AP® English Literature and Composition 2025 Scoring Guidelines - Question 1 - Poetry Analysis - 6 points

Sep 22, 2026

AP® English Literature and Composition 2025 Scoring Guidelines focus on Free-Response Question 1: Poetry Analysis. The prompt asks students to read Colleen McElroy’s poem “Monologue for Saint Louis” and write an essay analyzing how literary elements and techniques convey the speaker’s complex experience of returning home after an extended absence. The document details point values for Thesis, Evidence, and Commentary, including what earns or does not earn each scoring row.

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Question 1: Poetry Analysis

Scoring Guidelines (Thesis)

Scoring Guidelines (Evidence and Commentary)

2025 AP® English Literature and Composition Sample Student Responsesand Scoring Commentary Set 1 Inside: Free-Response Question 1 ☑ Scoring Guidelines ☑ Student Samples ☑ Scoring Commentary © 2025 College Board. College Board, Advanced Placement, AP, AP Central, and the acorn logo are registered trademarks of [College Board. Visit College Board on the web: collegeboard.org](College Board. Visit College Board on the web: collegeboard.org). AP Central is the official online home for [the AP Program: apcentral.collegeboard.org](the AP Program: apcentral.collegeboard.org). AP® English Literature and Composition 2025 Scoring Guidelines Question 1: Poetry Analysis 6 points In Colleen McElroy’s poem “Monologue for Saint Louis,” published in 1980, the speaker returns to her childhood home in St. Louis, Missouri, after an extended absence and contemplates how she has changed. Read the poem carefully. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze how McElroy uses literary elements and techniques to convey the speaker’s complex experience of returning home. In your response you should do the following: • Respond to the prompt with a thesis that presents a defensible interpretation. • Select and use evidence to support your line of reasoning. • Explain how the evidence supports your line of reasoning. • Use appropriate grammar and punctuation in communicating your argument. © 2025 College Board AP® English Literature and Composition 2025 Scoring Guidelines | Reporting Category | Scoring Criteria | | | --- | --- | --- | | Row A
Thesis
(0–1 points) | 0 points
For any of the following:
• There is no defensible thesis.
• The intended thesis only restates the prompt.
• The intended thesis provides a summary of the issue with no apparent or coherent claim.
• There is a thesis, but it does not respond to the prompt. | 1 point
Responds to the prompt with a thesis that presents a defensible interpretation of the poem. | | | Decision Rules and Scoring Notes | | | | Responses that do not earn this point:
• Only restate the prompt.
• Make a generalized comment about the poem that doesn’t respond to the prompt.
• Describe the poem or features of the poem rather than making a claim that requires a defense. | Responses that earn this point:
• Provide a defensible interpretation of the speaker’s complex experience of returning home. | | | Examples that do not earn this point:
Restate the prompt
• “The poem ‘Monologue for Saint Louis’ depicts a speaker contemplating her return home and how she has changed.”
Do not relate to the prompt
• “St. Louis has a large national monument, commonly known as the Arch.”
Describe the poem or features of the poem
• “The intentional lack of capitalization is significant in conveying the poem’s meaning.” | Examples that earn this point:
Provide a defensible interpretation
• “The speaker in McElroy’s poem is filled with both nostalgia and regret upon returning home.”
• “In the poem, the speaker’s return home is full of paradoxes—her experience is sweet and rotten, familiar and strange, a return and a visit to a new place. It is through her love of words that she is able to reconcile her bittersweet experience.”
• “Through repetition and the absence of punctuation, McElroy reveals that the speaker’s visit home is marked by moments of recognition as well as disorientation.” | | | Additional Notes:
• The thesis may be more than one sentence, provided the sentences are in close proximity.
• The thesis may be anywhere within the response.
• For a thesis to be defensible, the poem must include at least minimal evidence that could be used to support that thesis; however, the student need not cite that evidence to earn the thesis point.
• The thesis may establish a line of reasoning that structures the essay, but it needn’t do so to earn the thesis point.
• A thesis that meets the criteria can be awarded the point

FAQs

What does Free-Response Question 1 ask students to do?

Students analyze how Colleen McElroy uses literary elements and techniques to convey the speaker’s complex experience of returning home in “Monologue for Saint Louis.”

What are the scoring point ranges described for Question 1?

The document lists Question 1: Poetry Analysis as 6 points, with separate rows for Thesis (0–1 points) and Evidence AND Commentary (0–4 points).

What earns the Thesis point under the scoring guidelines?

A defensible thesis that presents an interpretation responding to the prompt earns the Thesis point, while theses that only restate the prompt or lack a coherent claim do not.

Sep 22, 2026

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