ELT201 Understanding Poetry End-of-Course Assessment – July Semester 2025, Singapore

INSTRUCTIONS TO STUDENTS:

1. This End-of-Course Assessment paper contains ONE (1) question and comprises ELEVEN (11) pages (including the cover page).
2. You are to include the following particulars in your submission: Course Code, Title of the ECA, SUSS PI No., Your Name, and Submission Date.
3. Ensure that you submit your End-of-Course Assessment by the deadline. After the 12-hour grace period, 10% of the total End-of-Course Assessment mark will be deducted for each 24-hour block or part thereof by which your submission is late. Submissions with more than 50 marks deducted will be awarded 0 marks.
4. You are allowed multiple submissions to Turnitin before the deadline. After the deadline, only one submission is allowed, and only if you have not already made a prior submission.
5. If you fail to submit your End-of-Course Assessment, you will be deemed to have withdrawn from the course. 

IMPORTANT NOTE

ECA Submission Deadline: Wednesday, 5 November 2025, 12pm

ECA Submission Guidelines

Please follow the submission instructions stated below:  

This ECA carries 50% of the course marks and is a compulsory component. It is to be done individually and not collaboratively with other students.  You must submit it on time.

Submission

You are to submit the end-of-course assignment (ECA) in exactly the same manner as your tutor-marked assignments (TMA), i.e. using Canvas. Submission in any other manner such as hardcopy or any other means will not be accepted. Ensure that you submit your ECA by the deadline. After the 12-hour grace period, 10% of the total ECA mark will be deducted for every 24-hour block or part thereof by which your submission is late. Submissions with more than 50 marks deducted will be awarded 0 marks. You are allowed multiple submissions to Turnitin before the deadline, after which only one submission is allowed, and only if you have not already previously submitted. If you fail to submit your ECA, you will be deemed to have withdrawn from the course.

You are reminded that electronic transmission is not always immediate. It is possible that network traffic may be particularly heavy on the cut-off date, and connections to the system cannot be guaranteed. Hence, you are advised to submit your work no later than the day before the cut-off date in order to make sure that the submission is accepted and in good time.

Once you have submitted your ECA, the status is displayed on the computer screen. You will receive a digital acknowledgement message. Please note that it is the digital time-stamp—and not the acknowledgement message—that indicates that you have submitted your ECA. To ensure a timely submission and to have your ECAs marked, you should therefore not jeopardise your course result by submitting your ECA at the last minute.

Do ensure that you have the correct files for submission.  Any submission, extra files, missing appendices or corrections received separately after the submission of the ECA will not be considered in the grading of your ECA assignment.

Plagiarism and Collusion 

The University takes a very serious view of plagiarism (passing off someone else’s ideas as your own, or recycling of contents from your own earlier marked TMA from the same course or another course) and collusion (submitting an assignment which is the same or very similar to another student’s). Both are forms of cheating, and neither is acceptable in any form in a student’s work, including this ECA assignment.

Avoid plagiarism by giving yourself sufficient time to research and understand the material so that you can write up your assignment in your own words, and ensure that you provide appropriate references when necessary. You can avoid collusion by ensuring that your submission is based on your own individual effort.

Penalties for plagiarism and collusion are severe. Serious cases will normally result in the student being referred to SUSS’s Student Disciplinary Group. For other cases, significant marking penalties or expulsion from the course may be imposed. For more information about the University’s policies on plagiarism and collusion, refer to the Student Handbook (Section 5.2, paragraph 1.3).

Unacceptable Use of AI Writing Tools/Apps

New Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT have the potential to change the way we teach and learn in many positive ways. However, the unauthorised use of AI tools in exams and other assessed work is a serious disciplinary offence.

The use of AI tools—including but not limited to ChatGPT, Grammarly, and QuillBot—is strictly prohibited in the preparation of this assignment. This includes using AI to generate, rewrite, or paraphrase content. Submissions found to contain AIgenerated material will be flagged by Turnitin and treated as a breach of academic integrity, which may result in disciplinary action.

(Full marks: 100)

Question 1

Part A:

John Klause, in his article “Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnets’: Age in Love and the Goring of Thoughts,” claims that:

“the contradictions [in Shakespeare’s sonnets], real enough in themselves, are precisely the kind we might expect of a complex human being in turbulent love affairs.” (304)

Compare the presentation of contradictions in Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 152” with two other sonnets selected from the list below. You must discuss and engage with arguments found in Klause’s article.

