ENGL 220: Introduction to Poetry
Spring 2014
T Th, 9:30-10:45am, San Ignacio Hall C
Prerequisites: ENGL 190
Ryan Day
Office: San Ignacion Hall, Third floor, Room 9
Office hours: Tues./Thurs. 12:15-2:15pm and by appointment
Email: [email protected]
Course Description: This is a discussion-oriented, writing-intensive course in which we will
look at the broad history of poetry in the English language. We will read poems that are grouped not
simply across time, but by their treatment of subject, their stylistic approaches, their relationship to
and use of setting, voice, form... This is a unique approach that will allows us to look at the
progression of poetry not merely as a march across history, viewing moments and movements as
isolated, but instead to see the commonalities across eras and cultures.
Course Objectives:
-Improve our ability to appreciate, understand, discuss, and write about poems.
-Be able to identify as well as imitate a range of poetic forms and meters.
-To understand the ways in which cultural and historical contexts shape poems and poetic
traditions.
-To understand some of the historical, cultural, and critical contexts that shape our perceptions of
poems and poetic art.
-To consider some of the performative and material contexts in which poems appear (and how these
contexts shape the way meaning is produced in poems).
-To learn to access, evaluate, and apply the resources necessary for conducting research on poems
(and to use these resources in accordance with the University´s policy of academic integrity).
Required texts:
-The Norton Introduction to Poetry, ed. J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays
Recommended Resources:
-Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (Library)
-Oxford English Dictionary Online (Library Databases)
-American Academy of Poets <http://www.poets.org/>
-University of Illinois, Modern American Poetry <http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/>
Requirements:
-Regular attendance and participation. Class discussions are at the center of this course; it is
essential that you show up on time and contribute to the intellectual climate of the group (this
entails keeping up with the reading assignments, taking notes during class and as you complete the
readings, posing questions in class, etc.). You are allowed three absences during the course of the
semester. Additional unexcused absences will affect your final grade. You cannot pass the class if
you miss eight classes or more for whatever reason (you must withdraw or you will receive an “F”
as a final grade). Please take this into account if you have class trips scheduled or plan to
participate in other school-sponsored activities that will require you to miss classes (I will fully
support your involvement in these activities so long as you adhere to the class attendance policy).
You are responsible for keeping up with class discussions and assignments, so please contact me as
soon as possible if you miss a class. If you have questions or concerns about the attendance policy
now or at any point in the semester, please do not hesitate to contact me. 10 % of final grade
-3 essays: 2 pages, 4-5 pages, and 5-6 pages respectively. For the first two essays, you will be
evaluated on your analytical and close-reading skills. The third essay will be a research assignment
in which you will draw on critical and historical discussions of poetry to enhance your own
readings and analysis. I will distribute topics, requirements, and assessment guidelines. for each
essay at least two weeks prior to the due date (marked with ** on the schedule). We will workshop
rough drafts of the second and third paper in class prior to the due date for the final draft (drafts will
be due on the day of the workshop). Final papers turned in late and without prior notice will go
down 1/3 of a letter grade per class day (starting with the due date) and will not receive comments.
50% of final grade
-Short weekly response writings: 250-400 words. You are to use these weekly response writings
to practice the analytical skills you’ll be graded on in a less formal context. Suggestions: write
about a poem, a part of a poem, or compare parts of two poems that intrigue you. What kinds of
poetic devices do you encounter (metaphor, simile, etc.)? How do elements of rhythm, form, or
visual appearance contribute to the poem’s (or part of the poem’s) meaning(s)? Look up words in
the Oxford English Dictionary (available online via the SLU library’s webpage). Do you find any
meanings (related to the word as it is used in the poem and in its historical context) that surprise
you? You are to post ONE response writing per week (starting with week two) to our class blog the
address of which I will announce on the first day. Response writings will be due by 8am on the day
we are scheduled to talk about the poem or poems on which you´ve chosen to write (ie, if you
choose to respond to a poem that we are reading for Monday, you´ll need to email your response to
me by 8am on Monday). No response writings will be due during the weeks in which final drafts of
papers are due. 20% of final grade.
-Poetry Portfolio: On the last day of class, you will be required to turn in a portfolio of three
poems you’ve written using three of the following four forms: Sonnet, sestina, villanelle, free
verse. Your grade will depend less on your skills as a poet than on your understanding of these
forms and your ability to engage with them thoughtfully as well as creatively. 5 % of final grade.
