Department of English (Bloemfontein) 1

ENGL2614:
Close Reading Workshop: The Elegy

Designed by

Dr Rick de Villiers
2023

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Close Reading Workshop

The purpose of the Close Reading Workshop (CRW)

The CRW will help you write a literary-critical essay on the poetic genre known as the elegy. It
prompts you to think about specific aspects both of the elegy and of academic writing skills. In
planning and writing your essay, you’ll progress through four phases before finally submitting your
assignment.

Rest assured that you will be guided through the content in a structured and sensibly-paced manner
during your LF consultations. Please note, however, that independent study and discipline are
extremely important. To make the most of this guide, it is essential that you move carefully through
each of the phases and answer all the questions.

A few rules

 Bring this guide with you to every tutorial, every time.

 Attend ALL tutorials.
 Engage your LF and peers in thoughtful discussion. Don’t be daunted, be excited: this is a
friendly platform where you can test your interpretation of literary texts against those of
others. You’ll also pick up valuable tips and strategies for writing literary essays, so come
prepared and don’t miss out.

NB: The steps and questions in this CRW are meant to guide you towards a full and considered essay.
You are therefore required to write down all your responses in a personal workbook
so that you can draw on your own observations and insights when writing the final draft. Don’t skip
any of the questions or stages!

CRW schedule

Date Tutorials Self-study

Week 1 No tutorials (start of lectures) Study guide
Week 2 Introduction to tutorials and the CRW Poems for elegy essay (4)
Week 3 Phase 1a Phase 1b
Week 4 Phase 2 Phase 2

Week 5 Phase 3a Phase 3b

***Easter break***
Week 6 Phase 3b (marking) Essay: first draft

Week 7 Phase 4 Essay: final draft

Week 8 No tuts; ESSAY DUE 18 April

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Assignment Question
Write a critical essay of 1000-1200 words in which you compare and contrast Adrienne
Rich’s ‘Power’ with either Housman’s ‘Sinner’s Rue’ or Newgrass’s ‘R.I.P’. You should
address:

 how the respective poems conform (or do not conform) to the generic expectations
for an elegy;
 the poems’ formal features;
 the attitude of the speakers towards their elegised subject.

Further instructions
 Deadline: 18 April at 5pm.
 Wordcount: 1000-1200 words (excluding bibliography).
 You must refer to two relevant scholarly sources.
 Front page: name, student number, ‘Elegy assignment’, length of your essay.
 Font: Times New Roman
 Spacing: double (if your essay is not double-spaced, you will be penalised by -3%)
 Submit the essay via Turn-It-In; the link is on Blackboard (‘ASSESSMENTS → Essays & CRWs →
Essay 2: The Elegy)
 Your essay must have a Similarity Index below 25%. But please remember that an SI of below
25% is no guarantee against plagiarism. Tools other than Turn-It-in may be used to find
plagiarism.

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Phase 1a: Unpacking the question

In your ALG group, discuss what the question is asking you to do. Address the following prompts:

a. What the question is testing is…

 Make a list of everything that comes to mind. Consider both the subject
knowledge and the subject skills being assessed.
 Discuss how this essay is different from/similar to essays you wrote in first-year.
Follow this up by stringing all your points together in a paragraph.
 Write a sentence on each the following key terms: ‘compare and contrast’,
‘generic expectations’, and ‘formal features’.

b. My lecturer wants me to demonstrate…

 Reread the ‘Outcomes’ section on p. 3 of your course Study Guide.
 Explain which of these outcomes link up with this assignment. Ask yourself: how
will my essay demonstrate competence in regard to these outcomes?

c. The question links with our class discussions by… (self-study)

 Go over your class notes and materials for the poetry.
 Rewatch the video on ‘Thinking about Form – intro’. Note down any general
strategies for approaching poetry.

d. The purpose of an essay is to…

 Draw a mind-map of words you associate with an essay. These should reflect 1)
your feelings, and 2) features of the form.
 Discuss how an essay differs in its aims from other types of writing. Provide
contrasting examples.
 Discuss how an essay differs in its form (language) from other types of writing.
Provide contrasting examples.

e. The following types of professionals need good writing skills…

 List examples.
 Discuss your desired career and why good analytical and communication skills
will be valuable.

Workbook
Complete each of the sentences (a-e) at home in your workbook.
Write at least two sentences for each.

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Phase 1b: Selecting your second poem

First steps
 Reread ALL three poems on the given list twice BEFORE your tutorial.
 Reread the poems a third time in class, but this time make notes as you go.
 Keeping the question in mind, identify the poem which you will compare and contrast with
Rich’s poem.

Final step (workbook)

Complete the prompts below in your workbook. Doing this will help you flesh out how your chosen
poems meet these criteria.

a. Personal interest
I like* ‘Poem X’ because…
I like ‘Poem Y’ because…

When you have a choice, it’s always a good idea to write about texts that interest you. You
might be drawn in by a phrase or image, or you might relate to the ideas expressed.
Whatever it is, be sensitive to your own reaction.

If responding to your gut feeling is the first step, the next would be to articulate your
response to yourself. In other words, explain why you are drawn to the texts you choose. To
complete the prompt above, identify two things about each of the poems that jump out at
you, and be as specific as possible (so: quote, then explain).

*Note that our reaction to a given piece of literature does not always have to be positive. You may
choose to write on a poem because you strongly disagree with it or because it affects you negatively.
Despite this discomfort, it is always more fruitful to engage with art that moves you (one way or
another) than to discuss art that leaves you cold.

b. Comparability
These two poems speak to each other in the following ways…

Here you can identify similarities or differences (or similarities AND differences) between
‘Power’ and the other poem you’ve chosen. They might be alike in voice or tone, or perhaps
they deploy similar images. If you’re comparing and contrasting, you might say they differ in
their resolution of the problem, or that their approach to mourning is divergent.

Consider the following elements before writing up your response:

 theme (love, death, time, immortality, artistic expression, etc.)
 form and technique (set structure, use of stanzas, rhyme, rhythm, etc.)
 imagery
 tone, voice, mood

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c. Relevance
These two poems address the question because they…
Now comes the ‘so-what’ part. What makes this comparison compelling? How does it teach
us more about a) the poems themselves and b) the elegy as genre?.

Self-check: introduction and thesis statement

Now step back. What you have is the body of your essay, in embryo. This means that while it still
needs development and clear links, you do have some idea of what it is you are going to address. This puts you
in a position to write a first-draft introduction with a thesis statement.

To start, re-read everything you have written and identify those key points that you want to highlight in your
introduction. Remember that your introduction sets the focus (thesis statement) and coordinates (roadmap) for
the rest of the essay. It is important to tick the following boxes:

 Do I address the question?

This doesn’t mean merely repeating the terms of the question, but showing that you have brought your
own interpretation to bear on them.

 Do I provide a roadmap?
Say specifically how you will address the key terms. What will you focus on?

 Does my introduction demonstrate an understanding of the two poems in question?

Can you convey in no more than two sentences (total) why these poems are elegies and why they serve
to answer the question?

Phase 2: Close reading

Close reading means paying attention to form and content, to both themes and verbal texture of a
text. How does the content link up with the form? Can you connect the ‘what’ of the poem to its
‘how’? These are the questions that drive a careful literary analysis.

Reading poetry: general questions and strategies

Below are some questions and prompts that will help you engage with each poem on its own terms.
While you will be writing a comparative essay, it is important to respond to each poem as a
singularity. That means that one poem cannot be reduced to another, and that differences shouldn’t
be smoothed away. Yes, you are expected to point out what is similar between your chosen poems,
but you are also required to be sensitive to what makes them unique.

First encounter
 Read each poem twice: first silently, then aloud.
 Look up any unfamiliar words (www.oed.com).
 Number the lines.
 Return to the poems and note what you find most interesting about them.

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Subject matter & themes

 What is the poem about? Read through the poem and make sense of what is being said.
 Is it a story (narrative), or does it deal with a private emotion or experience (lyric)?
 What are the main themes?

Voice
 Who is speaking? Is it an identifiable persona whose views are not necessarily those of the
poet, or an unidentified speaker?
 Is it told subjectively or objectively?
 What is the speaker’s tone? What words convey this?
 Is someone specifically being addressed (apostrophe), is it a solitary rumination (someone
thinking alone)?
 Is there anything noteworthy about the language and diction? Is the language ornate,
difficult, direct, etc.?

Structure and pattern

 Map out the rhyme scheme (abab, etc.).
 Is there a discernible rhyme-scheme? Is there a significant connection between the rhyming
words?
 Plot the rhythm (unstressed: ͝ ; stressed: /).
 How many syllables are there in a line? How many stresses? Can you identify the metre
(iambic pentameter, trochaic tetrameter, etc.)?
 What is the effect of the rhythm?
 Is the poem divided into stanzas? How many lines are there in each stanza? Is there a
connection between the stanzas?
 Is there a progression of thought between the stanzas?
 Can you identify any formulas or set forms (i.e. sonnet, ballad, quatrain, couplet, etc.)
 How are the lines punctuated? Is flow created through enjambment, or are the lines slowed
down by commas, full stops, semi-colons, etc.?

Devices & imagery

 What poetic devices (metaphor, simile, synecdoche, metonymy, personification, symbolism,
etc.) are used?
 What is suggested through the images? What are the connotations?
 Does the use of imagery correlate to the tone, mood, & themes of the poem?

Elegiac elements
Re-read your chosen poems and class notes on the Elegy. Determine whether there are any symbols
or images that are
 traditional in the context of mourning
 unexpected in the context of mourning.

Articulate your thoughts in two paragraphs, one for each poem.

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Phase 3a: secondary reading

In this section you will read and respond to critical essays on the elegy as a poetic genre (Blackboard
→ Course Content → Elegy) before answering the questions. These do two things: they expand your
foundational knowledge of the elegy and they model good academic writing.

Essay 1: Michael Hurley and Michael O’Neill – ‘Elegy’ (abbreviated)

a. The authors quote two lines of verse before starting their essay: this is known as an
epigraph.1 An epigraph draws on another text to import meaning into the current text, even
before we start reading it. In other words, it frames the current discussion. In this case,
Hurley and O’Neill quote from John Milton’s famous pastoral elegy, ‘Lycidas’.

i. Consult Abrams’s Glossary of Literary Terms (on Blackboard) and provide a definition
of ‘pastoral elegy’.
ii. Read Milton’s ‘Lycidas’ (on Blackboard) and write a short summary of the poem (4-5
sentences).
iii. Explain how the quoted lines ‘frame’ this essay. What do we expect the authors to
say, given that they quote these lines?

b. Paragraph 1, p. 100.

i. What is the central idea of this paragraph?

ii. Quote three words that have connotations with ‘elegy’ in its more modern sense.

c. Paragraph 3, p. 101. The writers suggest that elegists are often concerned with tradition. In
other words, they are aware of other poems that have similarly dealt with the question of
mourning and loss. With this in mind, complete the following statement by supplying a
fragment quotation from the paragraph.

i. Elegists often show their awareness of tradition by connecting to ‘__________’.

ii. When is it appropriate to use 1) a fragment quotation or 2) full quotation (paragraph
or sentences)?

d. The writers list several ‘classical tropes’ (p. 101) associated with the elegy.

i. List the ones that are relevant to your chosen poems and explain your selection.

e. Re-read the first paragraph in the ‘Modern Elegy’ section (p. 116). The authors quote
another critic on the elegy here.

i. Who is this other critic?

ii. What is his view?
iii. Why do the authors cite him, in your opinion?

f. Refer to the last paragraph on p. 118.

i. Is there a particular form associated with the modern elegy?

ii. Support your answer by incorporating fragment quotes from this paragraph into
your own statement.

g. General
1
Because the lines are indented, they do not need to be in quotation marks.

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i. What do you think is the purpose of this essay? Is it to give readers a general
introduction to the elegy, or to provide a close analysis of a particular poem?
ii. Consider your assignment question. In what ways will your essay be similar to Hurley
and O’Neill’s or differ from theirs?
iii. Write down two things that you’ve learnt from the essay.
iv. Identify any phrases and insights that might help you write your essay. In other
words, which arguments support your own?

Essay 2: Karen Weisman – ‘Introduction’ to The Oxford Handbook of Elegies

a. In her opening paragraph, Weisman points to a coincidence between our experience of loss
and inability to express that loss. This leads her to the observation that ‘the limits of poetic
utterance have surfaced as recurrent motifs in elegy throughout history’ (p. 1).

i. Why do you think the elegy presents a paradoxical tension between silence and
expression?

b. Towards the end of the paragraph (p. 2), Weisman quotes Samuel Johnson’s ‘famous
complaint’ about the elegy: ‘Where there is leisure for fiction, there is little grief.’

i. What does Johnson mean by this?

ii. Explain what ‘fiction’ refers to in this context.
iii. Do you agree with Johnson’s complaint?

c. ‘Of course, “how can it be?” serves as both the persistent question and the stubbornly
unanswerable demand that underlies much of the elegiac tradition’ (p. 4).

i. Why do you think the question, ‘how can it be?’, is important to the elegy?
ii. What other emotions, other than sadness and grief, are likely to come out of a
poetry that deals with loss?
iii. The ‘how can it be?’ question is accusatory. Who might it accuse?

d. ‘The propriety of asking questions about its own propriety becomes part of its circularity,
and that circularity slowly emerges as one of the elegy’s signatures’ (p. 5).

i. Propriety has to do with behaving correctly in a particular situation. What could

make the elegy an ‘improper’ response to death? (Think back to what was said in the
lecture about the ‘economic problem’ of elegy.)
ii. How do the ‘questions about its own propriety’ redeem or rescue the elegy from
impropriety?

e. Reflect on Weisman’s essay as a whole.

i. Write down two things that you’ve learnt from the essay.
ii. Identify any phrases and insights that might help you write your essay. In other
words, which arguments support your own?

Phase 4: writing your essay

Step 1: The first-draft

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Having worked your way through the phases, you now have enough material to write a first draft.
This material includes: your own observations and insights, quotations that support those insights,
and scholarly criticism that either lends weight to your insights or provides points to disagree with.

It is important to realise that this material, however, is still in rough shape. You will therefore need
to impose structure, both at a macro and at a micro level.

Macro level
 Introduction
o Thesis statement
 A good introduction doesn’t merely restate the question, but makes a clear
point (thesis statement) which the rest of the essay will serve to
demonstrate and support.
 In a sentence, write down your thesis statement.
o Roadmap
 The thesis statement should be accompanied by a brief outline of the ways
in which you will support it. It is not sufficient to restate the question (eg.
‘In this essay I will look at the elegy’s paradoxes…’). This is simply too
generic.
 But in order for you to be more specific, you’ll have to draft the major
sections of the essay before you can supply the roadmap. In other words,
write a rough draft of the essay (Step 2 below), then return to the
introduction and supply your roadmap.
 Body
o What are the big sections of my essay? (The assignment question should guide you
here, and so too your introduction).
o Do I treat the two poems in a balanced way? In other words: do the poems receive
the same amount of attention?
 Conclusion
o Can I tie these big sections into a concise conclusion without merely repeating the
introduction?
o In other words, has the analysis in the body of my essay shaped the terms of the
introduction in a new way?

Micro level
 Does each paragraph have a clear topic sentence?
 Does each sentence in a given paragraph serve its topic sentence? (Is everything relevant to
the big claim you make at the start of that paragraph?)
 Is there internal evidence to support my claims? Do I quote from the text?
 Is there external evidence to support my claims? Do I quote from scholarly sources?
 Is there a clear progression of thought between paragraphs? (Do your arguments follow
each other in a logical way? Do you provide linking words that help us see the connection?)

With these questions in mind, write the first draft of your essay.

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Step 2: polishing your draft

After you’ve written your first draft, set it aside for a day. When you return, re-read it carefully and
critically. Use the following prompts and questions to assess where your essay can be improved:

Tone
 Use the present tense
 Remove any informal phrases and contractions (can’t, won’t, I’ll, etc.)
 Delete expressions of personal opinion. Eg. ‘I feel that the poem is very depressing’. You
should make your claims as objectively as you can: ‘With its many references to darkness,
the poem conveys a sense of depression’.
 Cut all evaluative phrases: ‘beautiful language’, ‘masterly prose’. Remember that an essay is
interpretive, not evaluative.

Answer the ‘so what’ question

 This means you need to explain why something is important. Your observations should be
turned into insights:
o Observation: ‘Wordsworth’s poem, “The World is Too Much with Us”, uses a
traditional Petrarchan sonnet structure.’
o Insight/thesis: ‘In “The World is Too Much With Us”, Wordsworth uses the
traditional Petrarchan sonnet form to present a conflict between nature’s
abundance and humanity’s destructive consumption.’

Evidence
 Have you provided support for the claims you make? In other words, have you quoted
from the primary text?
 Have you engaged with criticism either to support your claims or as a platform for
disagreement?

Structure
 Do the paragraphs connect in a clear way? Or, to use a metaphor, have you built a bridge
between the paragraphs so that the reader can follow your train of thought?
 Once you’ve mapped these connections and arranged the paragraphs in a logical way, go
back to the introduction. Does the roadmap you provide there match the flow of the body?
 Conclusion: do not merely restate your introduction, but think about the implications of your
analysis. This is a space to speak more generally and broadly. In the body you narrowly
focused on certain aspects of the poems; in the conclusion you have the opportunity to state
what your analysis means for the play in general.

Re-read, again
 Re-read your essay as a sceptical reader:
o are there statements which the marker might disagree with? If so, can you provide
evidence to make your case stronger?
o Have you considered a counter-argument to your argument?

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 Is the formatting correct? Titles italicized, references accurately deployed, etc.?

 Have you followed all the given INSTRUCTIONS?

Appendix

‘Power’ – Adrienne Rich

Living in the earth-deposits of our history

Today a backhoe divulged out of a crumbling flank of earth

one bottle amber perfect a hundred-year-old

cure for fever or melancholy a tonic

for living on this earth in the winters of this climate.

Today I was reading about Marie Curie:

she must have known she suffered from radiation sickness

her body bombarded for years by the element

she had purified

It seems she denied to the end

the source of the cataracts on her eyes

the cracked and suppurating skin of her finger-ends

till she could no longer hold a test-tube or a pencil

She died a famous woman denying

her wounds

denying

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her wounds came from the same source as her power.

‘Sinner’s Rue’ – A.E. Housman

I walked alone and thinking,

And faint the nightwind blew
And stirred on mounds at crossways
The flower of sinner’s rue.

Where the roads part they bury

Him that his own hand slays,
And so the weed of sorrow
Springs at the four cross ways.

By night I plucked it hueless,

When morning broke ’twas blue:
Blue at my breast I fastened
The flower of sinner’s rue.

It seemed a herb of healing,

A balsam and a sign,
Flower of a heart whose trouble
Must have been worse than mine.

Dead clay that did me kindness,

I can do none to you,

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But only wear for breastknot

The flower of sinner’s rue.

‘R.I.P’ – E. I. Newgrass

No more your flaptious ears above the bracken

Will fly in fruitless but persistent chase,
That no cajolery or threat can slacken,
Till, out of breath, and in severe disgrace,
You stagger back eventually to face –
Or rather to avert by rolling over
On tubby back and waving fubsy paws –
Just punishment for being such a rover,
And contravening almost every clause
Of game and other preservation laws.

“No more!” – What rubbish! Still I see you chasing

Along green avenues of memory,
O’er sands and saltings, heath, or common racing,
Or barking at a blackbird up a tree,
Ere we return to share a spectral tea.
For I am there in all your enterprises,
As certainly as you are here in mine,
And oh! the wide variety of crises
That we have weathered, human and canine –
Remaining “good companions”, storm or shine.

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When I disturb some partridges or pheasants,

Or rabbits bring you suddenly to mind,
Almost I feel your ghostly little presence,
And turning quickly, half expect to find
That you are there, a little way behind.
For though invisible to eyes unseeing,
Your glossy coat will somewhere still express
The joy of living, jovial well-being
Be clothed in comfortable tubbiness,
Whose shadow certainly will grow less.

ENGL 2614 Copyright (2023) Dr Rick de Villiers