Poetry Independent Study

Introduction

After studying an introduction to poetry, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and Carl Sandburg, you have learned about different types of poetry, poets, and styles of poetry. It is now time for you to work with poets and their poetry on your own.

The Task

1. Pick a poet from the following list:

Paul Dunbar
Langston Hughes
Edna St. Vincent Millay
John Masefield
Robert Loius Stevenson
Amy Lowell
John Ciardi
Vachel Lindsay
Christina Georgiana Rosetti
Rachel Wield
Rosemary and Stephen Benet
Phyllis McGinley
Edgar Allen Poe
Ogden Nash
Walt Whitman
Marianne Moore
e.e. cummings
If you wish to select another poet, fine! Make sure that you can find information and poetry. Check with Mr. Pedersen before beginning your work.

2. Using Encarta, Golliers, Comptons, the Internet, or a encyclopedia from the library or home, find this poet.

Read the article.
Outline the article. (Do not plagarize.) You may like to use Inspiration to do your outline.
Write a rough draft using your own outline.
Write or type a final draft after the editting process has taken place.
Use the resources from the internet listed below, find two poems written by your poet.
Print these two poems from the internet.
List the type of poetry these are.
Write the rhyme and rhythm scheme for each poem.
Describe what this poem means to you and why you feel this way.

Resources

http://www.biography.com/ Look up biographies of different poets
http://www.favoritepoem.org/poems/ Listing of different poets.
http://www.hti.umich.edu/bin/amv-idx.pl?page=bibl American Poets
http://sln.fi.edu/tfi/hotlists/literature.html Poet & Literature sites
http://www.bartleby.com/index.html American and English Poetry
http://www.poets.org/LIT/Listen.htm Poetry you can read and listen to
http://www.udayton.edu/~dunbar/ Paul Laurence Dunbar
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Lit/american.html Check out for other literature sources. Check out Voice of the Shuttle American Literature Pages: Colonial , Nineteenth-Century , Modern American , Contemporary American , and Minority Literatures
http://www.auburn.edu/~vestmon/longfellow.html Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
http://members.aol.com/ericblomqu/poe.htm Edgar Allan Poe
http://members.aol.com/sonnetear/lazarus.htm Emma Lazarus
http://english.cla.umn.edu/Courseweb/1017/WaltWhitman/home Walt Whitman
http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/ReadingRoom/Poetry/Millay/ Edna Millay
http://www.lit.kobe-u.ac.jp/~hishika/moore.htm Marianne Moore

The Process

1. Write a short BIOGRAPHY (about fifty words) of the poet you chose. Include the contribution this poet has made to American Literature, or describe the kind of poet your choice was. Was he a poet for children? Was he a nature poet? Was he the poet of protest?

2. Copy and ANALYZE two poems by the poet of your choice. Your analysis should include the following information:

Does the poem have a rhyme scheme? If so, what is it?
What is the theme of the poem? (love, death, protest, women's liberation, prejudice, revenge, poverty, spring, etc.)
What does this poem mean to you? Why did you choose it for your analysis?
Please write your final copy in ink.
Please double space, whether you type or write.
Please proof read and edit your final copy carefully.
Please include a bibliography and internet sources.

Learning Advice

Learning Advice: You may wish to start out with pencil and paper, or you may wish to save information to your hard drive. You may then later use your word processor to type, edit, and finish your final copy for your work. Do not wait until the last minute to do this work. Download what you need to your hard drive and then print out the material if you need to bring the work to school for class. Take your time and have fun with this new learning tool!

Conclusion

Have fun with your searchings and work on the internet. Please do not plagarize - do your own work.

This page written by Fred R. Pedersen
Last updated: November 26, 1999