Page 30 - Aldi Lukman Nurhakim_How to Write Critical Esays: A Guide for Students of Literature

Facing the question 29
At the opposite extreme you might be asked to ‘write a
critical appreciation’ of just one short poem. Even here,
however, you must think out how much reading will be
necessary. Some poems cannot be sensibly treated in isolation
from others. There are, for instance, poems which were written
and published as matching pairs. Browning’s enthusiastically
erotic ‘Meeting at Night’ belongs with his cynically sexist
‘Parting at Morning’ in a carefully wrought confrontation. Even
more obviously, a parody can only be evaluated by reference to
its target. The notes in a good edition, or sufficiently detailed
works of criticism, should alert you to what else you may need
to read. It might also be prudent to ask your tutor for an
opinion as to which analogous poems, if any, are essential.
Even when you have made sure that the named poem does
not demand knowledge of others, check that the terms of the
question do allow you to concentrate exclusively on the
specified work. If, for instance, you are asked to show how
‘typical’ it is of verse written in its time or how ‘characteristic’ it
is of its author, you must clearly demonstrate that you have
read enough other poems.
These demands may not always be obvious. Consider the
following questions, all of which require you to discuss more
poems than the one specified:
Analyse ‘The Wreck of the Deutschland’ to show whether
Hopkins is most illuminatingly read as a Victorian or as a
modern poet.
‘The Rape of the Lock”s unflagging energy, its consistently
witty style and unshakeably lucid structure, ensure that it is
Pope’s one truly lasting achievement.’ Discuss.
‘The balance of tradition against experiment.’ How
appropriate do you think this is as a description of any one
poem of the period?

The first of these requires knowledge of poems by other
writers who, like Hopkins, lived in the Victorian period. An
answer to the second would need to consider other poems by
Pope before it could decide whether ‘The Rape of the Lock’ so
certainly surpassed them. In the third question, ‘tradition’
presumably means the literary convention established by many
other poems.