Writing the Poetry Paper ENG 142 Writing, Research, & Literature

Organization Introduction (contains thesis statement) Thesis = Your stance in an argument. A Thesis Statement is not: Vague An accepted fact Ambivalent = Stating both sides of argument. In the form of a question A broad topic Body Support Use specific examples from the poem (quote) Conclusion

Thesis Ideas First, it helps to have a thesis in mind before selecting a poem. You may love a poem, but not be able to find it in the anthology we’re using. Read as many of the poems in the collection as you can and you're more likely to find one that you can develop a thesis from. What is a theme in your poem? What symbols does it have? How do the symbols show deeper meaning? What part of the human condition does the poem address? Compare two pieces. Do not merely compare two things (two poem/song and poem, etc.). If you compare two pieces, only do so in order to support your side of an argument (your thesis statement).

Sample Thesis Statement Remember, a thesis statement is something you are asserting. You make a statement that you will support. The first example is NOT what you want to do as a thesis statement and will only result in a failing paper. The second is a good example of a thesis. This paper will compare the poem “A Red, Red Rose” by Robert Burns and the song “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” by Miley Cyrus. They are similar in some ways and very different in other ways. [This is a bad thesis statement because it has the incorrect name for the songwriter, and because it just says it is comparing, without any reason for the comparison.] The image of the rose often shows love and beauty in poetry, as seen in Burns’s poem, “A Red, Red Rose,” but it can also be used to show the pain of loss and grief, as in Brett Michaels’s song, “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.”

Using Quotes Use quotations to support your argument. Keep quotations short (try to avoid long, block quotes). Separate lines in a poem with a slash (/) [There was a young man from Peru/Whose limerick stopped at line two.] Provide context for the quote. Having a quote by itself with no explanation of why it is there is pointless and will not be counted as part of your paper. This is called orphaning the quote or dropping it. Make sure the quote is relevant. Cite quotes (cite by poet's last name and line number).

Quoting From a Poem Separate lines with a slash (/) Cite by line number Cite the name of the poet, not the editor of the anthology. If using a song, cite the name of the songwriter, not the performer. Put poem or song title in quotation marks—NOT ITALICS Avoid large block quotes. Example: Meaning can be drawn from context, as shown in “Jabberwocky.” When the hero is hunting, “And, as in uffish thought he stood,/The Jabberwock with eyes of flame/came wiffling through the tulgey wood” (Carroll 13-15), “uffish” sounds hesitant, while “tulgey” sounds sinister.

The Conclusion The conclusion is more than restating the thesis. The conclusion's primary function is to summarize concisely a paper's major points, And it should take the paper's main idea a step further. It should look beyond the paper's limitations and extend its insights Don't use such phrases as "in conclusion" or "to sum up” Don't try to be profound and claim too much. Don't undermine your own argument by contradicting yourself or pointing out that you could be wrong or that it’s just your opinion. Save humility for other times in your life.

Sample Paper Name Class Date “ Streets of Heaven” and “On My First Son”: Lyrical Words on the Loss of a Child The song “Streets of Heaven” written by Sherrié Austin, Paul Duncan, and Al Kasha [names of the songwriters] and Ben Jonson's poem “On My First Son” are very emotional works and both have a universal theme of sorrow and anger as a result of the death of a loved one. Both the song and the poem represent the universal message of the grief and anger that only a parent can feel when losing a child. When someone loses a loved one, he or she is typically distraught, angry, and confused, especially when the loved one is a child and the death is unexpected. The song “Streets of Heaven” and the poem “On My First Son” are similar in the sense that they both have a theme reflecting grief and anger over the loss of a loved one. In the poem “On My First Son,” Ben Jonson writes about the loss of his son and expresses his grief through his writing by opening the poem with the words “Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy/ My sin was too much hope of thee, lov’d boy” (1-2) [Lines from the poem (or song) are numbered in the citation and separated by a slash for the line break.]. This particular line emphasizes Jonson’s profound grief over the loss of his son. The specific words “child of my right hand, my sin was too much hope of thee” particularly introduce the idea that Jonson feels guilty about his son’s death because he believes that since he had expected so much from his son and that he signified the importance of the role his child would play when he got older, he sinned. Jonson considered having such high hopes for his son and expecting so much from him to be a sin, and for sinning, he lost his son so early in the child’s life.

