Essay #1 - For the Love of Poetry

Requirements:
4 pages
MLA format (Times New Roman, Size 12pt, Double-spaced, MLA Heading, Pg #s,
Works Cited)
Deadlines:
Rough Draft: Wednesday, 2/17 - in class peer review
Final Draft: Wednesday, 2/24
PROMPTS are posted below. If you are set on another topic, you may submit it for
approval.
Refer to the writing rubric online for how you will be evaluated. Thoroughly
supported ideas are key. Always connect your ideas to concrete evidence in the text.
______________________________________________________________________________
SHARON OLDS (1942 - )
Text: Sex Without Love (p. 554)
PROMPT: Challenge your initial expectation to adopt the meaning that seems simple and clear.
What does the speaker of Sex Without Love try to convey in the poem? How do the images
and metaphors reveal her point of view? Use specific and thorough evidence from the poem and
connect the dots of your argument to create a logical and plausible perspective.
You may choose to use: Social context of the poem or poets biography to help draw
connections. However, always come back to evidence for your argument in the language of the
poem.
You may NOT use: Another persons analysis of this poem.

JOHN DONNE - The first and greatest of the English writers who
came to be known as the Metaphysical poets, John Donne wrote in a
revolutionary style that combined highly intellectual conceits with
complex, compressed phrasing. Born into an old Roman Catholic
family at a time when Catholics were subject to constant harassment,
Donne quietly abandoned his religion and had a promising legal career
until a politically disastrous marriage ruined his worldly hopes. He
struggled for years to support a large family; impoverished and
despairing, he even wrote a treatise (Biathanatos) on the lawfulness of
suicide. King James (who had ambitions for him as a preacher)
eventually pressured Donne to take Anglican orders in 1615, and Donne became one of the great
sermonizers of his day, rising to the position of dean of St. Pauls Cathedral in 1621. Donnes
private devotions (Meditations) were published in 1624, and he continued to write poetry until
a few years before his death.
Although no consciously created school or movement of metaphysical writers existed, a group
of seventeenth-century British poets (including Donne, Andrew Marvell, George Herbert, and
others) are often grouped together because of their interest in metaphysical subjects and because
of their stylistic similarities. In particular, metaphysical poets are known for their use of
elaborate, arresting metaphors that juxtapose radically dissimilar objects
Texts:
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning (p. 677)
The Flea (p. 504)
PROMPT: While A Valediction Forbidding Mourning elevates a kind of spiritual love that
cares less about the physical or erotic connections of eyes, lips, and hands, as Donne puts it
in line 20, in some of Donnes other poems, he celebrated sensual, physical love. Read The
Flea and compare the speaker of this poemand his relationship to his loverwith the speaker
of A Valediction Forbidding Mourning. How might these poems relate to each other? Or are
their visions of love irreconcilable?
Food for thought: You do not need to answer the following in your essay but I suggest
answering these to further your own understanding of the texts:
What analogies and metaphors does the speaker use to explain and describe his love?
In A Valediction Forbidding Mourning, why do you think Donne chose compasses for his
most extended metaphysical conceit in this poem (stanzas 7 through 9)? What qualities or
characteristics of a compass might make it a useful metaphor in this poem? How exactly does
the comparison of the speakers romantic relationship to a pair of compasses work?
In The Flea, why do you think Donne chose the flea for his most extended metaphysical
conceit in this poem? What qualities or characteristics might make it a useful metaphor in
this poem? How exactly does the speakers persuasive argument and the relation to the flea
work?