Part B:

P.S. Chauhan in his article “Rereading Claude McKay” claims that:

“the colonial sensibility … straddles two worlds  the one of its origin, the other of its adoption. Politically, its values and attitudes derive from, and swing between, the two sets. It sides, at once, with each of the two antagonists: the victim and the victimizer.” (69-70)

Compare the “straddling of two worlds” in McKay’s “Enslaved” with two other sonnets selected from the list below (different from the ones selected in Part A). You must discuss and engage with arguments found in Chauhan’s article.

Please ensure that you include a title, a single cohesive introduction, and conclusion besides the two parts of the question that you are supposed to address.

Besides the Shakespeare and McKay sonnet, you must select and analyse four sonnets from the list below:

• John Donne: “Holy Sonnets: I am a little world made cunningly”
• Percy Bysshe Shelley: “Ozymandias”
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning: “Sonnet 29”
• Wilfred Owen: “The Next War”
• Denis Johnson: “White, White Collars”
• Jack Agüeros: “Sonnet: The History of Puerto Rico”

*Note: All the sonnets may be found at the end of this document

The word limit of 2,500 words is to be strictly observed.

Student Notes

Before you begin writing:

You may want to review the course materials on the sonnet (Study Unit 5 and the readings listed there). You must refer to John Klause’s article in Part A and P.S. Chauhan’s article in Part B. You may also find useful secondary sources in JStor or the University Library. Refer to the SU6 recording “Writing about Poetry.”

Considering the quote in the question:

Your argument must firstly show a clear and precise understanding of the quotes reflected in both parts of the question. While both parts may share some commonalities in terms of the topics they are focused on, you should show an awareness in being able to discriminate that they are not essentially asking you the same thing. Part A requires a discussion on the topic of contradictions while Part B requires an analysis of the “straddling of two worlds” in the selected sonnets. Bear in mind that you must substantiate your claims with well-chosen, appropriate, and convincing textual evidence. If you should disagree with either critic’s claim, it is imperative that your essay must still address why the claims were made in the first place.

Selecting the sonnets:

The question requires you to select and assess six sonnets (three for each part) with the Shakespeare and McKay sonnet being compulsory while you may select the remaining four from the list that has been presented to you. Read through all the sonnets in the list. They may be discussed or mentioned in your course materials and can be found in the course anthology. You will need to select the sonnets best suited for your response to the quote reflected in each part.

Answering the question:

• You need to present arguments that respond to the given claims about the sonnets according to the various parts. To respond well to these claims, you must demonstrate knowledge of the sonnet’s features, traditions, and conventions.
• Ensure a comparative analysis of the sonnets. Give adequate attention to all six sonnets—aim for a balanced coverage of three poems for each part. Your assessment should compare and contrast the different sonnets’ poetic forms, features, and treatment of themes and issues. The comparative discussion should provide evidence to support your argument. In Part A you should compare two sonnets from the list with the Shakespeare sonnet, while in Part B you should compare two other sonnets from the given list (not the same sonnets used in Part A) with the McKay sonnet.
• Your essay must engage with both Klause’s as well as Chauhan’s article. You need to demonstrate an analysis of these two secondary texts and they should be part of your overall discussion of the sonnets. If you cite other sources in addition to the two scholarly articles, they should also be credible and reliable.

Citation and Academic Integrity:

You must meticulously document all sources and adopt the MLA style and format, both in the main body of the paper and in the Works Cited. Use the 9th edition of the MLA. Please refer to the Student Handbook on the penalties of plagiarism or collusion.

Length of Essay:

This is an end-of-course research paper, so the essay should demonstrate work that has taken at least a couple of weeks. It should not fall below 2,300 words or penalties will be incurred. Words above the limit of 2,500 words will not be marked.

Grading Allocation:

The allocation of marks serves as a guide to the relative weighting of the different components. The essay will be marked holistically.

(100 marks)

Appendix:

Compulsory Sonnets

Sonnet 152

By William Shakespeare

In loving thee thou know’st I am forsworn,

But thou art twice forsworn, to me love swearing;

In act thy bed-vow broke, and new faith torn In vowing new hate after new love bearing.

But why of two oaths’ breach do I accuse thee

When I break twenty? I am perjured most, For all my vows are oaths but to misuse thee, And all my honest faith in thee is lost.

