THEMES aging/mortality David Ferry’s work. how writer reveals compared poetry/critic

PROBLEM STATEMENT EXAMPLE PROVIDED. PLEASE EMAIL ME WITH ANY QUESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE THIS PAPER IS SPECIFIC. also need work cited page and in page citations. must analyze david ferry’s poems about how he reveals/works with themes of aging/mortality compared to current 2012 poetry about aging/mortality analysis as well as a critics view (provided in extra document) of aging/mortality in poetry
Purpose:
The purpose of this assignment is to give you a chance to demonstrate in a comprehensive essay the skills you’ve learned over the course of the semester, especially the formation of a sustained, valid academic argument and the analysis of sources (both poetry and literary criticism) as a tool for the exploration of that argument.
Your task for this paper is to first select a theme or technique in the work of one of our classroom poets (one you haven’t written about before, excluding Mark Doty). You could choose aging and mortality in David Ferry’s work. There are certainly others – religion, romantic love, omniscience, war – the choice is up to you. Decide how you think each writer reveals and works with the theme or technique you’ve chosen. Then, look at poems published in very recent (going back only to 2012) literary journals, and look for poems that engage with the theme or technique you’ve chosen, and see how it has evolved in the years since the publication of our classroom book. What are cutting-edge poems doing with the same theme or technique? How has it changed? You should plan to interact also with at least one critical source in order to properly acknowledge and respond to the conversation being had in the world of poetry about your theme and to gather some evidence about why what you’ve observed in the brand-new poems may be true.

Sample Problem Statement:
Though images of the natural world have always been a feature in poetry, with today’s contemporary emphasis on science as a prominent national discipline, science-based images and language in contemporary poetry have taken on a central role of importance. Critics identify this phenomenon as an opportunity for poets to keep pace with the changing American lexicon, which is becoming more and more focused on science as issues like technology and climate change dominate the national conversation, but there is more going on in these poems than just an attempt to fit in with cultural and economic values. An examination of literary journals yields a wide range of poems that incorporate scientific motifs, and while these motifs certainly explore traditions of science and experimentation, they also, perhaps unexpectedly, are made to apply to more humanistic subjects, such as the emotions of speakers, how the speakers conceive of their interactions with others, and the “made” art surrounding us all.
Notes:
Be prepared to embark on a quest to find a source or two for this essay on your own; I will happily explain how best to do this. Because our course isn’t a research-based writing course (that’s WR 150), I will endeavor to help you find good sources whenever possible (rather than giving you a lesson in how to find them, and then requiring that you find them independently). In cases where I find something good, I will share it with you.
The best literary journals to use are Poetry, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, The Harvard Review, AGNI, and others that I’ll be happy to point out to you should you need further sources. The journals listed above have archives of their issues available for free online; other journals are available at the library. Criticism is often also found in literary journals.
Here are some links to literary journals:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/?gclid=CJS04OeL18ECFc1Z7Aod0isAGQ (click on Poetry Magazine)
http://harvardreview.fas.harvard.edu/
http://www.bu.edu/agni/poetry.html
http://www.pshares.org/read/read-by-issue.cfm
http://www.theparisreview.org/poetry

Other than the light research component, this essay’s expectations are similar to those of the two previous essays: use what you’ve read to help you shape a new perspective.
Avoid comments about the “reader’s” perspective throughout your paper in order to preserve the integrity of your analysis.
Remember to stay true to your problem statement; all of the elements of it must be explored!