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SAMPLE ESSAY ON POETRYSUGGESTED TIME—40 MINUTES

Directions: Robert Burns wrote the following poem. He is considered by some to be Scotland’sgreatest poet. He came from a poor background, although he had books available to him. Manyof his poems were meant to be sung even though he was tone-deaf. Read the poem carefully.Then write an essay discussing how Burns elicits an emotional response from the reader orlistener. Consider such elements as speaker, form, imagery, and musicality.

Study StrategyWhen you practice, limityourself to 40 minutes—5 minutes to read and planand 35 minutes to write—soyou will become comfortablewith writing on demand.

My Heart’s in the Highlands

Line My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here,My heart’s in the Highlands a-chasing the deer,A-chasing the wild deer and following the roe!My heart’s in the Highlands, wherever I go!

Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North,The birthplace of valor, the country of worth!Wherever I wander, wherever I rove,The hills of the Highlands forever I love.

Farewell to the mountains high cover’d with snow,Farewell to the straths* and green valleys below,Farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods,Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods!

My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here,My heart’s in the Highlands a-chasing the deer,A-chasing the wild deer and following the roe–My heart’s in the Highlands, wherever I go!

—Robert Burns

* Wide river valleys

TIP Before you turn the page and read our suggestions for an essay on thispoem, score your essay using the Self-Evaluation Rubric on p. 191.

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SUGGESTIONS FOR SAMPLE ESSAY ON POETRYTest-Taking Strategy

Before you begin to write, besure you know what theessay question is asking youto write about.

The following are points you might have chosen to include in youressay on the poem “My Heart’s in the Highlands.” Consider them asyou perform your self-evaluation. You will notice that we discusselements of poetry that are not called for in the essay question.However, by identifying the author, naming the type of poem, andwriting the title, you have a place to begin and you give yourself anopportunity to include information to increase your score.

AUTHORRobert Burns, perhaps the greatest poet Scotland ever produced, isknown for writing songs about love, friendship, and his country. Heoften used Scottish dialect in his writing, and his most well-knownsong is “Auld Lang Syne.”

Of course, you cannot find this information in the poem.However, you may know much of this from your study of literature.Most probably you have heard someone sing “Auld Lang Syne” onNew Year’s Eve. Just remembering that Burns wrote songs shouldhelp you in analyzing the poem.

TITLEThe title of the poem tells you quite a bit. The poet identifies a placethat is important to him, and the word heart indicates a strongemotional attachment to the Highlands.

GENRE, SPEAKER, AND AUDIENCEThe poem is a lyric, in fact, a song, and the musical language ex-presses the emotions of the speaker. In this poem, you can assumethat the speaker and the poet are the same. The speaker has left theHighlands and is living elsewhere. The audience includes all peoplewho hear the song.

FORM

Writing StrategyDon’t forget to use transi-tions between ideas andparagraphs.

Burns wrote four-line stanzas, called quatrains, with a very simpleaabbccdd rhyme scheme. The metrical pattern includes an openingiambus followed by two dactyl feet and ends with an accentedsyllable. Since the dactyl feet prevail, the poem is written in dactylictetrameter. Poets often vary the meter and feet slightly to avoid awork that sounds like a metronome.

It is all well and good to identify rhyme and meter, but you needto relate it to the question. These elements add to the musicality ofthe poem and increase the emotional tone. If you consistently relatedthe poetic elements to the question, you wrote to the point.

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THEME OR THESIS

Test-Taking StrategyEven if you are not askeddirectly about the poem’smeaning, include it in youressay and relate it to thequestion.

“My Heart’s in the Highlands” shows love for a place, the Highlandsof Scotland. Since love is certainly an emotion, this is a good point tomention. Also, remember that you should present a writer’s mainpoint even if the question does not ask about it directly. You want toshow that you understand the meaning of what you read.

SENSORY IMAGESThis poem has strong visual elements. Burns writes of wild deer,green valleys, and “wild-hanging woods.” In addition, there is an auralimage in the line “Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods.”

These images convey the poet’s love for the region, a love thatthe audience recognizes. Thus, the sensory images elicit an emotionalresponse.

SOUND DEVICES

Test-Taking StrategyDon’t just identify and giveexamples of the literarydevices you find in a poem.Explain how each adds tothe poem’s impact.

