Département des littératures
Faculté des lettres et des sciences humaines
Me. 08:30-11:15
ANG-1004
Trimestre: Hiver 2015
Chargé-de-cours: Bruce Gilchrist
DKN 3136 bureau: 5275 Me. 15:00-16:00
LITERARY GENRES: POETRY
Course Objectives and Description
This course aims to provide the student with an overview of poetry in the English language from
its beginnings in the Anglo-Saxon era through to the twentieth century. The approach will be both
historical, working in order from the medieval to the contemporary, and thematic, with each week’s
selections centered on a different theme and/or genre.
By the end of the term, students should be familiar with the major English language poets and with
the poetic terminology needed for critical interpretation. My hope is that each student shall feel
comfortable in applying her knowledge to reading new poems and will carry forward an appreciation
of poetry in its aesthetic beauty and in its usefulness for teaching.
Evaluation and Rationale
Participation
Poetic Inventions
Two Short Essays
Two Short Tests
10%
10%
40%
40%
[a very high level of classroom discussion is encouraged]
[two or more poems created as imitations or responses]
[1200-1500 words each; must be written in proofread English]
[one hour each; closed book; each test covers half the course]
You will be expected to read each of the assigned poems before coming to class and to participate freely
in class discussion: vocal participation is a key to succeeding in this course & to its enjoyability.
As an element of creative writing and as an extension of poetic pleasure, students will also have the
opportunity to compose poems in the style of the poets studied.
The two short essays (roughly 4 pages each) will have topics set in advance, though you are free to
develop your own topics and to propose poems for study—with my approval in advance. The essays
should consider a few short poems or one long poem as closely as possible, concentrating both on the
interpretation of theme and on the understanding of form and technique, that is, how the ‘invisible
mechanics’ guide our interpretations and work to accentuate the theme.
Each short test will consider all of the assigned poems for that half of the course. You will be
responsible for all the poems by the writers listed in the schedule below, even those not covered directly
in class time. You will be given excerpts from various poems and asked to identify the poem or the
author and
to answer questions pertaining to meter, form, and figures of speech; you will also be asked to interpret
a poem we have not read in class for these same features of theme and form.
Last, please ensure that you complete all the obligatory assignments of this course; incomplete
assignments will be given zero points and can lead to an overall failure in the course.
All course notes and all poems will be distributed by .pdf file, in advance, to your ULAVAL email
[or other preferred email]. There is only one required book for you to purchase, but you may find a
second-copy of a general poetry anthology, such as the Norton Anthology of Poetry, to be helpful.
ANG 1004 — POETRY — COURSE SCHEDULE
Me. 08:30-11:15 DKN 3136
JAN 14
JAN 21
JAN 28
FÉV 4
FÉV 11
FÉV 18
HIVER 2015
all texts sent by .pdf except *
Introduction What is Poetry? What’s it for and what do we do with it?
Poems
King James Bible, Psalm 8; Blake, And Did Those Feet; Hopkins, God’s Grandeur
Anon. Cædmon’s Hymn; Denise Levertov, Caedmon
[Hymns]
Theory
Hymn, Lyric, Old English, Alliteration
Poems
Anon. The Wanderer; Anon. Sweet Jesus
Jonson, On My First Son
Traditional, I Am Stretched…; Hill, September Song
Theory
Elegy, Apostrophe, Allusion, Kenning
Poems
Anon. Floris et Blancheflour
Theory
Middle English; Romance
Poems
Anon. Floris et Blancheflour, cont’d.
Skelton; Wyatt
Ralegh
Theory
Ballad, Meter
Poems
Sidney, Astrophil and Stella; Shakespeare, Sonnets
Lady Mary Wroth, Pamphilia; Donne, Holy Sonnets
Theory
Sonnet, Oxymoron, Chiasmus
Poems
Donne; Herbert; Carew
Vaughan; Traherne
Theory
[Elegies]
[Middle English]
[16th /17th c . Lyrics]
[Sonneteers]
[Metaphysicals]
Metaphor, Simile, Metonymy, Synecdoche
Composition One Due
FÉV 25
Poems
Theory
Jonson; Herrick; Rochester; Behn
Swift; Johnson, London
[17th/18th ; Urbanity/Wit]
Cavalier Poetry, Satire, Heroic Verse
Test One
MAR 4
Semaine de Lecture
ANG 1004
Course Schedule cont’d
MAR 11
Poems
Theory
Blake; Coleridge
Wordsworth; Shelley
Keats
[Romantics]
Romantics, Illuminated Verse, Ode
Essay One Due
MAR 18
MAR 25
AVR 1
AVR 8
Poems
C. Rossetti, Goblin Market
Tennyson, The Lotos Eaters
Theory
Children’s Verse
Poems
Whitman, As I Ebb’d with the Ocean of Life; Dickinson
Sandburg; ee cummings
[Victorians]
[Am. Modernism]
Theory
Free Verse, Prose or Poetry?
Poems
A.J.M. Smith, The Lonely Land; Birney
Cohen; Ondaatje
Carson, from The Beauty of the Husband
[Can. Modernism]
W.H. Auden; S. Smith; Heaney; Larkin
Walcott
[Brit. Modernism]
[Postcolonial]
Poems
Composition Two Due
AVR 15
Poems
*Ted Hughes, from Birthday Letters
[*to be purchased from the Zone]
Essay Two Due
Test Two
AVR 22
Student poems read aloud (bonus marks)
• Plagiat / voir Règlement des études de l’Université Laval http://www.lit.ulaval.ca/index.php?id=493
• L’usage de la nouvelle orthographe est permis à condition que l’étudiant l’ait dûment signalé dans son travail, sans quoi les
graphies jusque-là considérées comme incorrectes seront pénalisées.
er
Échelle de conversion de notes (1 cycle)
Excellent :
Très bon :
Bon :
A+ = 94-100
B+ = 82-84
C+ = 72-74
A = 89-93
B = 78-81
C = 68-71
e
A– = 85-88
B– = 75-77
C– = 65-67
Passable :
Insuffisant :
D+ = 61-64
E = 0-54
D = 55-60
Bon :
Insuffisant :
C+ = 72-74
E = 0-67
C = 68-71
e
Échelle de conversion de notes (2 et 3 cycles)
Excellent :
Très bon :
A+ = 94-100
B+ = 82-84
A = 89-93
B = 78-81
A– = 85-88
B– = 75-77