PRELIMINARY COURSE SYLLABUS
Quarter: Fall 2016
Course Title: The Poet’s Craft
Course Code: POET 124 W
Instructor: Peter Kline
PLEASE NOTE: Although the time commitment for this course is dependent upon one’s degree
of participation, students should plan on investing four to six hours per week in order to
participate at a substantial level.
Course Summary:
Each week will begin with an introductory craft talk that you’ll find in the Canvas online classroom. To enrich
and expand your understanding of these ideas, I will ask you to read selections from the Norton Anthology of
Modern and Contemporary Poetry and John Hollander’s book on the craft of poetry, Rhyme’s Reason. Under
Topics for Discussion I will pose questions based on the reading to help you think about how the craft
techniques are actually being used in published poetry and how you can use them in your own writing. Our
group conversation begins when you post your musings and discoveries in the Discussion bulletin board.
Under Writing Assignments, you’ll find a different writing prompt each week designed to allow you to focus
on an aspect of poetry writing. Over the course, students will have the opportunity to write up to ten poems
and submit them to the weekly student workshop; five of these poems may also be submitted for instructor
critique.
*Please see course page for full description and additional details.
Grade Options and Requirements:
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No Grade Requested (NGR)
o This is the default option. No work will be required; no credit shall be received; no
proof of attendance can be provided.
Credit/No Credit (CR/NC)
o Score will be determined by student attendance and participation.
Letter Grade (A, B, C, D, No Pass)
o Written work along with attendance and participation will determine a student’s
grade.
*Please Note: If you require proof that you completed a Continuing Studies course for any reason (for example, employer
reimbursement), you must choose either the Letter Grade or Credit/No Credit option. Courses taken for NGR will not appear
on official transcripts or grade reports
Please contact the Stanford Continuing Studies office with any questions
365 Lasuen St., Stanford, CA 94305
[email protected]
650-725-2650
PRELIMINARY COURSE SYLLABUS
Quarter: Fall 2016
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Tentative Weekly Outline:
Week One: Image and Abstraction
Reading - Norton Vol. 1: Robert Frost, “After Apple-Picking” p. 207; H. D., “Oread” p. 395, “Sea Violet” p. 397;
Marianne Moore, “The Steeple-Jack” p. 446; Norton Vol. 2: Elizabeth Bishop, “The Fish” p. 21; Robert
Hayden, “Those Winter Sundays” p. 62; Frank Stafford, “Traveling through the Dark” p. 83; Frank O’Hara,
“The Day Lady Died” p. 365; Robert Bly, “The Great Society” p. 372; Galway Kinnell, “After Making Love We
Hear Footsteps” p. 382; James Wright, “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island,
Minnesota” p. 417
Norton, Vol. 1: Robert Frost, “The Figure a Poem Makes” p. 984-986
Week Two: Figurative Language
Reading - Norton Vol. 1: Wallace Stevens, “The Snow Man” p. 247; Jean Toomer, “Her Lips Are Copper Wire,”
“Portrait in Georgia” p. 560. Norton Vol. 2: Philip Larkin, “Sad Steps” p. 221; Sylvia Plath, “The Colossus,”
“Morning Song,” “Blackberrying,” “Cut” p. 597-609; Seamus Heaney, “Digging” p. 723; Yusef Komunyakaa,
“Facing It” p. 861
Week Three: Meter and Scansion
Reading - Norton Vol. 1: Thomas Hardy, “Your Last Drive,” “The Voice” p. 55-57; A. E. Housman, “To an
Athlete Dying Young” p. 85; W. B. Yeats, “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” p. 94; Robert Frost, “Dust of Snow,”
“Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening,” “Acquainted with the Night” p. 214-217; Marianne Moore, “The
Fish” p. 436, “The Paper Nautilus” p. 451; Theodore Roethke, “My Papa’s Waltz” p. 843. Norton Vol. 2: Philip
Larkin, “This Be the Verse” p. 223; Thom Gunn, “Still Life,” “A Blank” p. 486-488
Rhyme’s Reason: p. 1-11
Week Four: Blank Verse and Enjambment; Metrical Variations
Reading - Norton Vol. 1: Robert Frost, “Mending Wall,” “Home Burial,” “An Old Man’s Winter Night,”
“Birches,” “Directive” p. 204-225; Wallace Stevens, “The Idea of Order at Key West” p. 249; Wilfred Owen,
“Strange Meeting” p. 528. Norton Vol. 2: Howard Nemerov, “The Icehouse in Summer” p. 180; Philip Larkin,
Please contact the Stanford Continuing Studies office with any questions
365 Lasuen St., Stanford, CA 94305
[email protected]
650-725-2650
PRELIMINARY COURSE SYLLABUS
Quarter: Fall 2016
“Church Going” p. 212, “The Whitsun Weddings” p. 215; Donald Justice, “On the Death of Friends in
Childhood” p. 275
Rhyme’s Reason: p. 11-13
Week Five: Sonnet and Rhyme
Reading - Norton Vol. 1: E.A. Robinson, “Reuben Bright” p. 164; Edna St. Vincent Millay, “Gazing Upon Him
Now, Severe and Dead” p. 512, “I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed” p. 512, “Love Is Not All: It Is Not Meat
nor Drink” p. 512; Wilfred Owen, “Anthem for Doomed Youth” p. 525; Jean Toomer, “November Cotton
Flower” p. 559; Patrick Kavanagh, “Inniskeen Road: July Evening” p. 746; W.H. Auden, “Who’s Who” p. 789,
from “In Time of War” p. 795. Norton Vol. 2: Gwendolyn Brooks, “The Rites for Cousin Vit” p. 144; James
Wright, “Saint Judas” p. 416; Seamus Heaney, “Requiem for the Croppies” p. 725
Rhyme’s Reason: 13-21
Week Six: Linked Forms
Reading - Norton Vol. 1: Theodore Roethke, “The Waking” p. 849; Norton Vol. 2: “Sestina” p. 30, “One Art” p.