Burns uses repetition to great effect. Not only does he repeat the firststanza as the last, he also repeats words, phrases, and rhymes. Byusing repetition, the poet makes “My Heart’s in the Highlands” soundlike a song. Burns also uses the devices to emphasize his ideas. Theword Highlands is repeated eight times, and Farewell is repeated sixtimes. The most repeated phrase, “My Heart’s in the Highlands,”contains the most important idea in the poem. Repetition creates anemotional response because the reader must acknowledge theimportance of the poet’s attachment to place. Similarly, the poet usesparallelism, the repetition of the same grammatical form or structure,to convey his message and elicit an emotional response. Parallelismadds to the poem’s rhythm. All these repetitions add to the feeling ofhomesickness and nostalgia in the poem. Many readers will relate tothese emotions.

While this poem seems simple, the use of sound devices is mosteffective. The song-like quality makes the main idea of love of placeaccessible.

OPPOSITION

Test-Taking StrategyYou can use the concept ofopposition when writingabout prose works, too.

The opposition in this poem is between the Highlands and “here.”While you do not know what kind of place “here” is, you imaginethat it is quite the opposite of the Highlands.

Why is this relevant to the question? This establishes the senseof sadness and nostalgia, the sense of feeling out of place that mostpeople have felt at some time. Thus, Burns creates impact.

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YOUR STYLETo write effectively about poetry, you need to support your pointswith quotes from the poem. You can also cite lines. Add interest tothe development of your thesis through word choice and varyingsentence structure.

Some of the things we said about the concluding paragraph inan essay about prose also work for poetry. A simple summary maynot be flashy, but if it clearly restates your thesis and the points thatsupport it, it will help the reader see where you have been and why.A relevant quotation from the poem or from another related poem orfrom a critical work can be a clever way to end your essay, but don’tmisquote.

Study StrategySee “Practice Plan forStudying for the AP EnglishLit Test,” p. 7.

Once you have evaluated your essay with the Self-Evaluation Rubricon p. 191 and reviewed our points, you may choose to revise youressay using the points suggested here. However, do not spend a greatdeal of time trying to make it perfect. Revise it simply to see howadding some of our points may make it stronger. Whether you reviseor not, ask a classmate or your teacher to evaluate your essay usingthe Self-Evaluation Rubric on p. 191. How does your own evaluationcompare with a more objective view? Keep the differences in mind asyou write and score more free response essays on poetry.

Now that you have a sense of the logic involved in acing the poetry essayquestion of Section II, try Practice Essay 1 and Practice Essay 2. Study thepoints for evaluation and use the Self-Evaluation Rubric. If you are still unsureabout writing essays on poetry, continue with Practice Essay 3 and PracticeEssay 4.


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PRACTICE ESSAY 1ESSAY ON POETRY SELECTION

Suggested Time–40 Minutes

Directions: Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote this poem after returning from one of his favoriteplaces, Ireland. While he was there, he had been impressed with the sounds of bugles fromboatmen. Imagery is often a key element in poetry. Read the following poem carefully. Write anessay discussing the images that Tennyson creates in this poem. Explain the literary methods heuses to paint these images. Consider such elements as figurative language, sensory images, sounddevices, and opposition.

Study StrategyWhen you practice, limityourself to 40 minutes—5minutes to read and planand 35 minutes towrite—so you will becomecomfortable with writingon demand.

The Splendor Falls

Line The splendor falls on castle wallsAnd snowy summits old in story:

The long light shakes across the lakes,And the wild cataract leaps in glory.

Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

O hark, O hear! how thin and clear,And thinner, clearer, farther going!

O sweet and far from cliff and scarThe horns of Elfland faintly blowing!

Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying:Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying

O love, they die in yon rich sky,They faint on hill or field or river:

Our echoes roll from soul to soul,And grow for ever and for ever.

Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying

—Alfred, Lord Tennyson

TIP Use the Self-Evaluation Rubric on p. 191 to help you assess your progressin writing the free response essays on poetry.

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SUGGESTIONS FOR PRACTICE ESSAY 1Study Strategy

Revise your essay usingpoints from this list that willstrengthen it.

You might have chosen to include the following points in your essayon the passage from “The Splendor Falls.” Consider them as you doyour self-evaluation.

