Web Page: The AP English Exam
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Responding to Documents
Some timed writing exams, such as those for AP English courses, give you a set of documents—literature, poetry, articles, images—and ask you to construct a response. Your response should demonstrate a careful reading of the documents, include evidence drawn from them, and thoughtfully develop an idea. Here is an example literary prompt and response (page 215).
Sample Prompt
Read the following sonnets. The first was written by Oscar Wilde, a great poet. The second was written unintentionally by 14 different Twitter users who happened to tweet lines in iambic pentameter—lines later assembled by a computer program. Both poems seem to contain meaning. Use evidence from these poems to discuss what writers and readers bring to poetry.
Sonnet to Liberty
Oscar Wilde
Not that I love thy children, whose dull eyes
See nothing save their own unlovely woe,
Whose minds know nothing, nothing care to know,
But that the roar of thy Democracies,
Thy reigns of Terror, thy great Anarchies,
Mirror my wildest passions like the sea,—
And give my rage a brother—! Liberty!
For this sake only do thy dissonant cries
Delight my discreet soul, else might all kings
By bloody knout or treacherous cannonades
Rob nations of their rights inviolate
And I remain unmoved—and yet, and yet,
These Christs that die upon the barricades,
God knows it I am with them, in some things.
Sonnet to Twitter
Random tweeters via Milkmoon
I wouldn’t mind a holiday again.
It’s gonna be a awesome day today :)
Who doesn’t love a weekend getaway?
Will Sharma get another over then?
Who watches television nowadays?
If happy ever after did exist
I really wanna make a bucket list :)
I never was a factor anyways.
Does Karlsson ever leave the ice? Unreal.
Tomorrow doesn’t equal yesterday
I learned and realized a lot today
I’ll rage and roar, whatever for a meal
I feel a separation coming on
Keep looking up c’mon c’mon c’mon
Your Turn Analyze the sample poems above by responding to the following prompt.
Read the sonnets above. The first sonnet refers to the “great Anarchies” of democratic movements as they oppose old tyrannies. The second sonnet embodies these great anarchies because it is constructed from random Twitter tweets. In what ways does the “Sonnet to Twitter” demonstrate the “dissonant cries” that delight Wilde’s “discreet soul”? What would Wilde think of the “roar of [Twitter’s] Democracies”? Use evidence from the poems to support your points.
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Example Response
The following essay discusses what writers and readers bring to the experience of creating poetry.
The beginning provides background information and leads to the thesis.
The great Oscar Wilde wrote “Sonnet to Liberty” to comment on the ravages of populist movements during his time. Fourteen random tweeters (plus a computer program) wrote “Sonnet to Twitter” to comment on nothing at all. The opposite origins of these two poems provide an insight into the roles of writers and readers.
One paragraph closely analyzes the first sonnet.Oscar Wilde’s poem “Sonnet to Liberty” follows the 14-line sonnet form, with lines in iambic pentameter and a prescribed rhyme scheme. These are the first clues that this sonnet is carefully constructed by an author. The sonnet contains two long sentences stretched out over 14 lines. The two main thoughts of this poem find expression line to line through imagery like “dull eyes,” word play like “love thy children” and “unlovely woe,” and personification such as “give my rage a brother.” Wilde creates parallels between the “roar of thy Democracies,” the “reigns of Terror,” and the “great Anarchies”—violent and “dissonant cries” that delight his soul only because they are better than the “treacherous cannonades” of kings who would “rob nations of their rights inviolate.” The language is carefully crafted, and the poet makes his point clear—he would rather put up with the chaos of mass rule than the injustice of tyranny.
Another paragraph closely analyzes the second sonnet.On the other hand, the randomly generated “Sonnet to Twitter” also follows the 14-line sonnet form, and perhaps the iambic pentameter and regular rhyme scheme trick our minds into believing that it is intentional. Unlike Wilde’s poem, “Sonnet to Twitter” contains 13 sentences over 14 lines. Each sentence is the thought of a separate tweeter, except for “If happy ever after did exist / I really wanna make a bucket list :).” What’s strange, though, is the way that our brains find similar patterns to those in Wilde’s poem: imagery such as “rage and roar, whatever for a meal” and word play like “holiday,” “getaway,” “bucket list,” and “a separation coming on.” In fact, the more you read the poem, the more meaning you find. For example, a bucket list includes the things you wish you could do before you die, and the poem’s wished-for holiday derives from the anguish that “happy ever after” doesn’t exist. Then the reader remembers that this poem didn’t have a single writer—but fourteen. The meaning within each line is intended, but the meaning across lines is completely inferred by the reader.
This paragraph draws inferences based on the textual evidence above.We’re used to believing that poets bring a world of meaning to their poems. “Sonnet to Liberty” demonstrates that fact. But “Sonnet to Twitter” demonstrates that readers bring their own world of meaning to a poem. Readers show up with everything they know and draw upon it to decode poems and discover meanings. A metaphor that resonates in one way for the poet may resonate in a completely different way for the reader. In fact, words never intended to be associated may create a profound pattern in the mind of a reader.
The ending provides the reader with a final thought.In the end, a poem is a meeting place. The poet brings his or her world to that meeting, but so does the reader. One works to encode meaning, and the other to decode it. The poem’s power isn’t that the reader gets the same meaning as the poet, but that their minds meet for a discussion of ideas.