| Week 1 Introduction
Week 2 Tone
Week 3 Speaker
Week 4 Situation & Setting
Week 5 Language
Week 6 Language: Picturing & Metaphor and Simile
Week 7 Language: Symbols
Week 8 The Sounds of Poetry
Week 9 Scansion
Week 10 Scansion & Internal Structure
Week 11 Internal Structure
Week 12 External Form
Week 13 Sonnets
Week 14 Sonnets
Final Exam
Why Use Electronic Texts?
Week 1 Introduction
T 8/29 What is an American Poem?
Sign up for Groups. Your Group # is _____________
Workshop: What is a Poem? What is an American Poem?
R 8/31 Poetry: Reading, Writing, & Responding (Norton 1-25)
In Depth Poems: Anne
Bradstreet, “To
My Dear and Loving Husband” (Norton 16)
Aphra Behn, “On
Her Loving Two Equally” (Norton 19)
(Optional: American Passages Overview: Puritan
Literature & Culture)
Week 2 Tone
T 9/05 Understanding the Text: Tone (Norton 26-58)
In Depth Poems: Maxine Kumin, “Woodchucks”
(Norton 34 & CD)
Li-Young Lee, “Persimmons”
(Norton 42 & CD)
R 9/07 Tone, Continued
American Passages 1: Native
Voices (Video on reserve) OR Simon Ortiz, “Song/Poetry and Language—Expression
and Perception” (Speak to Me Words, ed. Dean Rader and
Janice Gould, 235-46. Reserve PS153.I52 S64 2003 and folders)
In Depth Poems: Simon
Ortiz, “My Father’s Song” (Norton 42)
Luci Tapahonso,
“Starlore”
(Handout)
Week 3 Speaker
T 9/12 Understanding the Text: Speaker (Norton 59-84)
In Depth Poem: Pat
Mora, “La Migra” (Norton 80)
Gloria
Anzaldua, “El Sonavabitche” (Reader)
Optional: American Passages 2: Borderlands
(Video on reserve); American Passages Context: Writing
Without Words
R 9/14Speaker, Cont.
Adena Rosmarin, “The Dramatic Monologues and the Problem of Genre,”
“Madness, Melodrama, and the Monologue,” & “Complicating
the Rhetoric of Lyricism: Wordsworth, Pound, and the Mask Lyric”
(The Power of Genre, 52-59, 102-108.109-122; Reserve PN45.5 .R67
1985 and folder)
In Depth Poem: Elizabeth
Alexander, “The Venus Hottentot” (The Venus Hottentot,
3-7)
Critical Article Synopsis Due
Who was Saartje (Sara) Baartman (the Venus Hottentot)?
Week 4 Situation & Setting
T 9/19 Understanding the Text: Situation & Setting (Norton 85-122)
“Aubaude,” Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry & Poetics
(Handout)
In Depth Poems: Sylvia
Plath, “Morning
Song” (Norton 108)
Marilyn Chin, “Aubade” (Handout)
* View a video
clip of the Sylvia Plath poem "Daddy" from Voices
& Visions: Sylvia Plath (Full Video on Reserve)
R 9/21 Situation & Setting, Cont.
Lesley Wheeler,
“Introduction” and “Emily Dickinson’s Fairer Houses”
(The Poetics of Enclosure, 1-40; Reserve Folders or PS147 .W47 2002)
In Depth Poems: Emily
Dickinson, “Because
I Could Not Stop for Death”; (Norton 477 & CD); “I
Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died” (Handout); “Safe in their Alabaster
Chambers” (Norton 452)
* View a video
clip of the Emily Dickinson poem "The Soul Selects Her Own Society".
Emily Dickinson Archives Online
Critical Article Synopsis Due
Week 5 Language
T 9/26 Understanding the Text: Language (Norton 123-146)
In Depth Poems: Rita Dove,
“Parsley,”
(Norton 136-138)
R 9/28 Language, Cont.
