Homework Assignment Sheet

In this course, there will be weekly homework assignments throughout

the term that will allow you to practice the skills you need to be
successful readers of poetry. For the first half of the term your
homework assignments will feed into key term quizzes (the dates of
which are marked on the syllabus). For the second half of the term
homework assignments will be places for you to practice close reading
and analysis skills. Each homework assignment will be approximately
500-700 words in length and due at midnight the Sunday
following our Wednesday class. This means that you will need to
complete your weekly readings in time to discuss them in class and
then compose your homework.
Key Term Quiz Homework
I want your quizzes to be useful to you and your peers so I decided that
the key terms I will test you on will be drawn directly from the terms
you pull out of your readings in your homework.
In the key term homework assignments you will first define a key term
in poetry (like assonance, enjambment, quatrain, etc.) and then
discuss an example of that term in the poetry we have read in the
course. You may draw from Stephen Frys glossary or use definitions
you find in credible sources (books on poetic terms, educational
websites, or resources you find in the library). Your discussion of the
poetic example should explain:
1. Where you see the poetic key term in the lineation.
2. How that key term interacts with the content of the poem. How
does the formal aspects of the poem interact with the content of
the poem?
Once you have completed your homework assignment, you will post it
to the class Google Drive Folder and then record your term, its
definition and your example in our key terms class spreadsheet (also
living on Google Drive).
As you prepare for your key term quizzes you can refer to your
homework as well as the homework of your peers as study guides. You
are responsible for not only the terms you identify but also the terms
that your peers identify.
Close Reading Homework

Once the fourth key term quiz is administered homework assignments

will become a place for you to practice analyzing poetry. These
homework assignments are designed to help you prepare for your
larger course assignments such as the final paper. Good close reading
will consider one or more of the following:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

The relationship between the form of the poem and its content
The allusions in the poem
The role of the poetic speaker
The symbols in the poem
If there is a poetic argument
The word choice of the poem
If the poem is responding to a historical, political, or literary
context

Good close reading will also marshal evidence to support its

interpretation. This means quoting examples from a poem and
discussing those quotations specifically in regard to how they related
to an interpretation. A good example of quoting and analysis might
look like this:
Maya Angelou repeats the phrase still I rise in her poem of the same
title to reinforce the idea that although racial oppression in America
aims to keep its black minorities from succeeding, the poetic speaker
will continue to rise above her circumstances. She rhymes the I
vowel sound in rise with words in the second and fourth lines of 6
stanzas creating not only a repetition in diction but also in sound. In
the first stanza Angelou rhymes lies (line 2) with rise, in the third
stanza tides (line 10) with rise (line 12), in the fourth eyes (like
14) with cries (like 16), then eyes (line 22) with rise (line 24),
and finally surprise (line 26) with thighs (line 28). The repetition in
sound builds momentum as the poem progresses culminating in the
simple repetition of the phrase I rise, Angelous primary point. The
momentum of the repetition of phrase and vowel sound mimics the
inexhaustibility of the poetic subject in refusing to submit to racial
oppression and stay down. Just as the poetic subject continues to get
up, the language of the poem continues to foreground the sound I.
Moreover, the repetition of the sound I transforms not just into the
repetition of a vowel sound or the word rise, but also asserts
subjectivity as the sound I is not just a vowel sound but the pronoun
which stands in for the speaker. I am, I rise.
(The poem for reference: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/still-irise)