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Essay Instructions: Show how rhythm, repetition, and rhyme affect the tone and meaning in "We real cool" by A.E. Housman and "Eight O'clock" by E.E. Cummings. Are the effects the same in both poems?

Essay Instructions: SPECIFIC TOPICS FOR PAPER:

Brooks, Gwendolyn. "We Real Cool." Literature: A Pocket Anthology, 3rd. ed. Ed. R.S. Gwyn. New York: Penguin, 2007. (628).

Oates, Joyce Carol. "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" Literature: A Pocket Anthology, 3rd. ed. Ed. R.S. Gwyn. New York: Penguin, 2007. (286-301).

Rios, Alberto. "The Purpose of Alter Boys." Literature: A Pocket Anthology, 3rd. ed. Ed. R.S. Gwyn. New York: Penguin, 2007. (759-60).

Wright, Richard. "The Man Who Was Almost a Man." Literature: A Pocket Anthology, 3rd. ed. Ed. R.S. Gwyn. New York: Penguin, 2007. (180-91).





ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION PER INSTRUCTOR:

Unit 1 Paper

For your Unit 1 paper, write a literary interpretation, analysis or reader response paper related to one or more of the readings for this unit.

For information on writing about literature and the expected conventions for papers written in this class, read Writing Tips.

Find a limited focus for your paper
If you choose, develop one of the ideas presented in your post to the class mail list. Feel free to use the discussion questions as a starting point, too.

Do not try to cover everything about the story in this paper: instead, focus on one aspect of the story which intrigued you.

Support your points
Use plenty of examples and quotations from the story or poem to support every assertion or insight you raise.

Required length
Initially, don't worry too much about the length of this paper. We'll let you know in our feedback to your draft whether your paper should be developed more.

A good length to aim at for your final draft is around 500-750 words, minimum.

Essay Instructions: Write an essay of approximately 1,500 words in which you carefully analyze the effect of rhyme, rhythm (meter), and such figures of speech as metaphor and simile in how the three poets treat the similar themes. Use the three poems "Richard Cory," "My Last Duchess," and "We Real Cool." These three poems could not be more different in form or tone. How does each convey its individual theme to the reader? You may wish to start by giving a brief synopsis or description of the poems. Thereafter, following the order of each poem, offer your explication, addressing matters of prosody, word choice, imagery, and possible thematic interpretations.

Here are the three poems:

"My Last Duchess"

by Robert Browning

That's my last duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf's hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will't please you sit and look at her? I said
"Fra Pandolf" by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
That depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain drawn for you, but I) [10]
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came there; so not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 't was not
Her husband's presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps
Fra Pandolf chanced to say "Her mantle laps
Over my lady's wrist too much" or "Paint
Must never hope to reproduce the faint
Half-flush that dies along her throat:" such stuff
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough [20]
For calling up that spot of joy. She had
A heart - how shall I say? - too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed: she liked whate'er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
Sir, 't was all one! My favour at her breast,
The dropping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace -all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech, [30]
Or blush,at least. She thanked men - good! but thanked
Somehow - I know not how - as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame
This sort of trifling? Even had you skill
In speech - (which I have not) - to make your will
Quite clear to such a one, and say, "Just this
Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss
Or there exceed the mark"- and if she let
Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set [40]
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse
- E'en then would be some stooping; and I choose
Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive. Will 't please you rise? We'll meet
The company below, then. I repeat,
The Count your master's known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretence [50]
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed
At starting is my object. Nay, we'll go
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me.


"We Real Cool"
by Gwendolyn Brooks

THE POOL PLAYERS.
SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL.
We real cool. We
Left school. We

Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon.


"Richard Cory"

By Edwin Arlington Robinson

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich - yes, richer than a king -
And admirably schooled in every grace;
In fine we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

Essay Instructions: COMPOSITION II

Spring 2009

Argument Synthesis Essay


Topic:
Choose two or more selections from the Innocence to Experience chapter, and show how cultural influences (socioeconomic, professional, gender, ethnic, religious) influence the movement from innocence to experience, and state which you find to be the greatest influence.

Defining the argument synthesis essay
An argumentative synthesis uses two or more sources and is meant to be persuasive, which means that it should present an argument supporting an assertion or claim. You are trying to persuade your reader on a topic, and your goal is to figure out which of the passages from the works you have chosen support your claim and then present that information to your readers in an orderly, logical fashion.

General guidelines for writing the argument synthesis essay
? Explore similarities or differences by listing the elements that the works have in common.
? Organize this list into logical groups.
? Introduce both the works under analysis and the authors.
? State your thesis, that is, the main point you are trying to make by choosing to write about these two or more works.
? Provide background material to help your readers understand the relevance or appeal of the works. This background material might include one or more of the following: biographical information about the authors, an account of the circumstances under which the works were written, or a reference to the intended audience of the works.
? Argue the similarities or differences by analyzing the cultural influences in each piece.
? Remind the reader of the writer’s theme and cultural influences effect this theme.
? Suggest the wider significance of your analysis.
? Revise your explication, inserting transitional words and phrases where necessary to ensure coherence.
? Check for style.
? Avoid a series of short, choppy sentences.
? Combine sentences for a smooth, logical flow of ideas.
? Document your argument. Even when you have summarized a text in your own words, always cite the source at the point where you use it in your writing and include a complete reference. If you incorporate literary criticism from other sources, be sure to use MLA format to cite them in-line in your paragraphs as well as in a works cited at the end of the paper.
• Check for grammar.

Paper requirements
l correctness, punctuation, and spelling.

Paper requirements
The essay must be typed, double-spaced on one side of 8.5 x 11 inch white paper. Use a 12 point font and standard margins. Your name should be typed at the top of the page along with my name, ENGL 1023, and the time the class meets. Double space from this heading and center your title and then double space and begin the essay. Pages should be numbered.

Length: 3 to 5 pages.

HERE ARE THE TWO POEMS I HAVE TO HAVE YOU TO USE:
We real cool. We
Left school. We

Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon.

Gwendolyn Brooks

XIII. "When I was one-and-twenty..."
by A. E. Housman (1859-1936)

When I was one-and-twenty
I heard a wise man say,
'Give crowns and pounds and guineas
But not your heart away;
Give pearls away and rubies
But keep your fancy free.'
But I was one-and-twenty,
No use to talk to me.

When I was one-and-twenty
I heard him say again,
'The heart out of the bosom
Was never given in vain;
'Tis paid with sighs a plenty
And sold for endless rue.'
And I am two-and-twenty,
And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.