An analysis of the communication strategy/ English
A Literary Analysis
British Literature: 19th through 21st Centuries
The book is “The Norton Anthology English Literature”
Assignment. Write a 850-1250 word paper doing a literary analysis of one (or two) texts from the first half of the term. Please do not use outside resources except a dictionary (or perhaps the Bible, if you choose). This should be your own reading and is not a research essay.
Prompt Questions and Ideas:
• What literary devices does the author use to create meaning: figures of speech, symbolism, allusion, sensory description, etc.?
• What issues or themes seem the most important, and what details support them?
• Is there a particular character, symbol or element in the poem worth analyzing in detail?
• What does the poem sound like? What effect does that sound have?
• What is the structure, meter and rhyme scheme of the poem? Why is it significant?
Sample Topics that you can use:
• Coleridge’s use of symbolism in “Kubla Khan.”
• An analysis of the speaker in “My Last Duchess.”
• Tennyson’s portrait of an artist in “The Lady of Shalott.
