Essay on a Poet

The essay should begin with a brief statement that places the poet within the great dynamic and/or procession of 20th century American poetry. It should answer the implicit question, how does this poet fit (or perhaps not fit) within the canon? Who were or have been the poet's influences and, perhaps, whom has the poet influenced? To what school if any does the poet in some sense possibly belong? And so on. The essay should then (in a new paragraph) provide a brief biographical discussion, indicating significant events personal and artistic such as a major work or award (dates for these must be supplied). The second paragraph should begin by stating where exactly the poet was born and should end by listing, along with their respective dates, all major awards or honors the poet has received. The remainder of the essay should be devoted to an explanation of the poet’s work proper, showing its significance. All mentioning of literary works must be accompanied by their respective dates of publication (a work mentioned more than once does not need repeatedly to be dated). The essay should close with a brief bibliography of only the most significant secondary works.* At least one or two secondary works should be listed in Chicago Manual of Style Bibliography format; also, all prose quoted in the essay must be listed in the bibliography (having been cited in parenthetical, MLA fashion in the essay proper), poetry not  needing to be cited in the essay or in the bibliography following (although all the titles of all poems or books of poetry by the poet must be accompanied by a date of publication in parentheses). The essay should quote minimally** from at least one poem of the subject author, and the quote should if at all possible be presented along with at least a brief comment on it.

Do not use headers or footers or otherwise number your pages.

See sample essays at:
http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/poetessayshort.html  and  http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/poetessaylong.html

Essay on a Poem

The essay should begin with a brief statement that places the poem within the great dynamic and/or procession of 20th century American poetry. The essay should then analyze the poem, in doing so, where appropriate, connecting the poem or parts or aspects of it back to the essay’s opening statement. The essay should contain some close reading of the text.** All in all, the essay should point out the poem’s canonical significance and, if it has not done so otherwise, its artistic and perhaps social merits; it might also be appropriate to discuss the poem’s publication history (e.g., Mallarmé’s “Un coup de des,” when it was first published in Cosmopolis, did not completely follow his typographical specifications including the need for the text to traverse the book’s spine from a verso to a recto page — of course, this poem was not by an American, but what a great story, don’t you think?). Please keep in mind that the author of every poem to be discussed in a dedicated essay, in this volume, is treated in another dedicated essay (e.g., there will be an essay on Ezra Pound as well as on The Cantos); therefore you should not feel obligated to involve yourself in biographical and other related details of the poet’s life and work, since these will be covered elsewhere (but, just to be precise: you do not necessarily have to avoid such details) – the idea here is to avoid unnecessary redundancy. The essay should close with a brief bibliography of only the most significant secondary works.* All mentioning of literary works must be accompanied by their respective dates of publication (a work mentioned more than once does not need repeatedly to be dated).

Do not use headers or footers or otherwise number your pages.

See sample essay at:  http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/poemessay.html

Essay on a Topic

The essay should begin with a brief statement that places the topic within the great dynamic and/or procession of 20th century American poetry. Among other things, the essay should then point out the influence that this topic has enjoyed within the world of poetry (e.g., how did the Beat poetry movement change American poetry in general?). It may also be appropriate to provide, early on, the history of the topic's term (e.g., the term "Black Mountain" poetry derives from its origins at Black Mountain College). It is worth keeping in mind that, for several reasons, certain poets not born in the United States will not be the subject of individual essays; when possible, the greater American poetic sensibility should be evoked in a topic essay, obviously in essays like “Caribbean Influences,” “Canadian Influences,” and "European Influences," but also in other essays when appropriate, essays like, possibly, “Ars Poeticas,” “Cyberpoetry,” “Poetry Journals,” “Prosody and Free Verse,” and so on (i.e., the assumption here being that, say, cyberpoetry has not evolved strictly within the borders of the United States). Please keep in mind that your discussion, while it will inevitably include consideration of one or another poet, may overlap material in essays in this volume on individual poets and/or poems; to avoid redundancy, you should not feel obligated to provide otherwise unnecessary background for a poet, especially when that background has been provided elsewhere (cf. comments above in “Essay on a Poem”). The essay should close with a brief bibliography of only the most significant secondary works.* All mentioning of literary works must be accompanied by their respective dates of publication (a work mentioned more than once does not need repeatedly to be dated).

Do not use headers or footers or otherwise number your pages.

See sample essay at:  http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/topicessay.html
 

Citation: Your bibliography should follow Chicago Manual of Style format. While your bibliography is meant to list only the most significant secondary works, if you have cited a secondary work in your essay then it must appear in full bibliographical description at the end of your essay. Your citations within your essay proper should be parenthetical and otherwise should follow MLA format.

* The bibliography is included in the word count. Thus, if your bibliography is 150 words in length, for example, then your 500 word essay is actually 350 words of discussion.

** If permission for quotation becomes necessary, it will be the responsibility of the essay’s author to secure it, and any possible costs for the permission will have to be sustained by the author. The Facts on File policy regarding fair use of copyrighted material, as regards poetry, is that in a poem of any substantial length no more than two continuous lines of verse can be quoted directly (obviously, in a poem like, say, Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro” quoting two lines will mean quoting almost the entire poem, assuming that the poem’s title is a part of the poem, a dangerous assumption, perhaps). You must use your judgment about fair use. But if you wish to quote extensively then you will have to secure the permission. Please keep in mind that much depends on how a quotation is used: quoting two lines of a short poem to use as an epigraph, for example, would require permission, but quoting two lines as part of a critical discussion could be considered fair use. Of course, questions of fair use also consider how much of the total work is quoted; if an entire poem is two lines long and the writer wants to quote it in its entirety, it's best to seek permission. If he or she is quoting two lines from a longer work in a critical discussion, this kind of quotation is likely to be considered fair use. You can always ask if you’re unsure about when or how to seek permission. In general, it is a prudent policy to keep quotations to a minimum.

N.B.: Please keep in mind that this volume is meant to be a first stop for a student of 20th century American poetry; it is not a book for specialists. The primary readership for this book is the lower-division college student and the precocious high schooler. You need to be aware of what this reader probably will, and will not, know. You should keep this in mind when choosing what to discuss and how to discuss it. Scholarly/theoretical terminology should be kept to a minimum, and any terms or references a student is unlikely to know should be briefly defined or explained in context.

SUBMITTING YOUR ESSAY: Essays should be submitted via e-mail as an attachment, and the file should include your name, address and eddress. The title of your essay—e.g., William Bronk (1918-1999)— should be in boldface; if the essay is on a poet then the poet's dates should be included after the title in parentheses, and if the essay is on a poem then the date of initial publication of the poem should follow, in parentheses, the title.

Do not use headers or footers or otherwise number your pages.

The preferable word-processing program is Word for a pc. In no case should an essay be submitted in a Mac format. (Please make sure you are not sending an attachment with a virus.)
 

Please do not hesitate to e-mail with any questions regarding submission or anything else: kimmelman@njit.edu.