Poetry Project

AP Literature 

In-Depth Poet Study

Now that you have studied all of the ways poets use language to express meaning, I'd like you to spend some time studying one poet in-depth.  Doing so will give you an opportunity to critically read a number of poems, practice your own analysis and interpretation of those poems, do some explication, complete some biographical research on the poet, and present your findings as an "expert."  In addition to the practice this project will give you in analysis and interpretation, I also want you to begin to see and understand the way an individual poet develops a style, common motifs, or comes back again and again to the same forms and poetic devices.

You will be working in groups for this project, but only the presentation will be a group grade.  The major portions of the project will be individual, though your group can work as moral support.

The Steps:

• Choose your poet and your group. 
• Read a representative sampling of the poet's work--that means enough that you can see the kind of poetry your poet writes, including the various motifs and poetic devices your poet explores.  This is all about increasing your exposure to poetry--the more exposure you have, the more practice you get working with all the poetic devices you just learned about, the more experience you have in analysis, the more comfortable you will feel when presented with it in the future.
• Discuss the poems you read with your group.  Work together to understand them, to analyze them, to bounce ideas for interpretation off of each other.  You all know by now how helpful class discussion can be for any piece of literature, so use your group to help you better understand your own ideas. 
• Individually, complete an informal explication of one short poem (that is a line-by-line analysis) AND a write-up that synthesizes the poet's background, literary importance, and style.  Include the poetic devices, forms, etc. (all the stuff we covered in your textbook) the poet seems to use, favor, etc.  Also include common motifs and/or themes they write about.  Make sure you cite examples from their various poetry as evidence of these claims.  There is no length requirement for this write-up.  Your criteria is that it be long enough--long enough to do a good job, make a comprehensive study, and cite evidence for your claims. While this is informal (no real "essay rules" and I am your only audience), you should still use MLA citations properly as evidence to ME of your actual knowledge and reasonable interpretation.
• As a group, present your poet to the class.  Be prepared to share with the class some of the poet's work and your synthesis as the experts on that poet.  You will have 15-20 minutes to present your poet as experts and everyone in your group should contribute equally to the presentation.  You should complete a LITTLE biographical information in your presentation and you should cite those sources either as a slide in your presentation document (if you use one) or on paper.  One per group is fine.  This should be the ONLY RESEARCH YOU DO.  This assignment is about YOUR analysis.  I do not want you to read criticism.  When it comes to your poetry test or the AP exam, you will have no critics to help you.