Length: 500-700 words 

Style: MLA 

Assignment: The speaker of a poem is important when analyzing poetry. As you read a poem, think about the speaker and how that speaker may function in certain poems as character or persona. 

For this assignment you will choose one of the following poems and state a claim about the speaker as you give your interpretation of the poem: 

 Mathew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” (956) 

 Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Fish” (957) 

 Billy Collins’s “Introduction to Poetry” (970) 

 You should focus on the speaker and how your interpretation of the speaker affects your analysis and meaning in the work. 

You will need a thesis that states a claim about the poem’s speaker and how you understand the text. Also, you need to be clear on the differences and similarities between character, persona, narrator and author. 

You might want to consider discussing the following 

(You do not need to answer these questions but they are here to help you get started):

 –What is the speaker’s function in the poem? 

 –How does the speaker’s possible persona help you to understand the main idea of the poem? 

 –What is the speaker saying/arguing? 

 –What does the speaker tell us about an event/idea? 

 –How does the speaker (and possible persona) exemplify a theme or idea? 

 –What tone does the speaker have? How does this affect your reading of the poem? 

 –What is some of the imagery of the poem? How does the speaker exemplify or interact with the images?

Above are the instructions from my teacher, you are free to choose any of the three poems she provided makes no difference to me. 

Thanks.