English 106: Introduction to Literature: Poetry
Spring 2010
ENG 106–CRN: 32378
MWF: 2:00-2:50
Room: 142 HEDCO Education Building
Instructor: Corbett Upton
Office: 243 PLC
Phone: 346-1052
E-mail: [email protected]
Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 12:30-2:00, and by appointment.
Required Texts:
X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia, eds. An Introduction to Poetry (12th edition).
Katy Lederer, The Heaven-Sent Leaf.
Recommended: A good dictionary and a guide to MLA format. Active reading will require marking
significant passages. Plan to access texts accordingly.
Attendance and Participation: Punctual, regular attendance is a requirement for this class. You are
allowed three absences; every subsequent absence lowers your final grade by 1 step (A to A-, B+ to B, C to
C-, etc.). You must be prepared to discuss the reading assignment on the day that it is due, and to
participate in a respectful and lively discussion. Be prepared to read assigned texts closely, share your
ideas, and ask questions of your peers and your instructor.
Assignments: All readings are due by the beginning of the class time indicated on the assignment
schedule attached to this syllabus. Although the number of words and pages we will consider is somewhat
less than in a fiction course, the amount of time spent reading will be roughly equivalent because you will
need to read each poem at least twice and consider it carefully in order to be adequately prepared. Most of
the assigned reading is from the Kennedy collection, but you will access a few supplementary poems on
Blackboard.
Writing Assignments: All writing assignments are due at my office by 5:00 on the due dates (Fridays). No
secondary reading is required or encouraged, but if you do choose to use sources, they must be properly
documented. I am happy to help you in advance of the due date on any assignment. Please review the
University policy regarding academic honesty (in Schedule of Classes), which will be strictly enforced in
this class. If you plagiarize or cheat, you will automatically fail the course. All written work will be graded
for form as well as content, so be sure to get help on writing and essay form (including grammar) in
plenty of time if you need it. Refer to the “Essay Checklist” at the end of this document for formatting
guidelines.
Reading Quizzes & Paraphrases: An unspecified number of quizzes will be given throughout the term.
These quizzes will ask questions specific to the reading assignments and literary terms for the day or
previous days. All quizzes are “take-home” and will be due the following class period. There are no makeups; late quizzes will not be accepted. There will be FIVE poem paraphrases due throughout the term
(Fridays–see course schedule). There are no make-ups for this assignment. Instructions for this assignment
are available on Blackboard.
Poem Memorization & Recitation: Your task for this assignment is to choose a poem from the course’s
reading list that is at least 12 lines long, to memorize it, and to recite it to me during office hours.
Recitations must occur during the week the poem is assigned. A sign-up sheet will be circulated during the
first week of class. More guidelines and suggestions are posted on Blackboard (“Preparing Recitations”).
Examinations: There will be two in-class examinations, a midterm and a final, to test reading
comprehension, vocabulary, and the information and ideas discussed in class.
Grading:
Attendance and Participation
Recitation
Quizzes & Paraphrases
Essay 1
Essay 2
Midterm Examination
Final Examination
10%
5%
10%
15%
20%
20%
20%
No late assignments or recitations will be accepted (unless you’ve made arrangements with me well
in advance of the due date), and, again, there are no make-up times for exams. Incompletes will be
given for documented medical emergencies only.
Accommodation: If you have a documented disability and anticipate needing accommodations in
this course, please make arrangements to meet with me soon, and request that the Counselor for
Students with Disabilities send a letter verifying your disability.
What is poetry? Some definitions: Poetry is . . .
. . . the art of uniting pleasure with truth by calling imagination to the help of reason.—Samuel
Johnson
. . . the best words in the best order.—Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
. . . musical thought.—Thomas Carlyle.
. . . emotion put into measure.—Thomas Hardy
. . . If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.—Emily
Dickinson.
. . . poems are bullshit unless they are / teeth or trees or lemons piled / on a step.—Amiri Baraka.
. . . Poetry provides the one permissible way of saying one thing and meaning another.—Robert
Frost.
. . . prose bewitched.—Mina Loy.
. . . hundreds of things coming together at the right moment.—Elizabeth Bishop.
. . . Poetry is life distilled.—Gwendolyn Brooks.
Course Schedule:
Note: All writing and reading assignments are due on the day listed. This schedule is subject to change.
Week 1
M
3/29
W
3/31
Introduction. “Ars Poetica,” “The House on the Hill”
Read: “Preface” (xxxi-xxxiv), “Reading a Poem” (3-7), “Lyric Poetry” (7-8), “Narrative
Poetry” (9), “Dramatic Poetry” (12), “Paraphrasing a Poem” (17).
