Syllabus (12 January 2004)
Texts
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Conarroe, Joel, ed. Six American Poets:
An Anthology. Vintage. ISBN: 0679745254.
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---. Eight American Poets: An Anthology.
Vintage. ISBN: 0679776435.
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Gilbert, Jack. The Great Fires: Poems,
1982-1992. Knopf. ISBN: 0679747672.
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Jeffers, Robinson. Selected Poems.
Vintage. ISBN: 0394702956.
Course
Description and Goals
This course offers a highly selective survey
of 20th-century American poetry through the study of representative poems
by representative poets. Really, though, the course is less about
literary history than about poems--how to read them, how to write them,
and what to say about them. To this end, the course will introduce
you to the formal properties of versification and to a variety of critical
approaches and interpretive techniques. We'll apply these in in-class
discussions, and you will do a series of written assignments (including
verse "emulations" and brief analytical/interpretive essays) and take a
couple of tests. More broadly, the course aims to throw light not
only on the interface between poetry and experience, but also on poems
as modes of experience for both the author and the reader, and the visit
to campus in April by one of our poets, Jack Gilbert, should contribute
to this goal.
Requirements
and Grading
A=90-100; B=80-89; C=70-79; D=60-69; F=0-59
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Five brief assignments (50%)--Not to exceed 500
words, these will be either informal analytical/interpretive essays on
individual poems or verse "emulations" and commentaries.
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Essay on Jack Gilbert (10%)--Not to exceed 1,000
words, this short essay will provide both a journalistic account of Gilbert's
visit to Centenary and a cogent introduction to his poetry.
-
Midterm test (10%)--Topics to be covered will
be announced (Tuesday, March 2).
-
Final exam (20%)--Format and date will be announced.
-
Active participation (10%)--This includes regular
attendance, oral and possible written contributions to in-class discussions,
performance on occasional reading quizzes, and other demonstrations of
conscientiousness. To be present, you must be on time to class; you
must have the assigned text with you; and you must stay awake. The English
Department does not distinguish between excused and unexcused absences.
Miss more than six classes for whatever reason and you will fail the course.
Assignments
(updated 3 February 2004)
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Reading assignments include the introductions
to assigned poets in Six American Poets and Eight American Poets.
-
You are to read the entire selection, unless
individual titles are specified, in the two anthologies. (You will
be reading more poems than we can discuss in class.)
-
Brief assignments are due by 3 PM on Fridays,
except for Assignment #5, which is due by 3 PM on Wednesday.
-
I will be updating the schedule of reading assignments
as the semester advances.
January
13-15 |
Th: "Introduction" to Six American Poets
Th: Robert Frost in Six American Poets |
| 20-22 |
T: Frost
Th: Wallace Stevens in Six American Poets:
"Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock," "Anecdote of the Jar," "Thirteen Ways
of Looking at a Blackbird," "The Idea of Order at Key West" |
| 27-29 |
T: Stevens, "Sunday Morning"--Read also and
bring to class the brief commentary by Janet
McCann at the Modern American Poetry Website.
Th: William Carlos Williams in Six American
Poets: "Pastoral" (p. 151), "Danse Russe," "The Widow's Lament in Springtime,"
"Proletarian Portrait," "The Yachts," "A Negro Woman" (Th)
Brief Assignment #1 |
February
3-5 |
T: Langston Hughes in Six American Poets
Th: Hughes continued
Th: Robinson Jeffers ("Robinson
Jeffers' Life and Career" by Arthur B. Coffin, Modern American Poetry
Website)
Th: Jeffers, Selected Poems: "To the
Stone-Cutters," "Continent's End," "Night," "Shine, Perishing Republic,"
"Boats in a Fog" |
| 10-12 |
T: Jeffers, "Apology for Bad Dreams," "Roan
Stallion"
Th: Jeffers, "The Torch-Bearers' Race," "Tor
House," "Hurt Hawks," "An Artist," "The Bed by the Window," "Rock and Hawk,"
"Love the Wild Swan," "The Purse-Seine," "The Old Stonemason," "The Deer
Lay Down Their Bones," "Vulture," "Birds and Fishes"
Brief Assignment #2 |
| 17-19 |
TTh: Theodore Roethke in Eight American
Poets |
| 24-26 |
Mardi Gras Holiday |
March
2-4 |
T: Midterm Test
Th: Elizabeth Bishop in Eight American
Poets |
| 9-11 |
TTh: Bishop
Brief Assignment #3 |
| 16-18 |
TTh: Robert Lowell in Eight American Poets |
| 23-25 |
T: Lowell
Th: John Berryman in Eight American Poets:
Dream
Songs 1, 4, 14, 18, 76, 77
Th: Anne Sexton in Eight American Poets:
"Little Girl, My String Bean, My Lovely Woman," "Pain for a Daughter,"
"The Witch's Life"
Brief Assignment #4 |
| 29-April 1 |
TTh: Sylvia Plath in Eight American Poets |
April
6-8 |
T: Allen Ginsberg in Eight American Poets:
"A Supermarket in California," "Sunflower Sutra," "Kaddish"
Brief Assignment #5 (due by 3 PM,
Wednesday)
Spring Break |
| 13-15 |
TTh: Jack Gilbert, tba |
| 6:30 PM (new
time!), Monday, April 19, Meadows Museum |
Award-winning poet Jack Gilbert, whose most
recent book is The Great Fires: Poems 1982-1992 (Knopf, 1994), will
read from his work. Born in 1925 in Pittsburgh, PA, Gilbert won the 1962
Yale Younger Poets Award for Views of Jeopardy. He is the author
of three critically acclaimed books published at wide intervals. His career
has been almost legendary. The event is sponsored by the Convocations Subcommittee.
It is free and open to the public. |
| 20-22 |
TTh: Gilbert
Essay on Jack Gilbert |
| 27-29 Preparation Week |
Course Evaluations
Sweep-up |
|