VCCS Litonline

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Some Poetry Links

Directions:  If your instructor gives you other directions, follow them.  If your instructor wishes you to follow these directions, then click on one of the literary sites in the list below and open a word processor on your computer. (Confused? See the Word Processing Hint, then click your browser's back button to return here.)  Browse the site for a while, copying the locations of the five most useful pages into your word processor and suggesting for each the value of that page in helping a student learn about literature and analyzing or writing about literature.    Grading?: Responses you write on these tasks will generally not be as complicated as essays and probably will not be counted as much as an essay by your instructor.

For example, the following site at the University of Texas contains an analysis of William Faulkner's themes in "A Rose for Emily."  This page could be useful to students who are considering writing their own essay about the story; the sample essay shows interesting claims that are well supported (about time, conflict, Emily's mentality), but it also shows how not to document (the works cited are not listed and there are about twice as many parenthetical citations as there need to be).  http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~daniel/amlit/reader/south/rodriguezerose.html

For sites that have their own directions, follow those, unless your instructor says otherwise.

 
A.  Eight critics offer commentaries of various lengths on this long scrolling page.

• Summarize any one of the eight comments and then agree or disagree; amplify a point with an example of your own from the poem to agree, or explain why you disagree.
• Contrast any two of the comments for one specific point about the poem, e.g. the theme of the poem

B. This essay analyzes the structure of Frost's poem. Try writing comments about it as you did with the parts of the sample essay in this module. 

C.  Visit this Web address for Robert Frost and follow the accompanying directions:

http://www.aspirennies.com/private/SiteBody/Romance/Poetry/Frost/rfrost.shtml

Ways to Use the Robert Frost Site

• Click on a title not assigned for this term. Read the poem, jotting down your first      impressions of its meaning and its artistry. Click on any associated materials and explain ways they helped you understand the poem further and/or tell ways they led you to confusion. Write a page on what you learned and what in the materials you agree with and disagree with.
• Click on one of the several headings about Frost; summarize what you found out, and state ways the information helped you understand Frost's work or ways that the information echoed or contradicted what you learned in class or thought before you visited this site.
• Here is the Modern American Poetry website's biography of Frost.  What does it add to your understanding of Frost's life and methods?  What was going on in Frost's life when he wrote "Birches"?  Is Frost himself as old as the speaker in the poem seems to be?

D.  Visit this Web address at Oxford University (which gave Frost an honorary degree), and follow the accompanying directions:

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ltg/projects/jtap/tutorials/index.html

 How to Use This Oxford Web Site about poetry from the World War I era--

     1. On your first visit only, you're supposed to give your impressions about one poem as a sort of pay for using the site. After answering those questions, you can come back to the site for the next step, which can count as extra credit.

     2. Return to the site and scroll down to the bottom of the opening page to the "Hypermedia" option. Click icons to get background on the poet, on analogous poets, or on World War I, and list up to 5 ideas that you learn, 5 impressions from this reading (and photos), or make up to 5 statements about the reading.

     3. Does the Edward Thomas poem seem sad or depressed?  Tell why you think Frost      befriended this poet and why this poet became Frost's friend, took long, reflective walks   with him, and wrote insightful, positive reviews of Frost's early publications.

     4. Contrast the women's poems with Rosenberg's or the "Trench Poetry" of the male poets: Select one or two poems by women vs. 1 or 2 by men to focus your contrast and give specifics for your impressions.

Click here to see how one student completed this task (C.2. multiple impressions of the poem, "Break of Day in the Trenches."

The URL for this page is: http://vccslitonline.vccs.edu/birches/litindex.htm