Background Information

• Author: Tennyson impressed by sounds of the boatmen in Ireland,a sound he uses in this poem

• Subject: portrait of an image that he has seen and heard

Theme

• No deep meaning to the poem; expression of love by Tennyson fora special place of beauty

Sensory Images

• Sound: appeals mostly to the sense of hearing; blowing of thebugles and horns, principal sensory vehicle

• Sight: secondary appeal to sight; image of the castle, cataract,rich sky

Sound Devices

• Alliteration: One example is “long, light . . . lakes.”

• Repetition: “dying, dying, dying”; an interesting twist because itsuggests diminishing sound as an echo would fade away

• Internal rhyme: used to good advantage in several places, forexample, “shakes . . . lakes”

Opposition

• Unusual opposition with the permanence of elements such as acastle contrasted with the dying echoes

Style

• Usage of words to convey the sound and feel of the subject of hispoem; reader “moves in” and hears the boatmen’s horns whiletaking in a view of the water

• Setting: developed almost like a landscape painting; castle, water,hills, and fields all for the reader to see


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Suggested Time—40 Minutes

Directions: William Shakespeare was such a master of the sonnet form that the terms “Shakes-pearean sonnet” and “English sonnet” are interchangeable. Read the following poem carefully.Write an essay discussing how the poet uses the sonnet form to convey his love. Consider suchelements as speaker, imagery, and poetic devices.


Sonnet 18

Line Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate:Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;But thy eternal summer shall not fade,Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can seeSo long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

—William Shakespeare


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You might have chosen to include the following points in your essayon Sonnet 18. Consider them as you do your self-evaluation.


• Author: William Shakespeare; Elizabethan period poet and playwright• Genre: sonnet

Thesis

• The beloved is nature’s eternal summer; the lover’s beauty willnever fade.

• The sonnet ensures immortality.

Form

• Speaker: the person who loves the person addressed• Audience: the beloved, the person addressed• 14 lines; 3 quatrains, ending couplet; traditional Shakespearean/

English sonnet form• Each quatrain introduces a new premise or aspect to the

comparison between a summer’s day and the speaker’s beloved.• The couplet departs from the comparison to comment on the

beloved’s immortalization through the sonnet.• All are characteristic features of English/Shakespearean sonnets.

• Rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efefgg• Iambic pentameter

Sensory Images

• Sight: much of the poem, description of sun• Hearing: “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May”• Purpose: to expand on the comparison of summer’s day and the

beloved

Figurative Language

• Extended metaphor/conceit: loved one fares better than asummer’s day; more lovely, more temperate

• Petrarchan conceits, subject of poem compared to some startlingobject, often in Elizabethan love poems: summer’s day and beloved

• Personification: sun has “gold complexion,” death “brags”

Sound Devices

• Some slight alliteration—chance and changing• Repetition and parallel structure in couplet: adds emphasis to idea

of immortality through the sonnet


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Directions: Read the following poem carefully. Write an essay that discusses the allusion to springand Jesus Christ. Consider such literary elements as rhythm, imagery, form, theme, and tone.


Spring

Line Nothing is so beautiful as spring—When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush

Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wringThe ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;

The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brushThe descending blue; that blue is all in a rush

With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.

What is all this juice and all this joy?A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning

In Eden garden.—Have, get, before it cloy,Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,

Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,Most, O maid’s child, thy choice and worthy the winning.

—Gerard Manley Hopkins


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You might have chosen to include the following points in your essayon the poem “Spring.” Consider them as you perform your self-evaluation.


• Author: Roman Catholic priest; English; religious backgroundrelates to theme; lived during the mid-nineteenth century

• Form: sonnet; rhyme scheme: abbaabba cdcdcd

Test-Taking StrategyFiguring out the theme is keyto answering the essayquestion.

Theme

• Octave: develops the beauty of spring

• Sestet: introduces the author’s religious thoughts

• Themes: developed from the combination of the octave and sestet:

• Nature is innocent and reminds us of our innocence as children.

• People must be shown religion, that is, Jesus Christ, as a way tokeep from sinning.

Sensory Images

• Octave: descriptions of the sights and sounds of spring

• Examples: thrush’s eggs, song of the thrush, racing lambs, pear tree

• Impact: demonstrate beauty of spring

Figurative Language

• Hopkins uses the term “maid’s child” as an allusion to Christ.