Poems: “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” (8), “Out, Out–“ (11), “The Witch of
Coös” (Blackboard),
Terms: verse, paraphrase, summary, theme, subject, lyric, narrative, dramatic poem.
F
4/2
Week 2
M
4/5
Read: “Tone” (18-21), “The Person in the Poem” (24-27), “Irony” (32-33), “Analyzing
Tone” (45)
Poems: “My Papa’s Waltz” (18-19), “White Lies” (24-25), “Monologue for an Onion”
(28), “Rejection Slip” (40-41), “the murder” (Blackboard), “Life,
friends” (Blackboard)
Terms: tone, satiric poetry, persona, irony
Read: “Literal Meaning” (50-52), “The Value of a Dictionary” (54-55)
Poems: “Silence” (52), “Aftermath” (55), “Advice to a Friend Who Paints” (58),
“Grass” (58).
Terms: diction, concrete, abstract, allusion
W
4/7
Read: “Word Choice and Word Order” (58-62), “Thinking about Word Choice” (73)
Poems: “Blandeur” (62), “Carnation Milk” (68), “English con Salsa” (69), “[I dwell in
Possibility]” (360), “[After great pain, a formal feeling comes]” (361)
Terms: poetic diction, dialect, vulgate, colloquial, general English, formal English
F
4/9
Read: “Saying and Suggesting” (75-78), “Analyzing What a Poem Says and Suggests”
(86).
Poems: “Southeast Corner” (79), “Fire and Ice” (81), “Those Winter Sundays” (494),
“Spring and All” (527)
Terms: denotation, connotation
DUE: Quiz & Paraphrase 1
Week 3
M
4/12
Read: “Imagery” (87-88), “Thinking About Imagery” (104)
Poems: “The Fish” (90), “Reapers” (93), “The Victory” (92), “The Red Wheelbarrow”
(Blackboard)
Terms: image, imagery
W
4/14
Read: “About Haiku” (94-95), “Haiku from Japanese Internment Camps” (96)
Poems: read all “Haiku from Japanese Internment Camps,” “Contemporary Haiku” (9697), “A Selection of Hokku” (490), and “selections of Haiku” on Blackboard.
Terms: Haiku
F
4/16
Read: “Why Speak Figuratively” (110-11), “Metaphor and Simile” (112-14),
“Analyzing Metaphor” (129)
Poems: “[My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun]” (114), “Metaphors” (115), “Simile”
(116), “A Martian Sends a Postcard Home” (117)
Terms: figures of speech, simile, metaphor, implied metaphor, mixed metaphor
DUE: Quiz & Paraphrase 2
Week 4
M
4/19
Read: “Other Figures of Speech” (119-23)
Poems: “The Wind” (119), “You fit into me” (122), The Cathedral Is” (122), “Coward”
(126), “Hands” (127), “Oh, my love is like a red, red rose” (128).
Terms: personification, apostrophe, overstatement / hyperbole, understatement,
metonymy, paradox, pun
W
4/21
Read: “Sound as Meaning” (152-55), “Alliteration and Assonance” (156-58), “Writing
about a Poem’s Sound” (171)
Poems: “Bereft” (Blackboard), “Eight O’Clock” (158), “All day I hear” (158)
Terms: euphony, cacophony, onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance
F
4/23
DUE: Essay #1
Week 5
M
4/26
Read: “Rime” (159-64), “Reading and Hearing Poems Aloud” (167-68)
Poems: “Rough Weather (162), “Full fathom five thy father lies” (169), “In Memoriam
John Coltrane” (168), “Lai with Sounds of Skin” (169)
Terms: rime, exact rime, slant rime, end rime, internal rime, masculine and feminine
rime, eye rime
W
4/28
Read: “Stresses and Pauses” (173-77), “Meter” (180-86), “Scanning a Poem” (192)
Poems: “We Real Cool” (177), “Résumé” (180), “Counting-out Rhyme” (187), “When
I was one-and-twenty” (188), “This Be The Verse” (Blackboard)
Terms: rhythm, stress, end-stopped, run-on line, meter, iambic pentameter, pentameter,
scansion
F
4/30
MIDTERM EXAMINATION (Bring a bluebook)
Week 6
M
5/3
Read: “Closed Form” (194-95), “Formal Patterns” (195-200)
Poems: “This living hand, now warm and capable” (195), “Counting the Beats” (197),
“Song” (198), “Brief Bio” (200)
Terms: form, closed form, open form, epic, blank verse, couplet, heroic couplet, parallel,
antithesis, quatrain, syllabic verse
W
5/5
Read: “The Sonnet” (200-01), “Thinking About a Sonnet” (215)
Poems: “Let me not to the marriage of true minds” (201), “Since there’s no help, come
