Randolph Ammons Poems

“You have your identity when you find out, not what you can keep your mind on, but what you cannot keep your mind off.” This seems like a quote everyone can relate to. We spend most of our trying to figure out who we are, when all we have to do is look inside and see what we truly cannot go one day without thinking about. This is my favorite quote from an author I have come to really enjoy this while studying this semester Archie Randolph Ammons. Ammons was an American born poet who specialized in satire poetry. In this research paper I will research Ammon’s life leading up to poetry and what helped him decide he wanted to be a poet.
I also plan to talk about Ammons writing style. I want to talk about why he got into doing more satire like poems. Along with this I want to talk about his poem “Their Sex Life”. This poem is only a few short words
but I feel like it speaks volumes. It is poems like this one that show how satirical Ammons could was and how he could paint quite a picture.
Through the readings this semester and some more research I have learned quite a lot about MLA strategies. The biggest tips I will walk away with to use in my research paper is how to evaluate my sources. A writer wants to make sure articles they use are current and relevant to the piece they are working on. The writer also needs to make sure to check the credentials of the author of said articles, making sure of their qualifications and education. Another way to know if an article should be used is to check for grammar and spelling mistakes. The second most important strategy I found was how to cite sources. I want to stress this one, messing this up can lead to plagiarism if you do not give credit where credit is due.
The first source I am using is an article by David Lehmann called “A.R.
Ammons’ life and career” on the website http://www.english.illinois.edu. With this source I will be able to talk about Ammon’s life growing up leading to his career as a poet. This source talks about Ammon’s childhood, family, how he proudly served his country during World War II, and how he went on to go to college after. I will also be using www.parisreview.org. This source is an interview between David Lehman and Mr. Ammons. It talks about why Ammons become a poet and his inspirations to come up with his poems. On the website www.poets.org I have learned about all the awards Ammons won as an author over the years. There are lots of them listed this just goes to show how widely known Ammons was. I am really enjoying this assignment. After doing some research on the poem “Cowards” for our last essay I realized how much I like Ammons. This Research paper is giving me the chance to dive deeper into finding out who Ammons was as a person. I am excited for the finished product I feel I have come a long ways writing since the beginning of the
semester