For I have sworn deep oaths of thy deep kindness,

Oaths of thy love, thy truth, thy constancy; And to enlighten thee gave eyes to blindness,

Or made them swear against the thing they see.

For I have sworn thee fair; more perjured eye,

To swear against the truth so foul a lie.                                                     (1609)

Enslaved

By Claude McKay

Oh when I think of my long-suffering race,

For weary centuries despised, oppressed,

Enslaved and lynched, denied a human place

In the great life line of the Christian West;

And in the Black Land disinherited,

Robbed in the ancient country of its birth,

My heart grows sick with hate, becomes as lead, For this my race that has no home on earth.

Then from the dark depths of my soul I cry

To the avenging angel to consume

The white man’s world of wonders utterly:

Let it be swallowed up in earth’s vast womb,

Or upward roll as sacrificial smoke

To liberate my people from its

yoke!                                                                                                        (1922)

Sonnets for Selection

Holy Sonnets: I am a little world made cunningly

By John Donne

I am a little world made cunningly

Of elements and an angelic sprite,

But black sin hath betray’d to endless night

My world’s both parts, and oh both parts must die.

You which beyond that heaven which was most high

Have found new spheres, and of new lands can write,

Pour new seas in mine eyes, that so I might

Drown my world with my weeping earnestly, Or wash it, if it must be drown’d no more.

But oh it must be burnt; alas the fire

Of lust and envy have burnt it heretofore,

And made it fouler; let their flames retire,

And burn me O Lord, with a fiery zeal

Of thee and thy house, which doth in eating heal.

(early 17^th Century)

Ozymandias

By Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far

away.”                                                                                                                    (1818)

Sonnet 29

By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I think of thee!—my thoughts do twine and bud

About thee, as wild vines, about a tree,

Put out broad leaves, and soon there ‘s nought to see Except the straggling green which hides the wood.

Yet, O my palm-tree, be it understood

I will not have my thoughts instead of thee

Who art dearer, better! Rather, instantly

Renew thy presence; as a strong tree should,

Rustle thy boughs and set thy trunk all bare, And let these bands of greenery which insphere thee Drop heavily down,—burst, shattered, everywhere!

Because, in this deep joy to see and hear thee

And breathe within thy shadow a new air,

I do not think of thee—I am too near

thee.                                                          (1850)

The Next War

By Wilfred Owen

War’s a joke for me and you,

While we know such dreams are true.

~~Siegfried Sassoon~~

Out there, we’ve walked quite friendly up to Death, — Sat down and eaten with him, cool and bland, — Pardoned his spilling mess-tins in our hand. We’ve sniffed the green thick odour of his breath, — Our eyes wept, but our courage didn’t writhe.

He’s spat at us with bullets and he’s coughed

Shrapnel. We chorussed when he sang aloft,

We whistled while he shaved us with his scythe.

Oh, Death was never enemy of ours!

We laughed at him, we leagued with him, old chum.

No soldier’s paid to kick against His powers.

We laughed, — knowing that better men would come,

And greater wars: when each proud fighter brags He wars on Death, for lives; not men, for flags.  (1917)

White, White Collars  

By Denis Johnson

We work in this building and we are hideous in the fluorescent light, you know our clothes woke up this morning and swallowed us like jewels and ride up and down the elevators, filled with us, turning and returning like the spray of light that goes around dance-halls among the dancing fools. My office smells like a theory, but here one weeps to see the goodness of the world laid bare and rising with the government on its lips, the alphabet congealing in the air around our heads. But in my belly’s flames someone is dancing, calling me by many names that are secret and filled with light and rise and break, and I see my previous lives.

(1980)

Sonnet: The History of Puerto Rico

By Jack Agüeros

Puerto Rico was created when the pumpkin on top of

The turtle burst and its teeming waters poured out

With all mankind and beastkind riding on the waves Until the water drained leaving a tropical paradise.

Puerto Rico was stumbled on by lost vampires bearing

Crucifix in one hand, arquebus in the other, sucking

The veins of land and men, tossing the pulp into the

Compost heap which they used as the foundation for Their fortifications and other vainglorious temples.

Puerto Rico was arrested just as it broke out of the

Spanish jail and, renamed a trusty, it was put in an American cell. When the prisoner hollered, “Yankee, Go Home,” Puerto Rico was referred to the United Nations.

Puerto Rico, to get to paradise now, you have to ride blood. (1996)

—– END OF ECA PAPER —–