Final Paper

LNG 201
Prof. G. Steinberg

Final Paper

Choose one of the poems below and analyze it using the linguistic concepts and tools that you have learned about in LNG 201:

Robert Frost (1874-1963)
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Ted Hughes (1930-1998)
Thistles

Against the rubber tongues of cows and the hoeing hands of men
Thistles spike the summer air
Or crackle open under a blue-black pressure.

Every one a revengeful burst
Of resurrection, a grasped fistful
Of splintered weapons and Icelandic frost thrust up

From the underground stain of a decayed Viking.
They are like pale hair and the gutturals of dialects.
Every one manages a plume of blood.

Then they grow grey, like men.
Mown down, it is a feud. Their sons appear,
Stiff with weapons, fighting back over the same ground.

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000)
Kitchenette Building

We are things of dry hours and the involuntary plan,
Grayed in, and gray. “Dream” makes a giddy sound, not strong
Like “rent,” “feeding a wife,” “satisfying a man.”

But could a dream send up through onion fumes
Its white and violet, fight with fried potatoes
And yesterday’s garbage ripening in the hall,
Flutter, or sing an aria down these rooms

Even if we were willing to let it in,
Had time to warm it, keep it very clean,
Anticipate a message, let it begin?

We wonder. But not well! not for a minute!
Since Number Five is out of the bathroom now,
We think of lukewarm water, hope to get in it.

Compose a short paper (5-7 pages) in which you argue a clear, specific, and interesting thesis about the way in which language functions in the poem to convey meaning and effect. Your paper should have a focused thesis about the poem and its meaning’s relation to the language properties that we have studied this semester. You should not simply list different, random properties of language as they appear in the poem. You should have a clear focus, and you should relate everything you discuss to your main focus.

At the same time, however, your essay should show me the breadth and depth of what you have learned this semester. This is the culminating experience of the semester in this class, a comprehensive and integrative assignment that is asking you to review everything you’ve learned. In essence, it is a cumulative take-home final exam. If you focus on just one property of language (e.g., syntax), your essay will not have adequate breadth and strength.

Some recommendations on how to prepare for the paper:

Transcribe the poem into the IPA. Analyze the sounds in the poem. Are there interesting patterns of consonant sounds within particular lines or phrases or sections? Are there interesting patterns of vowel sounds? How do the sounds in the poem reflect the meaning of the lines? How do they contribute to the poem's overall effect? Remember to talk about sounds – not spelling. Submit your phonetic transcription of the poem as an appendix to your paper.
Look at the way that the poet uses syntax and inflection. Is the syntax of the poem simple and straightforward (such that you can diagram its sentences with the rudimentary skills that you learned in class)? Does the poet use transformations of normal syntax to convey meaning or create an effect? Does the poem use syntactic ambiguity? Is the syntax complex and difficult? If so, how does that complexity/difficulty add to the meaning and effect of the poem? How does the poem use tense and other forms of inflection to convey its central point?
Look at the way that the poet uses the lexicon, word-formation, and semantics. What kinds of words does the poet use? Are they predominately Anglo-Saxon words? Norman French words? Latin and Greek borrowings from the Renaissance? borrowings from the British imperial period? words of a particular American dialect? Are the words primarily simple roots or the product of derivation and other word-formation processes? Are they predominately hyponyms as opposed to superordinates (or vice versa)? hyponyms of the same superordinate? synonyms? antonyms? Does the poem use lexical ambiguity, entailment, presupposition? How do the choice of words and use of semantics in the poem contribute to the poem’s meaning?
Use the methods of discourse analysis to explore the poem. How does the poem use and/or help you to resolve syntactic ambiguity, ambiguous pronoun reference, negatives, passive sentences, heavy NPs, and the like? What is the Flesch Index for readability in the poem? What schemata and scripts are required to ease the reader’s comprehension? What elements of cohesion are present? How does the poet use thematic roles and/or given and new information to convey meaning?

Personally, I think it would be very difficult to write a good paper that does not look at sound as an important element of the poem, but DO NOT discuss all the linguistic topics listed above in your paper, and relate the topics that you do discuss to one another by focusing on your thesis about the poem’s meaning. How do syntax, sound, and word choice work together to convey the poem’s central point, for example? Or how do sound, the use of given and new information, lexical cohesion, and readability function to create a particular effect in the poem?

If you prefer to write about a different poem from the assigned ones above, you may do so, but you must get approval from me first for the poem that you wish to use.

Click here to go to the syllabus.