Hello, I have to explicate a sonnet (19th century) and the one I chose was William Wordsworth's To Toussaint L'Ouverture.
I have read and re-read the MLA guides for poetry, prose, etc. I am confused regarding the capitalization of the quote from the sonnet in my sentence.
Example from paper:
The reference "There's not a breathing of the common wind / That will forget thee;" (11-12) and "Thy friends are exulations, agonies, / And love, and man's unconquerable mind" (12-14) indicate Wordsworth's patriotic feelings, revealing the social and political activities that are important to him.
Is this correct as those lines from the sonnet are actually capitalized??
Thank you very much for your assistance!
Okay, I have completed my draft - would you please take a look at it and let me know what you think?
Liberty, Freedom and Respect in William Wordsworth's "To Toussaint L'Ouverture"
In his sonnet, "To Toussaint L'Ouverture", Wordsworth depicts Napoleon's black prisoner as praiseworthy because of the justice of his cause, exalting his heroism by association with abstract ideals: "exultations, agonies, / and love, and man's unconquerable mind" (13-14). Toussaint's story is that of a hero and martyr, he was born a slave in Santo Domingo under French rule in 1743. He leads a slave revolt in 1792, rallies troops against the English when Revolutionary France abolish slavery in 1794. Toussaint set up a black republic until the French defeat and deport him to France in 1801; he died two years later in prison.
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Good afternoon!
In regards to your first post, MLA citation requires Poetry requires line citation rather than page numbers, and also that you keep the line breaks intact. For instance:
"Between my finger and my thumb / The squat pen rests. / I'll dig with it" (29-31).
It appears you have your citations correct in your draft.
In regards to your second post:
Liberty, Freedom, and Respect in William Wordsworth's "To Toussaint L'Ouverture"
"In his sonnet, "To Toussaint L'Ouverture", Wordsworth depicts Napoleon's black prisoner as praiseworthy because of the justice of his cause, exalting his heroism by association with abstract ideals: "exultations, agonies, / and love, and man's unconquerable mind" (13-14). Toussaint's story is that of a hero and martyr, he was born a slave in Santo Domingo under French rule in 1743. He leads a slave revolt in 1792, and rallies troops against the English when Revolutionary France abolishes slavery in 1794. Toussaint set up a black republic until the French defeat and deported him to France in 1801; he died two years later in prison."
"Wordsworth is of the (How about changing this to "wrote in the") Romantic period and favors the Petrarchan sonnet type, (Change this to a period.)he (Capitalize) creates a new poetic diction asserting that "the language [the common man speaks] [. . .] (This extra set of brackets is unnecessary.) is plainer, more emphatic [. . .]" (Again, these brackets are unnecessary.) (Make sure you insert the source this quote came from, using their last name.) 715). This style makes his poetry accessible to the masses instead of only those with higher education in (Change to "during".) the nineteenth century. The sonnet utilizes 14 lines, the first 8-line descriptive stanza is the octave and the 6-line reflective stanza is the setstet (Change to "sestet".) . The first line depicts Toussaint (Insert "as the") "most unhappy man of men!" (1) and the immediate reaction is to feel sympathy for this unfortunate person. Wordsworth then wonders if Toussaint can hear from his prison "the whistling Rustic tend his plough / within thy hearing [. . .] (See my earlier note.) " (2). The connotation of the "whistling Rustic" indicates a happy farmer plowing the fields outside the prison window of Toussaint. Wordworth's use of the metaphor "thy head be now pillowed in some deep dungeon's earless den; (Remove this semi colon.) " (4) portrays a comfortable feeling of the pillow which is soft and cushions the ear, however in this instance there is no ear. The "earless den" goes on to reaffirm the personification that Wordsworth incorporates into his sonnets." (Remove this quotation mark.)
The sonnet addresses Toussaint, "O miserable Chieftain!" (5) the (Capitalize "the".) word chieftain informs (Insert "the reader that" this is a leader of (Insert "a") group or tribe and the acknowledgement by Wordsworth shows the respect he feels for Toussaint and the struggles for his group. The lingering thought of the author, "where and when wilt thou find patience?" (6) allows the reader to absorb the thought with the use of caesura. Wordworth states with verbal (This is unnecessary.) irony, "yet die not [. . .] (See my earlier note.) wear rather in thy bonds a cheerful brow: (Remove this as it is unnecessary.) " (6-7) as a person does not normally wear a bondage of chains with a "merry" attitude. Wordsworth uses the last line of the octave with acknowledgement that Toussaint has, "fallen [. . .] (See my earlier note.) never to rise again" (8) with tone that the end for Toussaint is occurring with the end of the stanza.
Wordsworth consoles the imprisoned man to "live, and take comfort" (9) as Toussaint is an inspiration to others with his fight for freedom and liberty. The verse "thou hast left behind / powers that will work for thee; air, earth and skies" (9-10) repeats this and "the world" (air, earth and sky) and mankind will still champion the cause of freedom and liberty even though Toussaint is under arrest. The reference, "There's not a breathing of the common wind / That will forget thee; (Remove) " (11-12) and "Thy friends are exulations, agonies, / And love, and man's unconquerable mind" (12-14) indicate Wordsworth's patriotic feelings, revealing the social and political activities that are important to him. Frances Jessup states of the poet, "Wordsworth is both conscience of society and soul [. . .] See my earlier note. " (369). The focus of the sonnet is not about death, dungeons, and unhappiness-it is about Toussaint's love for his people, his determination for liberty and freedom. Wordsworth praises those abstract ideals of liberty and freedom, his respect for Toussaint and his heroic accomplishments with this sonnet."
Very nice work!
Regards,
Gloria
Moderator, EssayForum.com
Dear Gloria, Thank you very much for your assistance. I get so confused when dealing with poetry (or my situation, sonnet) and the need to list the line exactly as listed in the line of the sonnet (I thought that if the entire line included a comma, semi-colon, etc. that you were suppose to list it and then the / if there were 2 lines with the line numbers in ( ). The lines I listed on paper, like line (9) is exactly "live, and take comfort" from the sonnet...it did not have any other punctation.
Also, because each line of the sonnet begins with a capital letter - I am suppose to follow that method - like line 11-12 above "There's not a breathing of the common wind / That will forget thee" (I removed the semi-colon that was on line in the actual sonnet..) I am just trying really hard to make sure my MLA technique is on track...Thanks so much! :-)
Gloria, I forgot to mention in above, our instructor wants all ellipses . . . in brackets per lecture notes. I got marks off for not doing this on prior paper because I failed to put them in my essay.
No problem! I'm glad I could help. Each instructor is different; they all want crazy things. As far as the punctuation goes, if the end of the line ends in punctuation such as a semicolon, it should be OK to leave it off, unless you are going to cite the very next line. If you are only citing that one line individually in and of itself, no punctuation is needed. If you leave it on and there is no following line, it looks like you meant to add something but forgot. You've got the caps correct; if it's capped in the original, you copy it exactly and then cite the resource.
Keep up the good work!
