For this assignment, you will be analyzing the poem “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath. You will choose a theme from the poem and arguing how the poem’s cadence/rhythm, structure, and figurative language work to convey that theme. You may choose whatever theme you like, as long as you can defend it through those three elements of poetry.

Example:

Sylvia Plath’s poem “Daddy” conveys the theme of youth through its nursery-rhyme-like cadence, choppy structure, and allusions to mythical creatures.

In this example, the cadence is addressed through “nursery-rhyme-like cadence.” The structure is addressed through “choppy structure” and the figurative language is addressed by “allusions to figurative language.”

Furthermore, you may choose any of the types of figurative language we discussed in this class (irony, metaphor, simile, allusion, juxtaposition, etc.). You may choose a single type, or a combination, as long as your examples work to prove the presence of the theme you chose.

You must make direct references to the poem in this assignment. Simply summarizing sections will not be sufficient. Quote the poem in your essay and separate lines through the use of a forward-slash.

Example:

“You do not do, you do not do/Anymore, black shoe/In which I have lived like a foot/For thirty years, poor and white,/Barely daring to breathe or Achoo” (Plath 1-5).

Your essay will utilize three outside sources that you will find in your own research, and have in-text citations to go along with those sources. You will have a works cited page at the end. No websites like wikipedia, dictionary.com, or similar websites will be accepted. Those are not academic resources and thus not appropriate for academic work. I recommend you to use online databases to find your additional sources. Any information that you did not come up with from your own brain must be cited, or else it is considered plagiarism.

Lastly, this essay is to contain no personal pronouns––no I, me, my, etc. When stating your opinions, take authority in the paper and avoid phrases such as “In my opinion”, “I believe”, and other such qualifiers.