Poetry: The theme of Loneliness
Howard Nimerov’s, “The Vacuum”
Essay 1: Poetry! !
Specific Requirements:! ! Length: 750 words minimum, no maximum! ! Format: MLA (includes header and works cited page)! ! Document format: Please save in an .rtf (Rich Text Format) or .doc format.! ! Tutor.com: You must submit at least one version to the Tutor.com tutoring site before you turn your final copy in to me. The turnaround time for the site is usually 24 to 48 hours. In other words, you need to turn a draft into them several days before the essay is actually due, so that you will have time to get their response and make changes based on their suggestions. You are required to submit the file that Tutor.com sends to you in the dropbox at the same time you submit your essay. If the Tutor.com file is not submitted, there will be a 25 point penalty. Please note that you are not required to make all of the changes that the tutors suggest–this is merely a chance for you to get some feedback on your draft and spot any possible problems before it comes to me for a grade. ! ! Penalties: 5% per day for a late essay. 10% for a missing works cited page. ! ! Poems in the Unit: For your reference, here are the poems you may choose to explore in your essay. Please do not substitute any other works without clearing it with me first.! ! X. J. Kennedy: “In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus One Day”! ! Dorothy Parker: “A Certain Lady”! ! e.e. cummings: “[next to of course god america i]”! ! Audre Lorde: “Hanging Fire”! ! Yusef Komunyakaa: “Tu Do Street”! ! Claudia Emerson: “Driving Glove”! ! James Dickey: “The Leap”! ! Edmund Waller: “Song”! ! Dorothy Parker: “One Perfect Rose”! ! William Blake: “The Sick Rose”!
! Howard Nemerov: “The Vacuum”! ! Denise Levertov: “Wedding-Ring”! ! Brian Turner: “Jundee Ameriki”! ! Petrarch “[Upon the breeze she spread her golden hair]”! ! Henry Constable: “[My lady’s presence makes the roses red]”! ! William Shakespeare: “[My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun]”! ! William Shakespeare: “[Let me not to the marriage of true minds]”! ! William Wordsworth: “Nuns Fret Not”! ! Christina Rosetti: “In an Artist’s Studio”! ! Edna St. Vincent Millay: “[I will put Chaos into fourteen lines]”! ! Gwen Harwood: “In the Park”! ! Billy Collins: “Sonnet”! ! Sherman Alexie: “The Facebook Sonnet”! ! Pat Mora: “Elena” ! ! ! “Gentle Communion” ! ! ! “Mothers and Daughters” ! ! ! “La Migra” ! ! ! “Ode to Adobe”! !! Topic:! For this essay, you should choose a theme to explore in the poetry you’ve read in this unit. For example, you could choose aging, friendship, community, or another theme that interests you. DO NOT CHOOSE “DEATH” OR “LOVE” OR “SUFFERING” as your theme. Don’t be afraid to be creative with your theme! Think outside the box! Choose several poems (at least 3) that we’ve read in this module and show how they explore the theme. Remember that I’m not looking for your thoughts on this topic, but I want to see how well you can analyze the poet’s thoughts on these subjects. The poets you choose may agree on their views of the topic, or they may disagree. It’s your choice if you want to show contrasting views or similar views, or some combination. You must use specific lines from the poems to support your points. In addition, use Foster’s book
as a resource. There are many ideas in his text about intertextuality that you will find useful as you work on this essay.! Important Notes:! 1) The poet and the speaker ARE NOT the same person (only in very rare instances). Let me repeat that–the poet and the speaker ARE NOT the same person. Therefore, if you are analyzing Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem “We Real Cool,” you should NOT say, “Brooks says that she and her friends stay out late and drink gin.” You should say, “The speaker in the poem ‘We Real Cool’ says that he and his friends stay out late and drink gin.” This is a very, very important distinction. Remember to separate the poet and the speaker–they are different people. Even if it seems like they are the same (as in Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”), treat them as two separate beings. ! 2) For the works cited, you should include information about the specific poems and the book in which they are collected. In most resources, the format you will use is listed as something like, “Works in an Anthology.” Your works cited entries will look like this:! Finch, Anne. “There’s No To-morrow.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. Alison ! Booth and Kelly J. Mays. 10th ed. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2010. !948. Print. ! 3) Sample essays are available under the “Course Content” section of the class website. These will give you a good idea of the type of structure and development you should aim for in your essay.! ! Email me with any questions and good luck!
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Poetry: The theme of Loneliness
Howard Nimerov’s, “The Vacuum”
In this poem, the personal is an old widower who has vacuum in his life. The vacuum felt by the persona was left by his dead wife which implies that he is very lonely. In this poem, the persona misses his wife very much and is unable to run the vacuum his vacuum, cleaner since it makes her remember his deceased wife. The fact that the vacuum cleaner reminds the persona in the poem about his deceased wife, he is definitely lonely. At the same time, the personal……………….
MLA
887 Words