Jonathan Arac, "Whitman, and the Problem of the Vernacular"
(Breaking Bounds, eds. Erkkila and Grossman, 44- 61. Reserve
PS3238 .B74 1996)
In Depth Poems: Walt
Whitman, “When
Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed” (Norton 540) “I
celebrate myself, and sing myself” (Norton 83)
Optional: American Passages 5: Masculine
Heroes OR Voices & Visions: Walt Whitman (Videos on reserve)
The Walt Whitman Online Archive:
Includes Audio of Whitman
and Images
Critical Article Synopsis Due
Week 6 Picturing & Metaphor
and Simile
T 10/3 Picturing & Metaphor and Simile (Norton 147-173)
In Depth Poems: Cathy Song, “Girl
Powdering Her Neck”(Handout)
William
Carlos Williams, “Queen-Anne’s-Lace”
(Handout)
Yi Gon-Ch’ang, “The Moonlit Pond” (Handout)
“Haiku” (Norton 347-48)
More Ekphrastic
Poetry; *View an animated
video of Williams's Commentary on "This is Just to Say"
and Flossie William's Reply. This can be viewed using a RealPlayer. To
download a free RealPlayer, click here.
Flossie
Williams's reply to "This Is Just to Say" (text)
* View a video
clip of the William Carlos Williams poem "The Great Figure"
(from Voices
& Visions: William Carlos Williams). AP Context: Orientalism;
A
Letter to William Carlos Williams by Kenneth Rexroth
R 10/5 Metaphors, Cont.
Wayne
Booth, “Metaphor as Rhetoric, (On Metaphor, ed. Sheldon
Sacks, 47-70; Reserve PN228.M4 O5).
Poems: continued from previous day.
Critical Article Synopsis Due
Week 7 Symbols
T 10/10 Language: Symbol (Norton174-190)
Robert Nelson,
“Dawn
/ is a Good Word” (Speak to Me Words, ed. Dean Rader
and Janice Gould, 235-46. Reserve PS153.I52 S64 2003 and folders)
In Depth Poem: Luci
Tapahonso, "A Breeze Swept Through" (Handout). Listen to
Luci read a section of this poem: American
Passages #8302; Here is another segment of the Poem: American
Passages #8303.
Critical Article Synopsis Due
R 10/12 Symbols, Cont.
Michael Bibby, "'The Territory Colonized': Sitting the Body in Women's
Liberation Poetry," (Hearts and Minds, 78-122; Reserve PS310.V54
B53 1996 and folder)
In Depth Poems: Adrienne
Rich, “Diving
Into the Wreck” (Norton 184 & CD)
Optional: American Passages 15: Liberation
Poetry (Video on Reserve). Click here to listen to Professor Michael
Bibby reads from Amiri Baraka's poem BLACK ART (1966) (Amer.
Pass #8904); or to hear him discuss Allen Ginsberg's attitude toward
the government and society (Amer.
Pass #8911).
Critical Article Synopsis Due
10/14-10/22 FALL BREAK
Week 8 Sounds of Poetry
T 10/24 The Sounds of Poetry (Norton 190-222)
In Depth Poems: Michael
Harper, “Dear
John, Dear Coltrane”(Norton 213 & CD)
Elizabeth Alexander, “John Col” (The Venus Hottentot,
32)
Sacha Feinstein, “The John Coltrane Poem” (Jazz Poetry 115-143;
Reserve PS310.J39 F45 1997 and folders)
Critical Article Synopsis Due
Context: Jazz (AP:
http://www.learner.org/amerpass/unit14/context_activ-4.html)
R 10/26 Sounds, Cont.
In Depth Poems, Elizabeth Alexander, “Omni-Albert Murray”
(The Venus Hottentot)
Week 9 Scansion
T 10/31 Scansion
INTRA: Interactive Tutorial
On Rhythm Analysis
Using Intra
1-The Purposes of This Tutorial
2-Some Introductory Concepts and Terms
3-Prosody
4-Versification
(Including all exercises in these sections)
R 11/02 Scansion, cont.
