I used to be a poetry mentor on AOL and get this all the time.  AP is "Advanced
Placement":  they are supposed to be the equivalent of college classes, in high
school.  This means the student is about 16.

To answer, first, you have to try to guess what the actual assignment was, and
if the student is trying to get you to do his/her work for him/her.  The student
is almost always trying this.

What I do is 1) tell them this is not what I do for a living, 2) clue them in
that this is an unusual request & if I have time, maybe a little about New
Criticism and debates about what writers know about their own writing, 3)  lead
them to places (in the poems, online, in critical works) that will allow them to
interpret the poems.

It is fairly usual, even if these poems are extremely narrative and use formal
sentence structure, that because of the line breaks the student will not be able
to "read" the poem.  Sometimes I suggest copying the text and taking out the
breaks and spaces, so it "looks" like prose, for a reading.  Then, cutting back
through and looking at nouns, alliteration, line end words, beginnings, etc.
The point is to haul the student through reading the poems several times.

Rgds,
Catherine Daly
[log in to unmask]

> Does anyone else get requests like the one quoted below? If so, what do
> you do about them? This one sounds to me like (s)he wants me to do their
> homework for them - or am I being churlish?
>
> It might help if I knew what a "senior A.P. English student" is. Can
> anyone enlighten me, please? As the sender of the email has an AOL
> account, I don't know where (s)he hails from.
>
> Regards,
>
> Peter
>
>   ------- Forwarded message follows -------
> On Tue, 15 Feb 2000,  wrote...
>
> >    HI!  I am a senior A.P. English student who is doing a paper on
> >contemporary poets.  I have chosen you as my poet.  I found you on your
> >website.  I was just wondering if you could help me out with the meaning
> >behind a few of your poems.  Anything you can give me will help me greatly.
> >The poems I need help on are:
> >
> >Weighing the Air
> >The Motorist
> >Cat in Hell's
> >The Education of Adolescent Girls
> >Dear Folks,
> >
> >All that I need is the central meaning that you are trying to convey with
> >these poems.  Once again, your help would be greatly appreciated.  I like
> >your style of writing and would love to use you as my poet of choice, but I
> >cannot do it without your help!!!  THANK YOU!
>
> --
> Peter
>
> http://www.hphoward.demon.co.uk/poetry/






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