopkins Lewis Carroll William Butler Yeats D.H. Lawrence Wilfred Owen Siegfried Sassoon Robert Graves Philip Larken Dylan Thomas T.S. Eliot W.H. Auden Ted Hughes, Rudyard Kipling William Ernest Henley Robert Louis Stevenson Dante Gabriel Rossetti Leigh Hunt Stevie Smith Seamus Heaney
