SPOILER! – Use Google Scholar to search for scholarly articles, or criticism on the poem. This is a great way to get ideas for your essay. If you find an article that discusses an aspect of the poem that you can see or agree with, write about that idea and use the article as your secondary source. This is fine as long as the writing is yours and anything used from the article is quoted properly.
1. You must follow the MLA guidelines for both in-text citations and for the works cited page.
2. You must use multiple quotes from both the primary source (poem) and the secondary sources you find (from searching for scholarly articles or criticism of the poem).
3. All quotes in your essay must have in-text citations.
3. You must make a valid connection between the secondary source and the poem/poet. If you chose one of the poems about war, for instance, don’t give us history of the war. Relevance is key; the focus must be on the poem.
4. This essay must be between 3-5 complete pages of writing, which does not include the works cited page.
5. Much of this assignment is about following directions, so please be sure that you do.
6. Don’t use Wikipedia, Smoosh, Poetry Foundation, Gliss or anything else besides scholarly articles or literary criticism. Those websites may list their original sources. If they do, you may be able to follow those links and use the original sources.
Your secondary sources should be from scholarly articles or literary criticism. If there is no identifiable author for an article, don’t use it as a source.
The best approach to this assignment is to read through the poems and choose several options.
Do a quick search of the available criticism, scholarly articles or critical reviews of the poem and see which poem provides you with enough material to write a 3-5 paper.
If you choose to take a biographical approach and focus on the poet’s life, it is crucial that you make valid connections between the poet’s life and the poem. As always, I am here if you have a question.
The poem to use is “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke
