This is an example of a body paragraph from a 1000-word essay that compares a poem to apainting. This is an example of how to appropriately quote poetry in an essay. Note the useof quotation marks around words from the poem as well as the use of / to separate lines of thepoem.This is also … Continue reading “how to appropriately quote poetry in an essay | My Assignment Tutor”
This is an example of a body paragraph from a 1000-word essay that compares a poem to apainting. This is an example of how to appropriately quote poetry in an essay. Note the useof quotation marks around words from the poem as well as the use of / to separate lines of thepoem.This is also an example of how much analytical detail is necessary in an essay on poetry. Notehow much detail and analysis is present after the quotes given. Although this body paragraphis longer than a body paragraph in your essay, ensure that in your essay you are using the samelevel of detail in terms of quotation and analysis.What does the speaker see in Brueghel’s painting Icarus? Both the structure and the language ofWilliams’s “The Fall of Icarus,” written about this painting, present continuous action. In all buttwo tercets the speaker uses a form of the verb “to be:” “it was spring,” “a farmer wasploughing,” “the year was awake,” “there was a splash,” and “this was Icarus drowning.” Theonly active verbs come with the sea and the sun: “concerned,” “sweating,” and “melting.” Thesea and the sun are the two causal factors—the sun causes Icarus to fall and the sea causes him todrown. The descriptions containing “was” convey action that lacks immediacy and will continuedespite sudden events. The structure of the poem mimics the action that occurred right beforeBrueghel captured the instant of Icarus in the water. The poem has a smooth quality, composedof scenes that blur into one another without the interruption of punctuation. This smoothnessbegins with the statement “when Icarus fell,” and ends with “this was / Icarus drowning,” the laststatement being an indifferent cap on indifferent action. The poem, however, does contain somesubtle jolts of contradiction. For instance the last tercet contains the phrase “quite unnoticed,”two words that seem incompatible. “Quite” indicates significance while “unnoticed” indicatesinsignificance. The contrast of the words disturbs, however slightly, the flow of the poem, andtherefore also the flow of the speaker’s thoughts. The speaker, then, conveys his awareness ofthe action, despite the unawareness of figures and object in the painting.
