Discussing the gender, race, and/or class issues in any two poems from this week’s reading list.

As in previous weeks, this week’s readings include multiple genres, but for this particular discussion we will focus on poetry.

On the Perspectives in American Literature site, Paul Reuben claims, “Although the modernist poets do not explicitly concern themselves with gender, race, or class issues, there are exceptions to this statement.” For this assignment, you are asked to disprove his first contention and indicate the exceptions by discussing the gender, race, and/or class issues in any two poems from this week’s reading list. Please remember to show how each poem reflects its period.

Your response should be written in 3rd person, consist of at least 400 words, and comport with MLA style and format. Remember to use quoted material from each poem to validate your claims and note that the rules for citing poetry are somewhat different. For information, please see MLA Style – Poetry.

To set up your response, do the following:

Devote one paragraph of at least 200 words for each poem in which you examine how the poet discusses gender, race, and/or class issues.
Discuss the poem and the selected issue(s) in context of their periods.
Provide textual examples to support your contentions.
Cite all examples using proper MLA format.