43; Dylan Thomas “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” p. 110. Anthony Hecht, “The Book of Yolek” p.
233; Donald Justice, “In Memory of the Unknown Poet…” p. 279; John Ashbery, “Farm Implements and
Rutabagas in a Landscape” p. 393; Marilyn Hacker, “Rondeau after a Transatlantic Telephone Call” p. 811; Rita
Dove, “Parsley” p. 979
Rhyme’s Reason: “Repetitive Structures” p. 37-46
Week Seven: Free Verse Forms: Biblical Free Verse and Free Blank Verse
Reading - Norton Vol. 1: Walt Whitman, “Cavalry Crossing a Ford” p. 23; T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock” p. 463. Norton Vol. 2: Allen Ginsberg, “Howl” (part I) p. 337, From “Kaddish” p. 349; Les Murray,
From “The Buladelah-Taree Holiday Song Cycle” p. 714; James Merrill, “Days of 1964,” “The Victor Dog” p.
309-311; Seamus Heaney, “Death of a Naturalist” p. 724, “The Stone Verdict” p. 744; Eavan Boland, “The
Pomegranate” p. 851
Rhyme’s Reason: “Free Verse” p. 26-30; “Rhetorical Schemes” p. 48-50
Week Eight: Free Verse Forms: Imagist Free Verse
Reading - Norton Vol. 1: William Carlos Williams, “Danse Russe,” “Sympathetic Portrait of a Child,” “The Last
Words of My English Grandmother,” “The Dance” p. 288-300; Ezra Pound, “The River-Merchant’s Wife: A
Letter” p. 352; Stanley Kunitz, “The Portrait,” “The Catch” p. 760-763; Theodore Roethke, “Elegy for Jane” p.
Please contact the Stanford Continuing Studies office with any questions
365 Lasuen St., Stanford, CA 94305
[email protected]
650-725-2650
PRELIMINARY COURSE SYLLABUS
Quarter: Fall 2016
849. Norton Vol. 2: “Waking in the Blue” p. 129, “ Skunk Hour” p. 132; Robert Creeley, “I Know a Man” p. 330,
“Mother’s Voice” p. 333; Gary Snyder, “Above Pate Valley” p. 537; Mary Oliver, “August,” “Hawk” p. 653-654
Norton Vol. 1: Ezra Pound, “How to Read” p. 939-941
Week Nine: Revision
Reading - Norton Vol. 1: Emily Dickinson, #249, #258, #632, #754; e e cummings, “Buffalo Bill’s,” “the
Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls,” “may i feel said he,” “anyone lived in a pretty how town” p. 547553; W.H. Auden, “Museé des Beaux Arts” p. 797. Norton Vol. 2: Richard Wilbur, “Love Calls Us to the Things
of This World” p. 198; Philip Larkin, “Talking in Bed,” “High Windows” p. 218-221; Ted Hughes, “The Thought
Fox” p. 561; Rita Dove, “Adolescence–II” p. 976
Norton Vol. 1: T. S. Eliot, “Tradition and the Individual Talent” p. 941-947
Week Ten: Poetry and Publication
Reading - Norton Vol. 1: W. B. Yeats, “The Fascination of What’s Difficult,” “A Coat,” “The Circus Animals’
Desertion” p. 101-102, 142; Robinson Jeffers, “Rock and Hawk” p. 417; Marianne Moore, “Poetry” p. 438; W. H.
Auden, “Musee des Beaux Arts,” “In Memory of W. B. Yeats,” “In Praise of Limestone” p. 797-806. Norton Vol.
2: Elizabeth Bishop, “Poem” p. 40; Frank O’Hara, “Why I Am Not a Painter” p. 369; Mark Strand, “Eating
Poetry” p. 621
Norton Vol. 2: Philip Larkin, “The Pleasure Principle” p. 1067-1069
Please contact the Stanford Continuing Studies office with any questions
365 Lasuen St., Stanford, CA 94305
[email protected]
650-725-2650