Midterm Exam: A short answer exam on key terms and other concepts covered thus far. 5% of
final grade.
Final Exam: An essay exam in which you will be asked to make connections among three of the
poems we´ve covered during the semester. You will be evaluated on your ability to make thoughtful
and compelling connections among disparate texts, conduct close readings, and to analyze poems
using the literary and critical terms covered during the semester. 10 % of final grade.
Academic Honesty:
You are expected to maintain the standards of academic integrity required by Saint Louis
University. To quote from the University´s policy: Although not all forms of academic dishonesty
can be listed here, it can be said in general that soliciting, receiving, or providing any unauthorized
assistance in the completion of any work submitted toward academic credit is dishonest. It not only
violates the mutual trust necessary between faculty and students but also undermines the validity of
the University´s evaluation of students and takes unfair advantage of fellow students. Further, it is
the responsibility of any student who observes such dishonest conduct to call it to the attention of a
faculty member or administrator…Possible sanctions for a violation of academic integrity include,
but are not limited to, disciplinary probation, suspension, and dismissal from the University.
Examples of plagiarism include: turning in someone else´s work (published or unpublished) as
your own; presenting ideas that are not your own, or that are not common knowledge, either
directly (verbatim) or paraphrased (this includes quoting from or paraphrasing outside sources
without proper citation; willful misrepresentation of sources (citing a source that isn´t the source
from which you obtained your information).
Policy: If you turn in work that violates these policies and if this is your first offense, you will
receive an “F” on the assignment. If you violate the policy for a second time, you will receive an
“F” as a final grade for the class.
Accommodation Statement
Any student who needs an accommodation based on the impact of a disability (learning disabilities,
physical handicaps, or other reasons) should contact me privately to discuss your specific needs. If
you qualify for accommodations and are not registered with our Disabilities Services,
accommodations can be coordinated for students with documented disabilities. Please contact
Vickie Andrews or Laurie Mazzuca at 91 554 5858 Ext. 230, or stop by their office in Manresa
Hall.
Escriba para introducir texto
Week
Day
Class Description
Introduction to the course.
T-Jan-14 What is this course about?
Getting to know each other.
Week 1
Th-Jan-16 Telling it Slant
From reading to writing
T-Jan-21
Week 2
Writing about Poetry
Th-Jan-23
Reading for the Day
Dickinson (slant), Plath
(metaphors), Williams (red
wheel barrow), Shakespeare
(Mine mistress eyes),
Norton Introduction to Poetry,
pp. 1-15 (poems by Elizabeth
Barrett Browning, Jarold
Ramsey, Linda Pastan, Ezra
Pound, and Liz Rosenberg,
Ben Jonson, Howard
Nemerov, Seamus Heaney,
Rita Dove, and Anne Sexton).
Review carefully the
suggested guidelines for
reading and responding to
poems as we’ll be referring
back to these throughout the
semester. ).
Norton Introduction to Poetry,
pp. 16-26 (poems by W. H.
Auden, Andrew Marvell, Anne
Bradstreet, William
Shakespeare, Alan Bold,
Sharon Olds, Stephen Dunn,
Denise Levertov, Mary, Lady
Chudleigh, W. B. Yeats, and
Li-Young Lee)
Assignments
Take notes and be prepared to
discuss responses to each
poem. Turn in weekly
reflection.
F-Jan-24
Last Day to Drop a Class Without a Grade W and/or Add a Class
Norton Introduction to Poetry,
pp. 27-34, 47-48, 50-53, 5657, 59-60 (poems by Marge
Piercy, W. D. Snodgrass,
Thom Gunn, Etheridge Knight, Take notes and be prepared to
T-Jan-28
William Blake, Susan
discuss responses to each
Musgrave, and Alan Dugan poem.
poems by Yvonne Sapia,
Week 3
Alberto Alvaro Ríos, Jimmy
Santiago Baca, William Blake,
and Robert Lowell)
Norton Introduction to Poetry,
Speaker
pp. 81-84, 92 (poems by Sir Take notes and be prepared to
Thomas Wyatt, Fred Chappell, discuss responses to each
Th-Jan-30
Walt Whitman, Andrew
poem. Turn in weekly
Hudgins, and Gwendolyn
reflection.
