If you are taking a literature course at a college or a university, you will for sure get tasks of writing essays about poems. And even if you are an expert in essay writing, you might find such a task difficult. Why? Mostly because analyzing poetry isn’t easy. It involves not only facts but also attitude and mood. So, to begin with, it’s necessary to read the poem you need to analyze several times.
In such a way you will feel the music of the poem and this will help you with its analysis. For some poems their structure is very important, so don’t forget to pay attention to how the poem looks on the page. You also need to check the meaning of all the words unclear for you in a dictionary.
The matter is poems written in the previous centuries might have some old-fashioned words that are not very clear nowadays. If the poem has some geographic names or historic allusions, you also need to find out what it’s all about. This will help you understand the poem better. Then you need to formulate a thesis for your essay. It’s that issue you would like to analyze, a hypothesis you want to prove. Well, now you are ready to start writing your essay.
The Structure Of An Essay About A Poem
Professionals from essay paper writing service claim that the structure of the essay about a poem doesn’t differ from the structure of any other essay: an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. The major difference lies in the content of those structural parts.
Structural Parts: 1st
The introduction of an essay about a poem has to get the reader acquainted with the topic of the essay. It should present the thesis and reasoning for it. All this is typical for any kind of essay.
But if you are writing an essay about a poem, in the introduction it’s necessary to say a few words about the author, the historic epoch where he lived, as well as about the theme of the poem you are writing about. This might be love, war, relations, friendship, or something else. If you are allowed, choose a poem that you like or at least know before to write about.
Structural Parts: 2nd
Generally, the body paragraphs of an essay provide proof of the arguments supporting the thesis. But if you are writing an essay about a poem, in the body paragraphs you have to interpret and analyze the poem to prove the thesis.
But as you are analyzing such a specific piece of literature as a poem, you have to research its specific features, such as versification (meter and rhyme scheme) and literary devices (such as simile, metaphor, personification, irony, litotes, synecdoche, metonymy, analogies, and symbolism). It’s important to remember, that you need to provide examples supporting your interpretation and your thesis.
Structural Parts: 2nd
Generally, the body paragraphs of an essay provide proof of the arguments supporting the thesis. But if you are writing an essay about a poem, in the body paragraphs you have to interpret and analyze the poem to prove the thesis.
But as you are analyzing such a specific piece of literature as a poem, you have to research its specific features, such as versification (meter and rhyme scheme) and literary devices (such as simile, metaphor, personification, irony, litotes, synecdoche, metonymy, analogies, and symbolism). It’s important to remember, that you need to provide examples supporting your interpretation and your thesis.
Structural Parts: 3rd
It’s impossible to write an essay about a poem without citations. If you don’t prove your point with exact lines, you won’t be able to convince that your thesis is right. Usually in this kind of essay the Modern Language Association (MLA) format is used for citing.
Besides, if you are citing two lines, you should use a slash to divide those lines in your writing. If you need to cite more than three lines, you need to write them the way they are presented in the poem. But, you should remember that long citations would be hard to explain in one paragraph.
Structural Parts: 4th
The conclusion paragraph of the essay about a poem is similar to the conclusion of any other type of essay. The author should summarize his/her ideas presented in the essay. But it is also possible to include a question provoking further discussion.
Final Verdict
Poetry is a very specific genre of literature that is very close to art. Interpreting a poem is in no way similar to proving a Math theorem. They say that an absolutely correct interpretation of a piece of poetry doesn’t exist, but every new one can be better than the previous.
So, don’t be afraid to interpret, and research the poem you are writing about. Maybe, your interpretation will be among the best. There is one more consideration. They say that analyzing poetry helps you to understand it better. Maybe, writing an essay about a poem will make you a poetry fan.
