Fall 2001 English 106-04: Approach to Poetry Karen Meyers

Fall 2001 English 106-04: Approach to Poetry Karen Meyers

MWF 10:00 Writing Intensive Office 103 McIver

This course is an introduction to poetry as a genre and to the work of a diverse group of British and American poets. Its purpose is to enhance your enjoyment of poetry by helping you to become a sensitive and knowledgeable reader. To that end, you will

learn to identify and understand the characteristics and elements of poetry practice the techniques of literary analysis, and
explore the social and historical contexts in which some of these poems were written.

In this writing intensive section you use several different kinds of writing to enhance your understanding of the course material. You will receive instruction and feedback to help you develop and demonstrate your ability to write about poetry clearly, coherently, and effectively.

Required texts: X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia, An Introduction to Poetry, 9^th edition

A good dictionary

Requirements, Activities, and Grading:

You are responsible for reading the texts assigned for each day, and for coming to class prepared to discuss and/or ask questions about the material. Read each poem several times, and look up any words whose meaning in that context is at all puzzling.

You will have an opportunity to accumulate 700 points during the semester, your final grade will be determined by the percentage of those 700 points that you actually earn.

Exams: Mid-term on Wed., 10/3: worth 100 points; Final on Wed., 12/12: 125 points

Papers: 1000-word Analysis due Mon., 10/15; required revision due Mon., 10/29: 100 points
1500-word Comparison due Wed., 11/14; optional revision due Mon., 12/3: 125 points
Ten 1-page (typed) "think pieces" (out of a total of 12 assigned), due throughout the semester : 10 points each
for total of 100 points. (2 out of 10 may be revised for higher grade.)

To receive credit for a think piece, you must turn it in during class on the assigned due date or, if you are absent on that day, at the beginning of the next class.

Memorization: Each person will choose one poem to memorize and recite to me in my office, with brief oral explication: 25 points. Must be done before Thanksgiving.

Poetry reading/reflection: Attend a poetry reading on campus and write a 1-page reflection on the experience: 25 points. Schedule of readings to be announced.

Sonnet: Everyone will write and revise an original sonnet, due Mon., 11/26: 50 points.

Class participation: Everyone will read aloud two poems assigned for class discussion during the semester. Those readings, which require preparation and practice, carry up to 10 points each. Up to 30 more points can be earned for regular participation in class discussions. (Total: 50)

Attendance: I will allow 3 "free" and, if necessary, 3 excused absences during the semester. Any additional absence will cost you 10 class participation points.

How to fine me: My office is 103 McIver. I will announce regular office hours soon, I am happy for you to drop by or make an appointment to talk with me about the course anytime. Office phone: 334-3282; home (before 11 pm please): 272-4996. Or send

e-mail to klmeyers@uncg.edu

The Writing Center, located in 101 McIver, is a place you should come to know and love when you are writing a paper for this or any other course. It is open 9 am- 8 pm Monday Thursday and 9 am 3 pm on Fridays. Free, reliable advice and feedback on your writing!

UNCGs Academic Integrity Policy applies to this course, particularly with regard to the definitions and penalties for plagiarism on papers and cheating on exams. Dont worry: If you turn in only papers and YOU have written originally for this course, if you give proper credit to any source (electronic or print) from which you borrow ideas or words in part of a paper, and if you take exams without any unauthorized assistance, you will be in compliance with the Policy. (To read the AI Policy online, from the UNCG home page www.uncg.edu go to Student Affairs, and click on Academic Integrity.)

Important advice from Miss Manners: 1) Get to class on time. 2) Stay until the bitter end.

If you carry a pager or cell pone, turn it OFF before entering the classroom.