A similar idea of grief over the death of a child is presented in the song “Streets of Heaven.” The parent in the song is witnessing his or her child withering away, little by little and expresses his or her grief through the words “This sleeping child between us may not make it through the night/ I’m fighting back the tears as she fights for her life” (Austin, Duncan, and Kasha 3-4). The parent in the song is trying to stay strong for his or her little girl, for he or she is “trying to fight back tears.” In the end, however, the parent accepts the fact that the little girl is not going to make it and begins the process of letting go. Both Jonson and the parent in the song express their grief for their dying or already deceased children, representing the universal them of grief and sorrow resulting from the death of a loved one. A similar idea of grief over the death of a child is presented in the song “Streets of Heaven.” The parent in the song is witnessing his or her child withering away, little by little and expresses his or her grief through the words “This sleeping child between us may not make it through the night/ I’m fighting back the tears as she fights for her life” (Austin, Duncan, and Kasha 3-4). The parent in the song is trying to stay strong for his or her little girl, for he or she is “trying to fight back tears.” In the end, however, the parent accepts the fact that the little girl is not going to make it and begins the process of letting go. Both Jonson and the parent in the song express their grief for their dying or already deceased children, representing the universal them of grief and sorrow resulting from the death of a loved one. In addition to the fact that both the song and the poem reflect the loss of a child in particular, there are other significant similarities between the two that emphasize the theme of grief over the loss of a loved one. Ironically, both the little girl mentioned in the song and Jonson’s son pass away at the mere age of seven, for Jonson mentions “Seven years thou wert lent to me” (3) and the song mentions “She’s too young to be on her own/ Barely just turned seven” (Austin, Duncan, and Kasha 10-11). The fact that both the song and the poem emphasize the death of the children to occur at age seven may be simply a coincidence, or it could provide even more support for the universal theme of grief and anger over the loss of a loved one that the two works share. The fact that the authors mention seven to be the age of the children’s death intensifies the feeling of grief because it signifies the innocence of the children. At the age of seven, children are just shy of reaching their adolescent years and are still considered to be at the prime of their lives. Death at the age of seven, therefore, intensifies the grief because the child still had so much of his or her life to live and did not get to experience all of the wonderful things life has to offer. When someone passes away because of old age, of course the family experiences grief over the loss, but they have the pleasure of knowing that the deceased lived his or her life to the fullest and had a chance to experience all it had to offer. When a child dies so young, not only does the death instill an immense amount of grief in the family, but it also arouses anger and confusion. In addition to the fact that both the song and the poem reflect the loss of a child in particular, there are other significant similarities between the two that emphasize the theme of grief over the loss of a loved one. Ironically, both the little girl mentioned in the song and Jonson’s son pass away at the mere age of seven, for Jonson mentions “Seven years thou wert lent to me” (3) and the song mentions “She’s too young to be on her own/ Barely just turned seven” (Austin, Duncan, and Kasha 10-11). The fact that both the song and the poem emphasize the death of the children to occur at age seven may be simply a coincidence, or it could provide even more support for the universal theme of grief and anger over the loss of a loved one that the two works share. The fact that the authors mention seven to be the age of the children’s death intensifies the feeling of grief because it signifies the innocence of the children. At the age of seven, children are just shy of reaching their adolescent years and are still considered to be at the prime of their lives. Death at the age of seven, therefore, intensifies the grief because the child still had so much of his or her life to live and did not get to experience all of the wonderful things life has to offer. When someone passes away because of old age, of course the family experiences grief over the loss, but they have the pleasure of knowing that the deceased lived his or her life to the fullest and had a chance to experience all it had to offer. When a child dies so young, not only does the death instill an immense amount of grief in the family, but it also arouses anger and confusion.

