Quiz: Analysis of a Poem
For a quiz grade,compose a short essay in which you do two things: explicate (analyze) the poem and then explain its significance.
Choose from these poems:
W.B. Yeats, “The Second Coming”
Matthew Arnold, “Dover Beach” (423)*
Langston Hughes, “Harlem” (432)
Wallace Stevens, “The Emperor of Ice Cream”
William Blake, “Jerusalem”/”And did those feet”
Randall Jarrell, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”
Thomas Gray, “Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat”
Margaret Atwood, “You Fit Into Me”
Robert Frost, “Birches”
Claude McKay, “If We Must Die” (518)
Numbers are for poems found in our text; those without page numbers you can find elsewhere.
Try to keep the essay under two pages. Some poems may require more explication than others. If you employ outside sources (which I discourage), you will need to create a works cited page.
