I’ve never written a paper that was completely made up of a close reading of a poem. Usually teachers assign several poems and I would have to choose one and analyze or elaborate on a theme of one or a couple of the poems. This was easier because writing an essay about a theme gives me more to write about. In this paper, where we only have one poem it’s difficult to write a lot about it, using only the words that the poet gives us . In my case, I chose “New York Poem” by Terrance Hayes and it has only 31 lines. It’s extremely short! I used it but it really made it harder for me to write my paper. Still the structure of the poem is interesting and Hayes makes it fun to read. I’m not good at analyzing or reading long poems so even though I knew that it would be hard to write about, I knew I’d rather write a paper about a unique poem that I actually like and can relate to.
I’ve never been good at close reading a poem. There are a lot of small details and nuances that I always miss. Rereading the poem helps but sometimes, often, it does nothing. Looking for literary devices helps me but I don’t think my first draft was a very good close reading of “New York Poem” so I hope my peers can help me edit and develop it. Reading other peoples’ papers during our peer editing actually helped me. I noticed points and literary devices that my peer used that I could also apply to my paper. I like the peer editing sessions and I can’t wait to read the comments my group will give me later on today.
This is late, I know! I’m really sorry.