Brooks).
Tone
Where, When, Why/ Space, Time,
Speaker
T-Feb-4
Week 4
Mapping the Poem
Norton Introduction to
Poetry, pp. 93-109 (poems
by James Dickey, John
Donne, Rita Dove, Linda
Pastan, and John Milton
Sylvia Plath, Matthew
Arnold, Mark Strand,
Andrew Marvell, Emily
Brontë, and Margaret
Atwood).
Take notes and be prepared to
discuss responses to each
poem.
Turn in 2 page analysis
Norton Introduction to Poetry,
pp. 111-12, 114-119 (poems Take notes and be prepared to
by Virginia Hamilton Adair,
discuss responses to each
Th-Feb-6
Mary Jo Salter, John Donne, poem. Turn in weekly
Sylvia Plath, Mark Strand, and reflection.
Joy Harjo).
Last Day to choose Audit (AU) or Pass/No Pass (P/NP) Options
M-Feb-10
Precision and Ambiguity/ Rhythm Norton Introduction to Poetry,
and Repetition
pp. 129-143 (poems by Sarah
Cleghorn, Anne Finch,
Countess of Winchelsea,
Charles Bernstein, Yvor
Take notes and be prepared to
Winters, Walter de la Mare,
T-Feb-11
discuss responses to each
Pat Mora, and Emily
poem.
Dickinson, Theodore Roethke,
Sharon Olds, Martha Collins,
Week 5
Paul Muldoon, Emily
Dickinson, William Carlos
Williams, and Ogden
W-Feb-12
Registration for Summer 2014 Sessions begins
Language of Description
Norton Introduction to Poetry,
pp. 153-55, 158, 162-3
Take notes and be prepared to
(poems by Jeanne Marie
discuss responses to each
Th-Feb-13
Beaumont, Ted Hughes,
poem. Turn in weekly
Andrew Marvell, and Ben
reflection.
Jonson).
Metaphor and Simile
T-Feb-18
Week 6
Symbol
Th-Feb-20
Prosody
T-Feb-25
Week 7
Words and Music
Th-Feb-27
Norton Introduction to Poetry,
pp. 199-200, 202-207 (poems
by Helen Chasin, Kenneth
Fearing, and Alexander
Pope).
Norton Introduction to Poetry,
pp. 208-214, 227-28 (poems
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
Wendy Cope, Anonymous,
John Dryden, Edgar Allan
Poe, and Charles Wright).
take notes and be prepared to
discuss responses to each
poem.
take notes and be prepared to
discuss responses to each
poem. Turn in weekly
reflection.
No Class (winter break)
No Class (winter break)
M-Mar-3
Week 8
Norton Introduction to Poetry,
pp. 165-71, 173-78, 180-81
(poems by William
Shakespeare, Linda Pastan,
take notes and be prepared to
David Wagoner, Robert
discuss responses to each
Burns, Anonymous, and John
poem.
Donne, David Ferry, Dorothy
Livesay, Amy Lowell, and
Margaret Cavendish, Duchess
of Newcastle).
Norton Introduction to Poetry, take notes and be prepared to
pp. 183-87, 191-92 (poems by discuss responses to each
Sharon Olds, James Dickey, poem. Turn in weekly
Robert Frost, Stephen Dunn). reflection.
T-Mar-4
Th-Mar-6 Review Week
T-Mar-11
Poets on Poetry
John Keats, Norton
Introduction to Poetry, pp.
344-355
W-Mar-12
Last Day to Drop a Class and Receive a Grade of W
Emily Dickinson Archive
Week 9
Th-Mar-13
The Sonnet
Week
10
T-Mar-18
Emily Dickinson, ¨Safe in
their Alabaster Chambers¨
(1859 and 1861 versions);
See ¨Emily Dickinson
Writing a Poem:
Production, Circulation,
Reception¨ by Martha Nell
Smith and Lara Vetter in the
Dickinson Electronic
Archives
<http://www.emilydickinson.
org> (see how Dickinson´s
exchanges with her sisterin-law shaped her poetic
process).
Sonnets by Wyatt, Sidney,
and Shakespeare
Take notes and be prepared
to discuss responses to each
poem.
Take notes and be prepared
to discuss responses to each
poem. Turn in weekly
reflection.
Take notes and be prepared
to discuss responses to each
poem.
