For the Research Paper, you will choose a poem (and poet) to research and write about. (I chose “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost) To begin, research your poet, the time period in which they were writing, the literary movement they are part of. Reread the poem in light of the biographical and historical information and see if you can view it from new perspectives. Getting to know your poet and the context of their work will help you to better understand their work. However, this paper is NOT a biography. If you include any biography it should be minimal, unless you are doing a biographical reading of the poem. The focus of your paper should be on analyzing the poem(s) and the literary criticism about the poem. You will write a 5 page research paper in which you make an argument about a poem, and support your argument with quotes from the literary criticism and/or other sources. You will utilize a minimum of five sources: critical essays from the library database (you will be taught how to do this), at least one book, and .edu or .org websites. **Websites such as Wikipedia, Spark Notes, GradeSaver, Shmoop are NOT acceptable sources and will result in a failing grade on the assignment. Quotes and paraphrases must be cited in-text and on a Works Cited page. Papers missing these elements will be substantially marked down. https://bergen.libguides.com/c.php?g=123058 Here’s the link to the library research guide for accessing literary criticism. For each database, type in the title of your poem in the search bar. Some databases are better for some poems than others, so try all of the databases. Be sure to choose literary criticism (not overviews).
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