Module 9 – Discussion: Poetry

Respond to this discussion activity by constructing a one-paragraph argument about one of the following topics in one of this module’s assigned poems:

• Denotation;
• connotation;
• figures of speech
  • simile, metaphor, personification, apostrophe, overstatement, understatement, metonymy, paradox and pun.

Once you have selected a topic:

1. Make a claim about how the literary element you’ve chosen contributes to the significance of the poem.
2. Add evidence to support your claim in the form of a quotation to illustrate the point you are making.
3. Add analysis by explaining how your quote proves or illustrates your claim

Poem list:

• William Blake, “London”
• Wallace Stevens, “Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock”
• E. Cummings, “Next to of course god America I”
• Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “The Eagle”
• William Shakespeare, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”
• Howard Moss, “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?”
• Emily Dickinson, “My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun”
• Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “The Flower in the Crannied Wall”
• William Blake, “To see a world in a grain of sand”
• Sylvia Plath, “Metaphors”
• Scott Momaday, “Simile”
• Emily Dickinson, “It dropped so low—in my Regard”
• Jill Alexander Essbaum, “The Heart”
• Craig Raine, “A Martian Sends A Postcard Home”
• James Stephens, “The Wind”
• Robinson Jeffers, “Hands”
• Margaret Atwood, “You fit into me”
• George Herbert, “The Pulley”
• Dana Gioia, “Money”
• Carl Sandburg, “Fog”