English Writing Critique Essay

Writing critique essay on a poem (poems attached). 1,000 words /Double spaced/12-point type

Second Major Assignment: Writing a Critique

Sometimes artists use the work of other artists as a source of inspiration. In this assignment, you will choose a poem written by a poet who was inspired by another artist’s work. Your task is to analyze the poem and determine what the poet is saying about the original painting or movie that inspired the poem.

Purpose:

The purpose of this paper is to test your ability to examine the structure and language of the poem, to explicate the importance of its lines to the overall meaning of the poem, and to evaluate the poem and work of art that inspired it.  This paper will also test your ability to do background research on different artists and their work.

• “Monet’s Waterlilies (Links to an external site.)” by Robert Hayden – based on Monet’s “Waterlilies”
•  “The Starry Night (Links to an external site.)” by Anne Sexton – based on “The Starry Night” by Van Gogh
•              “The Man with the Blue Guitar (Links to an external site.)” by Wallace Stevens – based on “The Old Guitarist”  by  Picasso. (Note: You are only required to analyze the first ten stanzas.)
• “Nude Descending a Staircase (Links to an external site.)” by X. J. Kennedy – based on “Nude Descending    a Staircase” by Marcel Duchamp

 Poems about Movies and Actors

•  “Chaplinesque (Links to an external site.)” by Hart Crane – based on Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp movies
•  “Early Cinema (Links to an external site.)” by Elizabeth Alexander – based on The Sheik staring Rudolph Valentino
•  “Dear John Wayne (Links to an external site.)” by Louise Erdrich – based on John Wayne’s westerns like   Stagecoach and Fort Apache