Show and Tell Outlining

Intro/Thesis:

In this section I will introduce the poem I am writing about "Ars Poetica" as well as its author Archibald Macleish. I will also state my claim. My working claim right now is this: "Although many people view poetry as frivolous, in his poem Ars Poetica Archibald Macleish draws upon his rich literary history to both make use of, as well as diverge from, many conventional poetry techniques and substantiate his claim that poetry fulfills an essential purpose for mankind." I know that to be interesting this claim needs to be able to divide an educated audience. I think it does because an educated audience may disagree that poetry truly fulfills an essential purpose for mankind. However, I worry that the claim is too complicated to follow, there may be too many facets.


Section One:
Here I will talk about Archibald Macleish and his history as a modernist poet, as well as his personal experiences. One of the most important of these will be his time as librarian of congress. I will also explore why he would care to write a poem about poetry, and what angle he might be coming from in writing this particular poem. I will talk about how he cared a lot about literature, and why this may have influenced his writing. This will be the smallest section.

Section Two:
Here I will talk about the poem's actual form. I will talk about the different techniques he used to substantiate his claim. These include diction, rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, enjambment, and other tools of form. I will explain how with diction, he chose words that didn't have much meaning when placed on their own, but within the poem they meant a lot. I will show why he chose certain words and phrases, and the impact they have. I will talk about why he repeated some words and phrases, and how it adds to the poem's form and purpose. I will show where he used alliteration, and why this helps him create the musical nature of poetry, and why this supports his claim. I will talk about rhyme and rhythm, how those also help the poetry transcend itself, and where he broke those conventions and why. I will also take a look at his use of enjambment, and why he placed some words on their own. I will explain when he followed convention, and when he broke it, why, and how it worked. I will explain why form is essential to support the claim his poem is making. This will be the bulk of my paper.

Section Three:
Here I will explain what the ultimate goal of this poem is, and how it fulfills that goal. I will talk about why poetry is important, and how this poem shows that it is. I will talk about how a poem should mean, and not be. How this poem's form works with that theme, and why the author is interested in such a poem. Basically, I will tie it all together, and talk more about why it is important, and claim that the poem does do what it attempts to do. This will be the section where I talk about the argument of poetry as frivolous, and why that is not the case. I will also talk about why poetry is important to mankind, and how it fulfills its essential purpose. This purpose is to allow us to know ourselves, our emotions, and others better. It is a kind of catharsis, where each person gets what they specifically need from the poem-- therefore a poem should not mean one specific thing, but should be. I will explain why this is important to humanity, and why Archibald Macleish thought so too.