Confrontation, Close Reading, and the Literature of Edgar Allen Poe
Length: 3-4 pages (excluding supplementary material)Due Date: September 22nd, 2018Submission Requirements: Hard copy, stapled, with MLA 7 format (for sample essay in appropriate format, click here
For the past few classes, we have addressed two parallel concerns; the art of styling a focused, concise argument, and how and why style matter in poetry and prose.
Looking at the poetry and prose of Edgar Allen Poe, we’ve discussed the ways that Poe forces us to confront that which we would escape. By painting a picture that
places beauty next to ugliness, vibrant images of color and life next to stark images of stark death, Poe uses language ot paint incongruous, but often realistic
pictures of more abstract issues or problems.
Thinking about the ways that Poe uses assonance, alliteration, rhythm, imagery, symbolism (personification, allegory) to paint pictures that appeal to sense and
senses, I would like you to do one of the following:
1. Please select the following from . https://poestories.comA. One poem or storyORB. Two poems or storiesORC. A poem and short storyYou may NOT use a story or poem we’ve addressed so far in class unless you use it comparatively with something we have not discussed in class.
2. And produce the following (not part of the page count):
A. If a poem, please note and describe at least four of the following on a printed copy of the poem: meter (rhythm:, rhetorical devices at work, rhyme scheme (if
present), recurrent images or parallel ideas (these you can underline), and dichotomies (if any) that you see at work. For a glossary of potential phenomena that you
can discover in poetry, click here. I do not expect you to tackle every term, but I want you to note at least three that seem applicable to your poem. Describe how
they work and why they are being used in the poem. You may wish to quote words or lines when you explain. Please don’t merely google search your poem and look for an
analysis–I will someday quiz you on scansion and these terms, and if you don’t learn try to understand them, things will be harder later.
B. If you choose a short story, paste the story into a word-cloud generator. You can attach this word cloud to your printed paper. Note which words or ideas seem
most prominent. Also note which images, colors, or ideas seem to leap out at you in the story. Speculate on why these might matter in a list of at least ten bullet
points. Note what element, word, quote, image, or idea you are discussing and speculate on why it might matter (Make each bullet at least two sentences long).
3. From there, please generate a close-reading of your text(s). For example, you might compare a short story and poem and consider the ways that both reveal
something interesting about Poe’s style-maybe his use of color in two stories reveals the ways that Poe uses the senses to convey a message about something more
abstract, like death. Maybe something else! The point of this assignment is to generate arguments about how certain elements work and WHY they matter—i.e. what larger
message might be present, and how does a text speak to larger complications about identity, escape, confrontation, or some other important problem that faces us?
Essay Requirements:
1. Your essay must be at least 3 COMPLETE pages. Do not turn in two and a half pages, and tell me it’s three. To help you condense your argument, please try to
write no more than four pages (though I never penalize if you write more). 2. Attach to this essay your word clouds and annotated poetry. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to let me know!3. Essays must adhere to the formatting requirements on your syllabus—twelve point, Times New Roman font, double spaced, and in a doc/doc.x format if possible.
For those Mac users who have not downloaded Microsoft word offered for FREE by SMU, please click here to download and install. 4. In text citations and Works Cited Page; please click here for the MLA guide; if you have any further questions about citations, don’t hesitate to ask. For
poetry please use line numbers, and for short stories, just put (Poe) or the short story titles in parentheses. If you use two sources,
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