POETRY: AN INTRODUCTION
Lit 355, Fall 2009
Office: 431 Cullimore Hall
Hours: Monday, 2:30-3:30, & by
appointment
Mail: Humanities Dep't, NJIT, Newark,
NJ 07102
|
Professor Burt
Kimmelman
Phone: 973.596.3376, 3266
Fax: 973.642.4689
E-Mail: kimmelman@njit.edu
|
Website: http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma
It is
difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die
miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.
- William Carlos Williams (from Asphodel, that Greeny Flower)
REQUIRED TEXTS
Nims, John Frederick, and David Mason. Western Wind: An
Introduction
to Poetry. 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 2005.
See also:
Documentation Guides ( http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/documentation.html
)
Literary Resources ( http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/litsources.html
)
Glossary of Terms
and Definitions
The MLA Bibliography (at Rutgers' Dana Library)
Poetry Links including poetry reading calendars (http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/poetry.htm)
Writing Guides ( http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/writing.html
)
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is meant to introduce students to the
art and
history of poetry (with special reference to poetry composed in
English). All
elements of poetry are considered systematcially in a step-by-step
approach. In each class several
poems are considered in-depth during open discussion. By the end of the
course
students are able to analyze a poem, showing how it works in order to
create
its overall “poetic” experience. The question of how a poem "means” (to echo John
Ciardi's famous phrase) is central
to the course, but the course does not merely pay attention to verse
mechanics.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
* Midterm and Final examinations, comprehensive, essay in format.
* Quizzes, unannounced.
* Oral reports, two of them, one to be an analysis of an assigned poem,
a second to be a discussion of the end-of-term paper (see below).
* Two or three papers (documented attendance at two poetry events can
be substituted for the second, thousand-word paper), the first to be of
at
least five hundred words, which analyzes a selected poem that has been
covered in class, the second to be at least a thousand words on a poem
specifically not covered in class or in the assigned reading (this
paper
assignment can be substituted by documented attendance at two poetry
events),
the third to be at least two thousand words (not including
bibliography), which must be a
researched,
fully-documented, original, and critical work, employing at least three
secondary sources (one of which must be hardcopy), and which must
include
at
least some detailed analysis of poetry. The topic for the third
paper
is open but must be approved ahead of time by and developed with me.
* A Term Paper Announcement (see a sample TPA below, which can be used
as a model).
* Attendance at two poetry events (unless the scheduled second,
thousand-word
paper is submitted).
* All papers must be word processed, double-spaced with one inch
margins, spell-checked, and to the best of one's ability
grammar-checked.
If on occasion use is made of the ideas or words of someone else in
one's
writing, then the source(s) of those ideas and/or words must be cited;
that is, when appropriate, papers must be fully documented (you must
cite
sources--using footnotes, endnotes, or parenthetical documentation,
which
include specific page numbers keyed to particular passages in your
paper,
and complete bibliographical information, including for poems line
numbers). PAPERS NOT MEETING ALL
OF THESE REQUIREMENTS WILL NOT BE READ AND WILL NOT RECEIVE CREDIT.
The expectation is that participants in this course will adhere fully
to the NJIT Honor Code (see: http://www.njit.edu/doss/policies/honorcode/index.php);
please see here and its linked pages: http://integrity.njit.edu.
* Class participation. N.B.: More than three unexcused absences will
result in automatic failure of the course; excessive unexcused lateness
will be considered as an absence.
COURSE SCHEDULE *
8/31: Introduction to the course.
9/2: Nims pp. xxxv-xicl,
3-15; Lee: "Eating
Alone" (p. 563); Ferlinghetti: "Short Story on a Painting . . ."
(between pp. 422 and 423); Eliot: "Preludes"; Pound: "In a
Station. . . ."
9/9: Nims pp. 18-41; Dickinson: "My
Life Had Stood. . .
."; Chasin: "City Pigeons"; Yeats: "Leda and the
Swan"; Auden: "Musée des Beaux Arts" (between pp. 422 and 423).
9/14: Nims pp. 46-62; Wyatt:
"My Galley. . ."; Willliams:
“Nantucket”; O’Hara: Why I Am Not . .
.”;
Collins: "The Death of Allegory."
9/16: Nims 67-84; ; Bishop: "Filling
Station"; Shakespeare: “Sonnet 130”; Stevens: "Emperor of Ice Cream"
(p. 86).
9/21: Nims pp. 91-107;
Ransom: "Bells . . ."; Swenson:
“Cat. . .”;
Stafford: “Traveling. .
. .”
9/23: Nims 115-37;
Frost: “Neither. . .”; Grossholz: “Remembering. .
.”; Dickinson:
"A Narrow . . ."; Tennyson: "Break. . . ." First
paper due.
