OVERVIEW
For this Essay, you will read four Emily Dickinson PoemsHope is the thing with feathers, I stepped from plank to plank, After great pain, a formal feeling comes, and The sky is low the clouds are meanand view/listen to the corresponding lecture for each poem. Then you are charged with writing an essay that examines the four poems as they apply to the highs and lows of life.
SCOPE
Essentially, you are making an argument for how the four poems can apply to lifethat is ones lifefor all of the good and bad times (and everything in between) that make up the whole of the human experience. One of my favorite sayings is from the poet Robert Frost who had three words about life that he learned: it goes on. And with that, being human is all about how one manages to keep living a life despite hardships or in celebration of positive life events. So, you will write a paperof at least 750 words and no more than 900 words, in about 3 to 5 pagesthat speaks to the way the 4 Dickinson poems, and only those four Dickinson poems as read for this class during the current semester, apply to life. Feel free to write from your own perspective (using the first-person point of viewthe I) and even incorporating your own unique experiences as part of the essay. No research is needed for this essay. You need only use the 4 Dickinson poemsin fact, referencing each poem is a requirement for this assignment. So, on the Works Cited page which is also a requirementthe four poems will be listed.
STRUCTURE
The paper should have an introduction with thesis; the introduction should also name Emily Dickinson and list her four poems as those used in the essay. There will be body paragraphs that speak to each poem, and the way the respective poem applies to a life lesson or lessons The essay will end with a conclusion that recaps the points made in the body paragraphs, restate the thesis (not a copy/paste of the thesis), and then end with your final thoughtswhich will be, in your own words, what you have learned (thus far and with Dickinsons help) about life.
GRADING
The papers score will consist of how well the paper meets the above, outlined parameters. How precise and clear the grammar and punctuation are, along with if the paper uses person examples from your own life (that you have gone through or have witnessed or that you somehow have understood in the wake of a major life event). Againthere is no need to reference or cite any additional sources, so, feel free to use as much from your perspective asyou can to contextualize the lessons contained in each of the four poems.
NOTES
Ask your professor any questions you may have about this assignment. This is not about the way the poem does what it does (the imagery, the punctuation, line length, enjambment, white space or any poetic device or terminology)rather, this assignment is all about the philosophical lessons gleaned from the poems. You are expected to focus on how the poem speaks to your own life or life in generaluse specific examples to highlight the claims made in the body paragraphs. Any essay that plagiarizesthat is either lifts verbatim or in summation passages from an explainer source (or even lists such as one of the Works Cited) will receive a grade of 0 (zero). With that in mind, use of AI generated materials is also plagiarism. You are to create your own, original work for this paper. While Dickinson has been gone from this earth for many years, and in the interim academics and amateurs have been writing about her poems (and posting the same to the internet) ever since the first collection was published, that in no way means you, yourself, are free to pillage those other peoples writings for fodder to copy/ paste into your own paper. Devise a line of thought about the poems and write the paper based on that. If you have nothing to say about the poems, then what are doing in this classif all you intend on doing is ripping off what someone else has written on the subject in an attempt to pass it off as your own then do let your instructor know.
