help me

hello! i am new here in your community. I'd like to greet you all hello:p. I am now a @nd year college student , and i have a literary criticism subject. I have difficulty in dealing with this subject. Now we're focused on analyzing poems, but the is, i can't make a good analyzation so got failed grades. i really want to make a good analyzation of poems to impress my teachers. hope you could help me in this matter.
For now i need a poem that can be analyzed using biographical and sociological approach. Can you give me any suggestion?

ayuneyari: Select a poem you like from this thread... http://www.online-literature.com/for...Classic+Poetry --- I'll try to help you out. q1

I can offer a few tips in the form of questions. This by no means is all encompassing but should give you an idea of where your analysis is heading.

Good poems to look for if you're not too picky are english poems from the WW1 era or Romantics (like Byron). Poe is always fun to write about too...

Find a poem you don't mind reading a few times.

Analytical portion (usually any poem can be analyzed like this. It's all about what the words mean to you, so there are no wrong answers :D )

What is the poem about?
What is the poem's purpose?
How does the structure of the poem contribute to its' purpose?
What are some powerful words and how do they make you feel?
How does the rhythm of the poem affect the way it's read?

This bit's tricky at first, but gets fun if you get good at it. I suggest you find a place where it doesn't matter how goofy you look and tap your finger/clap for every syllable, bit of punctuation and end of a line you read. This is a good way to feel the poem's flow (like how good musicians pause or emphasize important words and lines)

Does the poem have a steady repetitive rhythm?
Does the poem ever break rhythm? If so, on what line? what can emphasis on this line mean?

Does the poem's structure suggest anything of it's content?

Biographical portion:
Who wrote this poem?
Why did they write it?
What does this poem say about their personality/life/style?

Sociological:
What was going on in the world when this poem was written?
How does this poem reflect on the world?
Does this poem mean anything to today's society?


Best of luck mate.

Hi i just read your reply. thank god. thank for the suggestion you give but i also have difficulty in finding a good poem that can be analyzed using the biographical and socoilogical approach? can you suggest a good poem?

ahhm . . . i found a poem by emily dickinson entitled " because i could not stop death", could it be analyzed using biographical or socoilogical approach? reply ASAP . . . .

Biographically, Emily Dickenson is a bit of an oddball. A brief look at wikipedia can tell you what I mean. She was a closet poet of great skill.

I know that poem, it has social context as a way for people to look at death. That poem is broad enough and uses such language that you could easily write five pages on it, and her, and the times she grew up in. It looks like a good choice to me.

If you're not for it, look up "dulci et decorum est" by Wilfred Owen for an easy but depressing and semi-graphic World War One poem heavy on satire.

To understand a poem, read it 4 times every day at least. That's how I do it - I've read Four Quartets over 1000x this year.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ayuneyari

ahhm . . . i found a poem by emily dickinson entitled " because i could not stop death", could it be analyzed using biographical or socoilogical approach? reply ASAP . . . .

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Neither is particularly needed, one merely needs to understand the irony of the end.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JBI

Neither is particularly needed, one merely needs to understand the irony of the end.

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Always tailor your paper to the prompt. Never do less than what it asks for unless you can afford the points.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by krymsonkyng

Always tailor your paper to the prompt. Never do less than what it asks for unless you can afford the points.

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Yes, but this particular poem doesn't really need biographical, sociological, or any such readings. One merely should, since this is a second year paper, explain the ironic tone, and the vision. One cannot, however, go beyond that without comparison.

To me, Dickinson seems a poet who needs each poem read, against the collection. Standing alone, they become limited and rather simple, but when put into the bigger picture, they expand, and create their own sort of mythology.

That being said though, for a 2nd year paper (I would know), you really want to stick to the question - though don't give an answer which anyone can give. Also, giving big chunks of quotation is not a good idea either - you really want to use every word, so either give references to the line number, or use quotes within your sentence to give your point more credit. A good professor knows that if someone is using big chunks of quotation, chances are they don't know what they are talking about.

He speaks great wisdom.

hi krymsonkyng! ahmm . . . thank you for your suggestion of the poem " Dulci et decorum est" its a good poem. but can you please explaine it further to me coz its a liitle bit confusing. i can't make a good analysis of it. can you?:wave:

I can't analyze it for you but I can try and explain what I think specific points of it mean.

do a bit of research on the circumstances surrounding the poem, then explain what you think the author is trying to say (A big hint is to translate the title, and then relate it to the poem itself).

forget about my last post. did i disappoint you? I'm sorry.

Disappoint me? How do you mean? I'm not disappointed at all...

The poem references chemical weapons used in WW1 and ridicules the idea that war is glorious in any way, you just need to go into how it accomplishes this.