Essay question: Discuss the representation of women in the poetry of this period (1550-1750).
In answering this essay question, the student discusses poems selected from some of the main poetic genres of the period: metaphysical (Donne, 'The Good Morrow', 'Twickenham Garden'); pastoral (Marvell, 'The Garden'); allegory (Spenser, Book 1 of The Faerie Queen); love sonnets (Shakespeare). Poems by a female poet are also studied (Aphra Behn, 'To The Fair Clarinda, Who Made Love To Me, Imagined More Than Woman', 'The Disappointment').
Q. Why is this effective?
TUTOR'S REPLY
There is a clear principle which has guided this choice of texts. The essay looks at examples from some of the main poetic genres of the period, and includes discussion on the work of both male and female poets. The number of texts selected is quite high, and one text in particular (The Faerie Queene) is very lengthy, but this is not so problematic as it is only one aspect of the poems - how women are represented - which is to be analysed. Providing that the student is selective as to what they look at, even with this number of texts they will probably be able to develop their critical points sufficiently in the space available.
This is also a good example of how, for some questions, the choice of texts for discussion can go some way towards providing an overall structure for the essay. Here, the poems selected fit neatly into an overall structure for the essay. In the first half, the student goes through examples from various poetic genres to show how women are represented by male poets, and then contrasts these depictions of women with those in poems written by a woman during the same historical period.
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