The Sonnet
Th-Mar-20
Villanelle and Sestina
T-Mar-25
Week
11
Free Form and Verse
Th-Mar-27
Pastoral, Elegy, and Dramatic
Monologue
T-April-1
Week
12
Ballad, Aubade, Protest Poem
Th-April-3
Sonnets by Lady Mary
Wroth, John Milton, John
Keats, and Christina
Rossetti, Eavan Boland,
¨Atlantis—A Lost Sonnet¨
(handout), Elizabeth
Bishop, “Sonnet” (NIP, p.
321), Gwendolyn Brooks,
“First Fight, Then Fiddle”
(NIP, p. 270), Billy Collins,
“Sonnet” (NIP, p. 273).
Take notes and be prepared
to discuss responses to each
poem. Turn in weekly
reflection.
Elizabeth Bishop, “Sestina”
(NIP, p. 277), Dylan Thomas,
“Do Not Go Gentle into That
Good Night” (NIP, p. 275),
Stephen
Burt, ¨For Lindsay Whalen¨
and others in villanelle
handout
Whitman handout (excerpts
from Song of Myself), Robert
Frost, “Pertinax” (handout),
Marjorie Perloff, ¨After Free
Verse¨ (online)
Christopher Marlowe, “The
Passionate Shepherd to His
Love” NIP, pp. 390; John
Donne, Elegy 19 (handout);
Frank O’Hara, “The Day Lady
Died” (handout)Robert
Browning, “My Last Duchess”
(NIP, p. 329); Ai, “Salome”
(handout), Eavan Boland,
“Anorexic” (NIP, pp. 335-36)
Take notes and be prepared to
discuss responses to each
poem.
Turn in 4 page analysis
Take notes and be prepared to
discuss responses to each
poem.
Take notes and be prepared to
discuss responses to each
poem.
Anonymous, “Sir Patrick
Spens” NIP, p. 242-43; John
Donne, “The Sun Rising” (NIP,
p. 534); Gwendolyn Brooks, Take notes and be prepared to
“The Chicago Defender Sends discuss responses to each
a Man to Little Rock”
poem.
(handout); Thomas Lux,
“People of the Other Village”
(handout).
Literary Tradition and Poetic
Dialogue
T-Apr-8
Week
13
W-Apr-9
Sir Walter Raleigh, “The
Take notes and be prepared to
Nymph’s Reply to the
discuss responses to each
Shepherd” (NIP, p. 397);
poem.
William Carlos Williams,
“Raleigh Was Right” (NIP, p.
398); William Shakespeare,
“Not marble, nor the gilded
monuments” (NIP, p. 389);
Wendy Cope, “Not only
marble, but the plastic toys”
(NIP, p. 401) Desmond
Skirrow, “Ode on a Grecian
Urn Summarized” (NIP, p.
400); W. H. Auden, “In
Memory of W. B. Yeats” (NIP,
p. 408); Anthony Hecht, “The
Dover Bitch” (NIP, p. 400).
Registration for Fall 2014 Semester begins
Literary Tradition and Poetic
Dialogue
Th-Apr-10
Hart Crane, “To Emily
Dickinson” (NIP, p. 406);
Billy Collins, “Taking off
Emily Dickinson’s Clothes”
(NIP, p. 406-7), Adrienne
Rich, “I am in danger—sir—
” (handout).
Take notes and be prepared
to discuss responses to each
poem.
M-Apr-14
T-Apr-15
Week
TWApr-16
14
Th-Apr-17
Easter Break
F-Apr-18
Harlem Renaissance
T-Apr-22
Week
15
Harlem Renaissance
Th-Apr-24
Week
16
T-Apr-29
Th-May-1
T-May-6
Week
Last Day
17
of Class
FINALS T-May
WEEK
13
Symbolism and Modernism
TBA
Cultural Contexts
Take notes and be prepared to
Norton Introduction to Poetry, discuss responses to each
pp. 423-35, 442-50. Langston poem.
Hughes
Norton Introduction to Poetry,
pp. 436-438, 460-464.
Take notes and be prepared to
discuss responses to each
poem.
William Butler Yeats
Take notes and be prepared to
Poems TBA, T.S. Eliot
discuss responses to each
Poems TBA
poem.
No Class (Labor Day)
TBA
Turn in final paper
FINAL EXAM
FROM 8:30 - 11:30 PM