9/30: Nims pp. 145-65; Thomas: "Do Not
Go . .
."; Frost: "Once By the Pacific"; Cummings: "Chansons. . .
."
10/5: Nims 167-95; Owen: "Anthem . . .";
Keats: "To Autumn" (pp. 407-08); Knight: “A Poem. . .”; McGrath:
“Remembering. . . .”
10/7: Nims pp. 199-225; Whitman: "From Leaves of Grass"; Graves:
"Counting the Beats"; Yeats: "The Second Coming"; Arnold:
"Dover Beach"; Roethke: "My Papa's
Waltz.”
10/12: Nims pp. 230-50 (not “Essays”); Cummings: “if
everything. . .”; Tate: “Miss Cho. . .”; Hopkins: "The Windhover" (p.
428), "God's Grandeur" (p. 428). Submit a quatrain of iambic
pentameter verse.
10/14: MIDTERM EXAMINATION.
10/19: Nims pp. 252-67, Williams: “Dedication . . .”
and "The Descent”; Oppen: “Psalm”; Levertov: “The Ache . . .”; Term
Paper Announcement: working title and subtitle, thesis statement, one
paragraph
description of term research paper writing strategy, and bibliography
of at
least three secondary sources due.
10/21: Nims 273-88; Brooks: “We Real Cool”; Whitman:
“I Hear . . .”; Lim: “Learning . . .”; Cummings: “wherelings.”
10/26: Nims 291-321; Roethke, "The Waking” (p.
471); Wordsworth: “A Slumber . . .”; Davis:
“On
the Iranian . . .”; Shakespeare: “Sonnet 29”; Brooks: "Rites for Cousin
Vit"; Hopkins:
“Pied Beauty.”
10/28: Nims pp. 325-44; Cummings, “anyone lived in a
pretty how town”
(p. 458); Lux: "Cellar Stairs" (p. 534);
Mueller, “Palindrome.”
11/2: Shakespeare: "Sonnet 18" (p. 374) and Sonnet 73" (p. 374);
Hopkins:
"The Windhover" (p. 428); Wyatt: "My Galley. . .";
Yeats: "Leda and the Swan." Second
paper due.
11/4: Nims 347-65; Thomas: “In My Craft
. . .”; Lawrence:
“The Piano”
and “Piano”; exercises C and D.
11/9: Wyatt: “They Flee . . .” (p. 371);
Marlowe:
“The Passionate . . .”
(pp. 371-72); Raleigh:
“The Nymph’s Reply” (p. 372).
11/11: Spenser: “One Day . . .” (p. 373); Sidney:
“With How . . .”
(p. 373); Shakespeare: Sonnets 116 and 129 (pp. 374-75).
11:16: Donne: “Death Be . . .” (p. 380); Milton: “On His
. . .”
(p. 389);
Marvell: “To His . . . “ (p. 390); Keats: “Od to a
Nightingale”
(pp. 405-06).
11/18: Donne: “The Sun Rising,” “A Valediction of
Weeping,” and “A
Valediction Forbidding . . .” (pp. 377-80); Herbert:
“Easter
Wings” and “The Pulley” (p. 382).
11/23: Dickinson:
“Because I . . .” and “Tell All . . .” (pp. 423-24);
Hughes: “Dream . . .” and “The Negro . . .” (pp. 462-63);
Hecht:
“The Dover
. . .” (pp. 492-93); Linder: “Girl” (pp. 565-66); Lee:
“Eating . . .” (p. 563).
11:30, 12/2,
12/7, and
12/9: Oral/Visual Reports on Term Papers. Course
review
Date TBA:
FINAL
EXAMINATION. Term
research paper due.