let us kiss and part” (202) “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and
why” (202-03), “First Poem for You” (204),
Terms: fixed forms, conventions, sonnet, English sonnet, Italian sonnet, sestet, octave,
quatrain
F
5/7
Poems: “Acquainted with the Night” (203), “Shakespearean Sonnet” (206), “Sine Qua
Non” (205), “If We Must Die” (Blackboard), “She had forgotten how the
August night” (Blackboard), “I shall forget you presently, my dear”
(Blackboard), “looking” (Blackboard),
DUE: Quiz & Paraphrase 3
Week 7
M
5/10
Read: “The Epigram” (206), “Other Forms” (210)
Poems: All epigrams (207-209), “ABC” (210), “Sestina” (212-13), “Lonely Hearts” (65),
“Do not go gentle into that good night” (211)
Terms: epigram, villanelle, sestina
W
5/12
Read: “Open Form” (217-221), “Prose Poetry” (226), “Analyzing Line Breaks in Free
Verse” (237)
Poems: “Ancient Stairway” (217), “For the Anniversary of My Death” (221), “Failure”
(234-35), “The Colonel” (227)
Terms: open form, free verse, psalms, prose poems
F
5/14
Read: “Visual Poetry” (228-30), “Found Poetry” (232), “Seeing the Logic of Open
Form Verse” (233)
Poems: “Easter Wings” (228), “Swan and Shadow” (229), “from Papyrus” (230),
“Concrete Cat” (231), “Yield” (232), “I Shall Paint My Nails Red” (234)
Terms: concrete poetry, found poetry
DUE: Quiz & Paraphrase 4
Week 8
M
5/17
Read: “Symbol” (238-45), “Reading a Symbol” (251), “Analyzing a Symbol” (252)
Poems: “The Lightning is a yellow Fork” (240), “The Road Not Taken” (245),
“Carrie” (248), “Tree” (248), “Popcorn-can cover” (249), “Anecdote of the Jar”
(250).
Terms: symbol, conventional symbols
W
5/19
F
5/21
Week 9
M
5/24
W
5/26
Read: “Myth and Narrative” (253-55), “Archetype” (257-58), “Myth and Popular
Culture” (264-65), “Thinking About Myth” (271)
Poems: “Medusa” (258), “Snow White” (266), “Cinderella” (267), “Odyssey of Big
Boy” (Blackboard) “final note to clark” (Blackboard)
Terms: myth, archetype
Read: “Singing and Saying” (131-33), “Ballads” (137), “Blues” (141), “Rap” (143-44),
“Looking at Lyrics as Poetry” (150)
Poems: “Ballad of Birmingham” (140-41), “The Wreck of the Hesperus” (Blackboard),
“Jailhouse Blues” (142), “from Peter Piper” (144), “Eleanor Rigby” (145-46)
Terms: stanza, verse, rime scheme, refrain, ballad, ballad stanza, common meter, blues,
rap
Read: “Poetry and Personal Identity” (277-81), “Culture, Race, and Ethnicity” (282-83),
“Writing About Voice and Personal Identity” (295)
Poems: “Lady Lazarus” (278-80), “Bilingual / Bilingüe” (281) “The Shrine Whose
Shape I am” (283), “Facing It” (286), “Learning to love
America” (290), “Heritage” (Blackboard), “How I Got That Name” (Blackboard),
“At the Salvation Army” (Blackboard)
Terms: confessional poetry
Read: “Gender” (287)
Poems: “For My Daughter” (23), “Rites of Passage” (35), “Quinceañera” (284)
“Listening” (288) “Men at Forty” (289), “Women” (289), , “Homage to my
hips” (439), “The One Girl at the Boys’ Party” (491), “from Songs to Joannes”
(Blackboard), “In The Life” (Blackboard)
F
5/28
Week 10
M
5/31
Read: The Heaven-Sent Leaf: Author bio. (59), Acknowledgements (57-58), 9-24.
W
6/2
Read: The Heaven-Sent Leaf: 25-40.
F
6/4
Read: The Heaven-Sent Leaf: 41-55.
DUE: ESSAY #2
Finals Week
T
6/8
NO CLASS. MEMORIAL DAY.
3:15 in 142 HEDCO Education Building
Essay Checklist
The following list is meant to assist you in formatting your essays to my specifications. Failure to comply
with these specifications will result in lost points from your final grade for that essay.
Your essay must be:
1) Typed and of the appropriate length for the assignment
2) Double Spaced with one-inch margins
3) Stapled
4) In Times or Times New Roman 12-point font
5) Upper left corner of 1st page:
a) your name
b) date
c) description of the assignment
d) word count
6) Last name and page number in upper right corner of following pages (e.g. Name 4)
7) Document your sources & use correct citation form (MLA format for this course)
8) Proofread and spell-check