Model Introductions And Topic Sentences

Poetry Essay: Model introductions and topic sentences

Sample introduction:
Our lives are built around relationships. These relationships may be of various types, such as with family, community, and the natural world. Poets, as keen observers of people, offer insights into the nature of human behaviour in their relationships. They reveal that often people use the power they have in their relationships in harmful ways.

Sample topic sentences:
In “The Child Who Walks Backwards,” Lorna Crozier exposes the abusive use of power by a parent.

Mick Burrs, in “The Tyrant Next Door,” shows that harmful use of power can extend beyond the home into the community.

People also have relationships with the natural world, and Al Purdy’s “Interruption” reveals the destructive power that people have over the natural world when they intrude into the wilderness.

Sample introduction:
Humans are complex beings, capable of a whole range of endeavors and behaviours. Through their works, poets expose to their audience the best and the worst of human capability. Poets examine people and their behaviour closely, and often are critical of what they observe. A behaviour exposed and criticized by Earl Birney and Gwendolyn MacEwen is the exploitation of the environment and other people.

Sample topic sentences:

Earl Birney is critical of humanity’s exploitation of the environment for economic activity in his poem “Transcontinental.”

In “Hot Springs,” Birney more specifically criticizes the commercialization and exploitation of geographical landmarks for the benefit of the wealthy, to the detriment of the local people.

Gwendolyn MacEwen’s poem “A Child Dancing,” instead of focusing on the exploitation of nature, criticizes society’s exploitation of human misery.