• Spring: symbol of beginning of world, Eden

Sound Devices

• Author noted for his rhythms

• Rising accent beginning in the second line

• Developed the “sprung rhythm” that he uses in this work

• Rhythm: culminates in emphasis on imperative verbs: “have,” “get,”and “cloy;” directed action commonplace in religious thought atthe time

Style

• Octave: an emotional appeal to natural beauty

• Sestet: statement of religious belief of the poet


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Directions: Often writers will address similar subjects, themes, or allusions. In many cases, theyview them in the same way, but in others they may approach them quite differently. In thefollowing two poems, William Blake and William Wordsworth have “London” as their title. In awell-organized essay, contrast and compare these two poems. Consider such literary elements astheme, speaker, diction, imagery, form, and tone.

London

Line I wander thro’ each charter’d street,Near where the charter’d Thames does flow,And mark in every face I meetMarks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every Man,In every Infant’s cry of fear,In every voice; in every ban,The mind-forg’d manacles I hear.

How the Chimney-sweeper’s cryEvery black’ning Church appalls,And the hapless Soldier’s sighRuns in blood down Palace walls.

But most thro’ midnight streets I hearHow the youthful Harlot’s curseBlasts the new born Infant’s tear,And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.

—William Blake

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London, 1802

Line Milton! thou should’st be living at this hour:England hath need of thee: she is a fenOf stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,Have forfeited their ancient English dowerOf inward happiness. We are selfish men:Oh! raise us up, return to us again;And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart:Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,So didst thou travel on life’s common way,In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heartThe lowliest duties on herself did lay.

—William Wordsworth



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Revise your essay usingpoints from the list that willstrengthen it.

You might have chosen to include the following points in your essaycomparing the two poems about London. Consider them as youperform your self-evaluation.


• Authors: Blake and Wordsworth; both lived in London; Blake wasborn before Wordsworth.

• Title: both “London;” titles define both the setting and subject

Genre

• Blake

• Lyric; strongly emotional; horrified and appalled

• Author is speaker.

• Point of view: first person

• Dramatic poem: speaker is walking through London makingobservations of its degradation; poem travels somewhere

• Wordsworth

• Sonnet

• Speaker: people of England

• Point of view: first person plural, note the words “We areselfish men”

• Intellectual approach, much less emotion

• Dramatic poem: calls upon Milton to resurrect spiritual well-being in England to restore England; appeal to Milton to returnto London, bring his life-giving force, return England to spiritualhealth

Form

• Blake

• Four stanzas of four lines: first stanza visualizes degradation;second hears degradation; third a combination; fourth the climax,life itself is poisoned

• Rhyme scheme: abab repeated each stanza

• Metric pattern: iambic tetrameter

• Form encourages an emotional accessibility

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• Wordsworth

• Sonnet; not classically Shakespearean in format

• Rhyme scheme, abbaabba; for octave; abbcac for sestet

• Metric pattern: iambic pentameter

• Form more formal; complements intellectual tone

Theme or Thesis

• Both authors are addressing the spiritual and physical deteriorationof London.

• Blake: city corrupted

• Wordsworth: city a marsh full of stagnant water

Sensory Images

• Blake

• Broad appeals to the reader’s senses. Sight: “And mark in everyface I meet,/Marks of weakness . . . woe”, “blood.” Sound: cries ofmen, infants, and chimney sweeps, hears a harlot and manacles

• The sensory images show the deterioration of the city and thedespair of the people.

• Wordsworth

• Limited appeal to the reader’s senses; appeal to intellect

Figurative Language

• Blake

• Uses less than Wordsworth

• Symbolism: “Man,” “Infant,” “chimney sweep,” “Harlot”

• Wordsworth

• Personification: England is personified as an individual to behelped by Milton.

• Metaphor: England compared to “stagnant water.” Miltoncompared to a star, the sea, and other elements in the sestet.

• Simile: soul like star, voice sounds like sea, pure as the nakedheavens

• Adds majesty to Milton


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Sound Devices

• Blake

• Repetition in the first stanza with “charter’d” and “mark.” Gives asense of urgency. Elsewhere, the word cry serves to emphasizethe state of mind of the people.

• Wordsworth

• Assonance: line 3 is an a sound

• Minor alliteration: “soul like a Star”

Style• Blake

• Simpler, more dramatic; appeals to the emotions

• Wordsworth

• Appeals more to the intellect. Wordsworth uses people’s feelingsfor Milton to inject some amount of emotional response. Blakeplays on words; “chartered,” “mark;” takes the reader to London

• Leaves the reader on the outside describing the deterioration,almost as a third party

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