All
assignments listed here must have
been prepared prior to class meetings
on due dates. Poems cited below are to
be read especially closely
COURSE GRADE
Class
Participation, 5%
Quizzes, 5%
Original
Quatrain of Iambic Pentameter, 5%
Oral
Reports, (5% each) 10%
First
Paper, 10% or if attending two poetry events 20%
Second
Paper (if not attending two poetry events), 10%
Term
Paper Announcement, 5%
End-of-Term
Research Paper, 15%
Midterm
Examination, 10%
Final
Examination, 25%
ABBREVIATIONS FOR MARKING PAPERS
Key: Abbreviation - Meaning
A - Article
Agr - Agreement
CS - Comma Splice
Dic Diction
Exp Explain
FS - Fused Sentences
RO - Run On Sentence
SF - Sentence Fragment
Sp - Spelling
SS Sentence Structure
Syn Syntax or Word Order
Tr Transition
Un Unclear
Uncl Unclear
Us Usage
V - Verb
Va Vague
VF - Verb Form
VT - Verb Tense
WF - Word Form
WW Wrong Word
SAMPLE TERM PAPER ANNOUNCEMENT
Name
Class
Date
Term Paper Announcement
Title
The Sound of Mourning in “Do Not Go Gentle into
That Good
Night”: The Joining of Affect and Denotation in Low Frequency Vowels
Thesis Statement
Dylan Thomas’ use of low-frequency vowels is more pronounced
in “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” than in other of his poems,
and,
given the pattern of sound used to convey the motif of mourning in this
poem,
which is to be contrasted with the motif of defiance also to be found
in the
poem in which the use of high-frequency vowels are to be noted, what
becomes
clear is that Thomas chose to rely on sound as the primary vehicle—as
contrasted with metaphor, symbol and other poetic devices—to convey
this
contrast to the reader, a contrast that is, furthermore, meant to
highlight the
fundamental dichotomy of life and death; this essay will focus on the
use of
the low-frequency vowels in order to demonstrate Roethke’s skill in the
use of
sound meant to support and overall to create a larger poetic effect in
which
sound is the basis for his poetic language.
Writing Strategy
This essay will begin by establishing the acuity of Thomas’s
sound patterns in “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” making the
argument
that, despite the vividness of the poem’s poetic figures, what most
influences
a reader of this poem is the fundamental associations Roethke
implements
between certain vowel sounds and certain concepts such as defiance and
mourning—the
higher frequency sounds conveying a sense of the former, the lower
frequency
sounds conveying a sense of the latter. In this regard, the essay will
pointedly take issue with Jonathan Westphal’s contention that in this
poem
Roethke “is advocating active resistance to death immediately before
death, not
sad mourning after it” (113). The essay will focus on the
lower-frequency
sounds and will demonstrate how they create the tone and meaning of
mourning in
the poem, particularly in the phrase “Do not go” and as it compares
with the
sounds of certain key metaphors such as “lightning” (l. 5) and meteors”
(l.
14). The essay will then consider how a refrain, because it is
repeated,
possesses great power in a poem, even at times when the language of a
refrain
may not be as concrete as other words, phrases or lines in a poem; and
this
dynamic will be shown to be operative in this poem. Finally, while
recognizing
the vividness of the imagery in Thomas’s poem “Do Not Go Gentle into
That Good
Night,” the essay will conclude that his carefully crafted ebb and flow
of low
and high frequency phrasing is what fundamentally communicates the
dichotomy of
mourning and defiance, and more essentially of life and death, which
come to
realization in the reading of this poem.
Bibliography
“Dylan Thomas: Do Not Go
Gentle Into That Good
Night.” BBC Wales Arts. 6 October 2009. Web. http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/arts/sites/dylan-thomas/pages/do-not-go-gentle.shtml.
Evans,
Oliver. “The Making of a Poem:
Dylan Thomas' 'Do
Not Go Gentle into That Good Night'." English Miscellany
6 (1955): 163-173.
Hickman,
Trenton. “Theodore Roethke and the Poetics of Place.”
Eric Haralson. Ed. and Intr. Reading the
Middle Generation Anew: Culture, Community, and Form in Twentieth
Century
American
Poetry. Iowa City,
IA; U of Iowa
P; 2006. 183-202.
Neruda, Gabriel
Monteleone.
“On Dylan Thomas's 'Do
Not Go Gentle
into That Good Night'.” ELF: Eclectic
Literary Forum
4.3 (Fall 1994): 52.
Sharpe, Peter. The Ground of
Our Beseeching: Metaphor and the Poetics of Meditation. Selinsgrove, PA:
Susquehanna UP; 2004.
Thomas, Dylan. The Poems of Dylan Thomas, New Rev. Ed.
New York:
New
Directions, 2003.
Westphal,
Jonathan. "Thomas' 'Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night'." Explicator 52.2 (Winter 1994):
113-15.
[Note that the bibliography should be in hanging indents; one of the
citations in the bibliography above is longer than one line and so the
next line is indented. Hanging indents make it easy for a reader to
search for a citation because typically the last name of the author of
a work stands out at the left-hand margin and therefore is easy to see.
Of course the citaiton list must be in alphabetical order.]
[Comments (beyond the above):
Note that the there
is a title and also a
subtitle to show focus and detail. Note that the thesis statement is
polemical,
is a complete sentence, and is no more than one sentence in length.
Note the
paragraph description of the future paper is not a summary of the paper
but
rather a narrative of the argumentative or writing strategy that will
be used.
Note that the bibliography is in MLA format, contains at least three
secondary
sources (not counting textbooks, dictionaries, and encyclopedias) and
contains
at least one hard copy secondary source. Note that, since the essay is
on a
particular poetic text, the source for that text also appears in the
bibliography.]