English 1B

Question 1

How do you do an in-text citation for a poem?

Answer 1

In-text citation for poems:
“[Quote]” (Poet’s surname, Year of publication: line(s)).
E.g The speaker says that in order for one to read a poem, one must “hold it up to the light / like a colour slide”
(Collins, 1988: lines 2-3).
OR
Collins states that in order for one to read a poem one must “hold it up to the light / like a colour slide” (1988: lines 2-3).

Question 2

What doe the dashes signify in an in-text citation?
How do we write a body paragraph

Answer 2

1) The dashes (/) signify line breaks meaning the start of a new line.
2) State, Explain and Prove by providing some in-text referencing.

Question 3

What’s the main idea or concept of the poem Introduction to poetry by Billy Collins

Answer 3

Introduction to poetry:
-The speaker is a teacher who is addressing his students.
-He wants his students to approach or look at poetry through a playful and exciting lens.
- He argues instead of continuously interpreting and defining poetry we should rather experience it.
-The speaker use different metaphors and similes to guide his students on how to explore and experience poetry.
- For instance, he tells his students to “waterski /
across the surface of a poem” (Collins. 1988: lines 9-10). To waterski is a fun activity that requires you to let loose and experience it and thus he wants his students to treat reading poetry the same way, to treat it as something fun and exciting.
-However, instead of doing this his students make reading poetry as something torturous. They do this by trying to define poetry by “[tying] the poem to a chair with rope /and torture a confession out of it” (Collins. 1988: lines 13-14).
-The speaker urges students to listen closely to the poem itself, telling them to “press an ear against its hive.” This metaphor compares the poem to a beehive which’s something that is full of life.

Question 4

What’s the main idea or concept of the poem Kindness by Naomi Shihab Nye.

Answer 4

-In the first stanza the speaker is addressing readers and is listing the requirements to profoundly comprehend kindness.
- The speaker states that one must lose everything before they comprehend the meaning of kindness. In other words they must be selfless and willing to lose it all.
- The speaker states that when one is in the midst of loss the days seem to go on and on.
- Naomi also speaks about death as an event that can happen to anyone when she refers to the “Indian in a white
poncho” (1995: lines 15-16).
-Furthermore, the speak states that one must also experience grieve in order to understand kindness.
-Grief is one of the deepest loss and once one experiences the sorrow of grief they learn that it is kindness that helps them overcome that hardship.