BACK TO FRONT PAGE
STEP #1
KNOW THE POET
“Structure and devotion are the first steps toward mastery of a subject - the actual enemy is the unknown.”
- Thomas Mann
What does it mean, “Know the poet”?
To know and appreciate a poet one must examine two things: the poet’s life and the poet’s work.
The Poet’s Life: What would be the key information to understanding your life? Is your birthplace a necessary piece of information? Is where you’re growing up?
What your parents do for a living? Your brothers or sisters? What sports you play or music you listen to or books you read? Is all this information required to
understand who you are? To understand a poet’s life you must ask the same questions of the poet.
Below are examples of information required to be in this part of your research paper:
1. Biographical facts of the author (e.g. birthday, birthplace, grew up, went to school, lived, married, worked, death-date, death-place)
2. Ethnicity, religion, and political identity
3. Influences in life (e.g. other writers, artists, politicians, activists, athletes, parents, teachers)
4. What inspired your poet to become a writer (where the ideas for their writing came from), and when did the poet begin writing
5. Awards your poet was given
6. Chronology of important events and poems/books published in your poet’s life
The Poet’s Work: There are 2 main questions to ask here: 1) what did the poet write about (content)? And 2) how did the poet express his or her
thoughts and feelings (style)? This is where all your poetic knowledge comes in handy. Themes, motifs, metaphors, symbolism, and tone, just to name a few,
are the fingerprints a poet leaves on his work: this all adds up to the literary identity of your poet.
Below are examples of information required to be in this part of your research paper:
1. What did the poet write about – what were the poet’s big themes (e.g. love, death, unhappiness, religion, politics, race equality, gender equality, economic equality)
2. What were the poet’s favorite themes (e.g. motifs in his or her work)
3. Were there obvious changes in style and content throughout the poet’s career (e.g. a period of writing which focused on war; a period which focused on racial equality)
4. What style did the poet write in (e.g. sonnet, free verse, blank verse, haiku, narrative, prose)
5. What school of poetry was the poet associated with (e.g. Modernism, Harlem Renaissance, Imagist, Objectivist, Black Mountain, Beats, Black Arts, )
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.