Department of English Language and Literature : Master of Arts: Literature Concentration

MA Poetry Analysis Exam

Note:  This requirement pertains to all students beginning their program in Fall 2008 or later, who must complete it and the MA Portfolio.  Students who began prior to Fall 2008 may elect to follow the new requirements or the old ones (the Old MA Written Exam and Old MA Paper).

Students will take a two-hour exam in which they will write an explication and analysis of a poem chosen from a field of four or five poems selected by a two-person committee.  Although the emphasis is obviously on the ability to read, interpret, and write about formal and generic elements of literature, the students are not barred from taking into account historical, cultural, and biographical elements, where known and relevant, or from using various theoretical approaches where they seem enlightening.
 
This exam will be offered once a term, including summer, on the 10th Saturday after the start of classes in Fall and Spring terms, and the 3rd Saturday after the start of Summer Session II.  For the Academic Year 2009-2010, those dates are:

• Saturday, October 31, 2009
  
• Saturday, March 20, 2010
• Saturday, July 17, 2010

It is recommended that students take this exam in the term prior to turning in the MA Portfolio. Students taking the exam must have removed all Incompletes and Progress grades from their transcript.

Students must notify the Director of Graduate Studies in writing of their intention to take the exam, and must do so no later than three weeks before the exam date.  An e-mail is sufficient for this purpose.
 
Assessment:  The two faculty members who select the poems will also assess the exam.  The exam committee will determine whether students pass or fail.  Failed exams may require a complete re-examination or may require an oral follow-up, depending on the nature of the failure and the judgment of the examining committee.  Students who fail will automatically have the opportunity to retake the exam once, if a retake is required.  Students must petition the Graduate Committee for a third opportunity.