INTRA: Interactive Tutorial
On Rhythm Analysis
5-Phrasal Rhythm
(Including all exercises in this section)
Week 10 Scansion &
Internal Structure
T 11/07 Scansion, cont.
Stephen Adams, “Meter and Rhythm” (Poetic Designs,
1-36; Reserve PE1505 .A32 1997)
Assignment for everybody: Scan one stanza from a poem we have read so
far and comment on the significance of the meter in light of the overall
meaning of the lines and the poem more broadly. Bring four copies of your
analysis to class with you.
R 11/09 Internal Structure (Norton 223-249)
Elizabeth Bishop, “Pink Dog” (Handout)
Week 11 Internal Structure
T 11/14 Internal Structure, Cont.
In Depth Poems: Langston
Hughes, “The
Weary Blues” (Handout)
Gwendolyn
Brooks, “Queen of the Blues” (Handout)
Optional: American Passages 10: American
Rhythms (Video on reserve)
(Reader) Sidney Bechet, “Strange
Fruit,” The Legendary Sidney Bechet (CD On
Reserve); * View a video
clip of the Langston Hughes poem "Dream Deferred". From
Voices & Visions
R 11/16 Internal Form, Cont.
Dimock, Wai Chee. "Whitman, Syntax and Political Theory." (Breaking
Bounds, ed. Betsy Erkikka and Jay Grossman. 62-79; Reserve PS3238
.B74 1996).
In Depth Poems: Walt
Whitman,“When
Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed” (Norton 540) “I celebrate
myself, and sing myself” (Norton 83)
Optional: American Passages 5: Masculine
Heroes OR Voices & Visions: Walt Whitman (Videos on reserve)
* View a video
clip of the Walt Whitman poem "Out
of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking".
Critical Article Synopsis Due
Week 12 External Form
T 11/21 External Form: Stanza Forms (Norton 265-270)
Peter Sacks,"Interpreting
the Genre: The Elegy and the Work of Mourning," ( The English
Elegy 1-37; Reserve PR509.E4 S23 1985).
In Depth Poems: Elizabeth
Bishop, “One
Art”(Handout); Video
Clip of "One Art"
Anne
Sexton, “The
Abortion” (Handout)
Optional: Voices & Visions, Elizabeth Bishop (On Reserve)
Critical Article Synopsis Due
11/23-11/26 THANKSGIVING BREAK
Week 13 Sonnets
T 11/28 External Form: The Sonnet (Norton 250-264)
Li-Young
Lee," I Ask My Mother
to Sing” (Handout)
Nellie
Wong, “Grandmother’s Song” (Handout) ; Pantoum
Defined
R 11/30 Sonnets, Cont.
Handout “Religious Sonnets: Form as Optimism” (If you so desire
you may read the whole article. It is in The Subtext of Form,
69-118; Reserve PR535.A34 H46 1994)
In Depth Poems: John Milton, “When
I consider how my light is spent” (Norton 258)
Countee
Cullen, “Yet
Do I Marvel”
Week 14 Sonnets, Cont.
T 12/5 Sonnets, Cont.
Marcellus Blount, “Caged Birds: Race and Gender in the Sonnet, (Engendering
Men, ed. Joseph Boone & Michael Cadden 255-38; Reserve PS152
.E49 1990)
In Depth Poems: Claude
McKay, “The
White House,” ((Norton 257) ; Gwendolyn
Brooks, “First
Fight. Then Fiddle,” (Norton 260); Elizabeth Alexander, “House
Party Sonnet” (the Venus Hottentot, 19)
Sample
Student Essay on Gwendolyn Brooks, “First Fight. Then Fiddle,”
Do you think the student "gets" the poem? What would you add
to his analysis now that you have read Blount's essay?
FINAL EXAM M 12/11 Take Home Final Exam Due
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