Fall 01 ENGLISH 106: BEST GUESS SCHEDULE Meyers

M	8/20	Introduction Assignment for 8/22: Read Hayden, "Those Winter Sundays" (424), Dove, "Daystar" (406), Rich, "Aunt Jennifers Tigers" (7)
W	8/22	Group exploration of assigned poems Assignment for 8/24: Read Chap. 1, Reading a Poem, pp. 1-10. Study Yeats, "The Lake Isle Innisfree" (3), Frost, "Out, Out" (10), and Frost, "Birches" (414)
F	8/24	Discuss the speaker and the situation in3 assigned poems two lyric, one narrative Assignment for 8/27: Read pp. 11-13 on Dramatic Poetry. Study Browning, "My Last Duchess" (11). Read Robert Langbaums commentary "On Robert Brownings My Last Duchess," (593-5)
M	8/27	Discuss Brownings dramatic monologue from several different perspectives. Assignment for 8/29: Study Arnold, "Dover Beach" (381) WRITE A THINK PIECE #1: One page (typed, double spaced) description of the speaker, scene, situation, and listener in "Dover Beach." Conclude with a sentence or two identifying the problem that is bothering the speaker of this poem.
W	8/29	Discuss "Dover Beach" and a famous parody of it. We will also discuss the art of reading poems aloud, and assign readers for the next few weeks. Assignment for 8/31: Read "Reading and Hearing Poems Aloud" (174-5) and Chap. 3, Words: Literal Meaning (49 mid 52), The Value of a Dictionary (55 top 58), Word Choice and Word Order (60-63). Study these poems: Cleghorn, "The Golf Links" (35), Moore, "Silence) (51), Hardy, "The Ruined Maid" (66), Randall, "A Different Image" (470)
F	8/31	Discuss key word choices in assigned poems. Assignment for 9/5: Read Chap. 4, Saying and Suggesting (77-83). Study Blake, "London" (79), Stevens, "Disillusionment of Ten OClock" ( 81), and Roethke, "My Papas Waltz" (18). WRITE THINK PIECE #2: One page on y our impression of the father-son relationship depicted in "My Papas Waltz," noting the specific words that create that impression.
M	9/3	Labor Day Holiday
W	9/5	Discuss denotation and connotation in assigned poems. Assignment for 9/7: Read Chap. 5, Imagery (91-top of 96). Study Eliot, "The Winter Evening Settles Down" (93). Bishop, "The Fish" (94), Brooks, "The Bean Eaters" (82).
F	9/7	Discuss assigned poems and experiment with imagery (in-class writing). Assignment for 9/10: Study H.D., "Heat" (103), Heaney, "Digging" (427), Pound, "The River-Merchants Wife: A Letter" (468). Work more on the images you wrote in class.

M	9/10	Share images and discuss abstract and concrete language in assigned poems. Assignment for 9/12: Read Chap. 2, Listening to a Voice (17-21). Study Whitman, "To a Locomotive in Winter" (20), Dickinson, "I like to see it lap the Miles" (21), Blake, "The Lamb (390), Blake, "The Tyger" (390). WRITE THINK PIECE #3: One page on the difference in tone ( and what creates that difference) between the two train poems OR between the two Blake poems.
W	9/12	Discuss tone as a product of persona, word choices, and images in assigned poems. Assignment for 9/14: Note the tone and what creates it as you study these poems: Blake, "The Chimney Sweeper: (38), Lovelace, "To Lucasta" (41), and Owen, "Dulce et Decorum Est" (41).
F	9/14	Group exploration of assigned poems. Assignment for 9/17: Read Chap. 3 on Irony (30-top 32) and study Olds, "Rites of Passage" (33), Betjeman, "In Westminster Abbey" (34), Eberhart, "The Fury of Aerial Bombardment" (67), Reed, "Naming of Parts" (471).
M	9/17	Discuss different kinds of irony in poems assigned for today. Assignment for 9/19: Read handout and Chap. 6, Figures of Speech (114-21) and study Plath, "Metaphors" (120), Momaday, "Simile" (121), and Bradstreet, "The Author to her Book" (19, with commentary in paragraphs before and after the poem). WRITE THINK PIECE #4 (can be turned in either 9/19 or 9/21): Using Plath and Momaday as models, write one metaphor and one simile of your own as ways of describing something about yourself (or someone else) or your relationship with another person.
W	9/19	Discuss metaphors and similes in assigned poems and group exercises. Assignment for 9/21: Read Chap. 6, Other Figures (124-7). Pay special attention to the figures of speech as you study Donne, "Death be not proud" (403) and "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" (404).
F	9/21	Discuss figures of speech in two poems by Donne. Assignment for 9/24: Read Chap. 12, Symbol (252-7) and How to Read a Symbol (267). Study Whitman, "A Noiseless, Patient Spider" (501), Frost, "The Road Not Taken" (260), and Matthew 13, The Parable of the Good Seed (257).
M	9/24	Group exercise on symbolism and discussion of symbols and allegory in assigned texts. Assignment for 9/26: Study Frost, "Mending Wall" (415) and "Acquainted with the Night" (215). WRITE THINK PIECE #5: Two paragraphs (1 page total) on what you think the wall in the first poem and the night in the second poem symbolize or suggest.
W	9/26	Discuss symbolism in two Frost poems. (Get review sheet for mid-term.) Assignment for 9/28: Read Chap. 13, Myth (269-71) and study Frost, "Nothing Gold Can Stay" (271), Hardy, "The Oxen" (272), Atwood, "Siren Song" (383-4), Auden, "Musee des Beaux Arts" (387), Eliot, "Journey of the Magi" (407), and Sexton, "Cinderella" (284).
F	9/28	Discuss format of exam and as many of assigned poems as possible.
M	10/1	Catch up day. (Get instruction sheet for Paper #1)
W	10/3	MID-TERM EXAM
F	10/5	Class canceled (Recovery Day)
M	10/8	Fall Break No Class Assignment due 10/10: REQUIRED THINK PIECE #6: Choose the poem (from the list provided) for your first Analysis paper, and write a PARAPHRASE of it a line-by-line restatement of the poem in your own words.
W	10/10	Go over mid-term and discuss the difference between a paraphrase and an analysis.