An interesting contrast between the poem “On My First Son” and the song “Streets of Heaven” is the reflection of anger as a result of the death of a loved one. Both the poem and the song initially focus on the universal theme of grief resulting from the death of a loved one, particularly a child, but the writers of the song “Streets of Heaven” incorporate the theme of anger and confusion as a result of the passing of a loved one while the poem “On My First Son” introduces the idea of envying death. In the song “Streets of Heaven,” the writers express anger over the death of a child through the words “Lord, don’t you know she’s my angel/You got plenty of your own/And I know you hold a place for her/But she’s already got a home/Well I don’t know if you’re listenin’/But praying is all that’s left to do/So I ask you Lord have mercy, you lost a son once too” (Austin, Duncan, and Kasha 25-31). Through these words, the writer expresses the anger and confusion that comes with the death of a child, especially by stating that one day she “will be God’s little girl forever” and that He already has “enough angels of His own.” While the song focuses on grief and anger as a result of death, the poem focuses on the author’s curiosity of death in addition to grief. The author of the poem “On My First Son” expresses grief for the loss of his child initially in the poem, but then goes on to explain his curiosity of death by stating “For why will man lament the state he should envy/To have so soon ‘scaped world’s and flesh’s rage/And if no other misery, yet age” (Jonson 5-8). Through these words, Jonson is expressing his confusion with death and the process of grief by stating that we should not fear death, but envy it. He believes we should envy it because death is an escape from one’s problems in the world, and if not that, it is an escape from old age.

Both the poem and the song focus primarily on the overall theme of grief over the death of a loved one, particularly a child. Each work does however, introduce very contrasting points regarding death as well ranging from envying death to being confused and angry about it. Losing a loved one is never easy for anyone. Death instills immense grief, sorrow, anger, and even confusion in the hearts of those who lost. Ben Jonson’s poem “On My First Son” and Sherrié Austin’s song “Streets of Heaven” both reflect the universal theme of grief and sorrow resulting from the loss of a loved one. Both works have several similarities when it comes to expressing the theme of grief and sorrow, the greatest one being the death of a child, but they differ when it comes to particular feelings about death. Of course many people, like the writers of “Streets of Heaven,” may have anger and confusion as a result of the death of a loved one—that is perfectly normal. An interesting question that Jonson introduces in his poem, however, is should death really be something we envy?

Works Cited Austin, Sherrié, Duncan, Paul, and Kasha, Al. “Streets of Heaven.” Streets of Heaven. Broken Bow, MP3. Jonson, Ben. “On My First Son.” 100 Best-Loved Poems. Ed. Philip Smith. New York: Dover, Print. Note the Works Cited is just as in a literature paper. The entries are in alphabetical order, they are formatted with a hanging indent format. The authors are cited, not the performers or the editor of the anthology.

Appendix—”Streets of Heaven” Lyrics Streets Of Heaven Lyrics Hello God it's me again 2 am room 304 visiting hours are over time for our bedside tug-o-war this sleeping child between us might not may it through the night I'm fighting back the tears as she fights for her life Well it must be kind of crowded on the streets of Heaven so tell me what do you need her for Don't you know one day she'll be your little girl forever but right now I need her so much more She's much to young to be on her own barley just turned seven So who will hold her hand when she crosses the streets of Heaven Tell me God do you remember the wishes that she made As she blew out the candles on her last birthday cake she wants to ride a pony when she's big enough She wants to marry her daddy when she's all grown up

Streets Of Heaven Lyrics--Continued Well it must be kind of crowded on the streets of Heaven so tell me what do you need her for Don't you know one day she'll be your little girl forever but right now I need her so much more She's much to young to be on her own barley just turned seven So who will hold her hand when she crosses the streets of Heaven Lord don't you know she's my angel you've got plenty of your own And i know you hold a place for her but she already got a home well I don't know if your listening but prayin's all that's left to do So I asked you Lord have mercy You've lost a son once too And it must be kind of crowded on the streets of Heaven so tell me what do you need her for Don't you know one day she'll be your little girl forever but right now I need her so much more Lord I know that once you've made up your mind there's no use in beggin' So if you take her with you today will you make sure she looks both ways And would you hold her hand when she crosses the streets of Heaven The streets of Heaven