Topics Select one (1)of the following poems and the indicated passages:(1) Dryden, “Mac Flecknoe,” lines 1–63;
(2) Behn, “The Disappointment,” lines 91–140;
(3) Pope, “The Rape of the Lock,” Canto 3, lines 125–178;
(4) Johnson, “The Vanity of Human Wishes,” lines 319–368.
In a close reading of the passage, analyse how a single formal elementmost significantly functions to affect and support meaning.
The following is a list of possible formal elements thatyou could choose:• alliteration• parallelism• apostrophe/address• personification• assonance/consonance• punctuation• caesura• repetition(s)• enjambment• rhyme• metaphor• simile• meter/rhythm• synecdoche• paradox• syntax(i.e., punctuation, word order, etc.)
In your essay, focus strictly on the passageindicated for the poem you select. You should establish the contextof the passage in the work as a whole (where is it in the poem? what is the situation? who is the speaker and/or point-of-view character, if any?),