Essay
(Editor's note: Any spelling errors have a [sic] retroactively added afterwards)
Using negative modifier [sic] and metaphors over wounded animals, Gascoigne communicates a conflicted attitude over both his enthrallment of a person and his fear of that person.
Gascoigne consistently modifies his words to negate their meanings. He tells his subject that she "must not wonder" (Gascoigne 1), he tells himself that his "eyes take no delight" (Gascoigne 3), he says that a "mouse which once hath broken out of trap [i]s seldom [enticed] with the trustless bait" (Gascoigne 6-7). These negative modifiers imply that Gascoigne is modifying his own initial thoughts so they would mean the opposite of what he originally intended. This implication shows inner conflict in Gascoigne as he is battling with his own thoughts while writing this poem.
To understand why Gascoigne holds as much inner conflict we must examine his metaphors. His metaphor of both the "mouse which once hath broken out of [a] trap" (Gascoigne 5) and "[t]he scorched fly which once hath 'scaped the flame" (Gascoigne 10) involve an animal that has comitted an usually fatal mistake but survived, and has resolved to never committ [sic] the same error again. We can assume, then, that this metaphor applies to Gascoigne himself. Given that he states that he is "dazzled by desire" (Gascoigne 13), we can assume that Gascoigne has an infatuation on someone, and that he has previous [sic] experienced heartbreak before.
Should we assume that Gascoigne has had heartbreak before and has become infatuated with a new women, we would now be able to understand the conflicted attitude that Gascoigne displays: He has had his heart wounded before and is thus reluctant to open his heart again. His heart, however, simultanously [sic] desires this new women that is the subject of his poem. Hence, the consistent negative modifiers that, if removed, would radically change the meaning of the poem. Gascoigne is constantly trying to exhibit restraint over himself.
This restraint is also subtly apparent in Gascoigne's poem in the form of his lines: Nearly all of his lines in his poem are comprised of 10 syllables. This exhibits remarkable control on Gascoigne's part, as it shows that Gascoigne was incredible [sic] deliberate with the words he chose. In addition, it implies that Gascoigne had plenty of time to delibrate over his thoughts before putting them down on paper. This too shows that Gascoigne is a careful man who does not carelessly rush into decisions.
REFLECTION
The task at hand was for me to write a timed, 40 minute essay analyzing Gascoigne's poem, For That He Looked Not upon Her.
My anticipation is that my essay will have a score of 3. Back when I was a Junior taking AP Comp, my weakest essays were always analysis essays. With a summer's worth of time for my already weak analysis essay writing skills to atrophy, I was floundering while writing. Though I attempted to provide support for my essay, my evidence was weak, superficial, or irrelevant to the point I was trying to support. In addition, my actual argument were superficial or were clearly a result of me grasping at straws to provide more "complexity" to my essay (Notably the argument about syllables).
There's a crucial difference between AP Composition Analysis essays and AP Literature Poetry Analysis essays: In AP Composition Analysis essays, the ultimate goal is for us to analyze the argument being made in a prompt and deconstruct the pieces used to support the argument. A rudimentary ability to interpret what argument being made is important in such a prompt, but the more crucial ability in such an essay however is the ability to identify specifically how the argument is being made and its components. Contrast this with the AP Literature Poetry Analysis essays where both the skill of interpreting a piece of writing and the skill of being able to identify what makes up a piece of writing is important. Poems are far more abstract and open ended compare to arguments, as an argument that leaves room for interpretation is an inherently poor argument. Thus, I was unprepared to tackle an essay that at its core is different from the essays I've encountered before. This, along with my aforementioned atrophied writing skills, contributed to my poor performance.
Ultimately, essay writing is a learned skill that requires practice to maintain. Looking at the essays written by others tackling the same prompt, such as the Gascoigne prompt, may help me recognize a good essay, but in the end, I'll have to practice my own writing in order to compose a good essay.
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