Introduction to Poetry

This course invites you to experience poetry actively, enjoying it as a genre of art able to uniquely communicate experiences and ideas. Covering a diversity of periods and places, this course will assume no previous knowledge of poetry but will offer a broad introduction. It will also encourage a deep engagement with the poetry as a living conversation, not just black lines on a page, and students will have the opportunity to write their own responses in poetry as well as prose and enter into the dialogue begun by the poets we read. We will study the formal elements of poems as well as their contexts and social, intellectual, and emotional implications, responding through traditional analysis or creative works to make the dynamic world of poetry our own.

Vendler, Helen. Poems, Poets, Poetry. Third Edition, 2010. (Available at the TCU bookstore) Additional readings provided online. Access to your tcu.edu email, the internet, and the Pearson LearningStudio (ecollege) site are required.

Students will: Demonstrate an ability to apply various strategies for reading, interpreting and engaging with poetry through analytical writing. Apply critical terms (such as image, rhythm, meter, form, figurative language, tone, voice, metaphor, genre, context, allusion, etc.) to their analysis of selected works of poetry. Demonstrate understanding of the critical terms by putting them into action through original poetry compositions and by justifying their choices.

Demonstrate an understanding of literature as it impacts and/or reflects society and the individual. Demonstrate an understanding of how literature also constructs human cultures. Be able to analyze representative texts of significance and to practice critical analysis of work at the center of the humanities. Demonstrate a critical ability to analyze questions about the nature and value of human life as embodied in the traditions of the humanities.

Paper/Poem AssignmentsThere are two main paper/poem assignments. Of these, you must do at least one original, imitation poem. You can choose to write them in whichever order you wish (i.e., poem first/paper second, or vice versa). Analysis Paper Choose a poem from those we have studied in the preceding unit, determine a research question, line of analysis, or focus for your study, and analyze the poem closely to make a point. Refer to Vendlers chapters Writing about Poetry (p. 321) for helpful suggestions. Be sure to employ close reading (refer to select words, phrases, lines, elements of composition, etc., and quote them in your paper) to back up your argument. The paper should have an easily identified thesis, but it need not pronounce a judgment written in stone; it can gesture toward a greater understanding of the pheasant disappearing into the brush (Stevens, qtd. Vendler 308) without needing to capture the bird in a vice. 5-6 full pages long, not including MLA-style Works Cited page; double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12-point font, 1 margins You must include a minimum of two scholarly sources, cited (not necessarily quoted) in your paper and in your Works Cited page AND/OR: Imitation/Refutation Poem and Analysis For this assignment, you will select a poem, poet, or distinct sub-genre (such as the love sonnet or blazon) and write your own poem imitating itor, in your own way, refuting it. That is, your poem should imitate the conventions of the original poempoetic genre, meter, diction, imagery, subject, tone, rhyme schemes or spatial arrangement, worldview and attitude (optionally), etc.but employ them for your own subject matter, approach, or conclusion. You can imitate the original poems worldview/attitude, or it can refute it, taking up the previous eras conventions to express your own ideas and experiences. You are highly encouraged to choose one particular poem to imitate, but we will discuss your choices if you have other thoughts you want to work with. Your poem must be a minimum of 14 lines long. You will turn in your poem (Times New Roman, 12-point font, with any spacing appropriate to the poem, with lines numbered [every 5th line]) along with a 2-3 page explanation of your imitative efforts. What conventions did you draw on for your poem, which did you creatively flout/refute, and why? Explain your creative choices in the context of the terms and ideas weve discussed in the class, and refer specifically to the choices you made by line number, etc. This accompanying paper should specifically

point out which poem you are imitating and make very clear the points of similarity and the points of departure between your poem and the original one, explaining your rationale for these choices. As with the other papers, it should be double-spaced, with Times New Roman, 12-point font, and 1 margins. This assignment is an opportunity not only to flex your creativity but to demonstrate your understanding of a poet/poem/era/styles particularities and conventions, and will be graded primarily on its success in imitating and/or creatively refuting the original poem and its conventions.

Two 5-minute Presentations Poets Context presentationYou will select one of the poets we are studying for the day you are to present and will do extra research into the poets biography and important information on the context and cultural moment in which the poet lived and wrote. Research used must be cited in MLA style (double-spaced) on a handout given to the instructor at the time of the presentation. (A good reference on MLA style Works Cited pages can be found here: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/05/) Recitation presentationOn another day you select in advance, you will choose one of the poems we are reading in class and will recite it from memory for the class. It may, by all means, be the shortest poem on the list! If all of the poems are terrifically long, you may choose a representative 20 lines of the poem. For the rest of the 5-minute (minimum) presentation time, you will reflect on the poems details and form, close-reading style, and how the process of memorization and recitation affected the way you read the poem. Extraneous research for this presentation is not required, but if used it must be cited (MLA style) in a handout given to me at the time of the presentation. Midterm Exam I encourage you to stay on top of the readings, lectures, and class discussion. The Midterm may take the form of identification, short answer, or essay, or a combination of the three. The exam may also include explications of poems not previously assigned. The exam cannot be made up unless I know beforehand that you will not be in class on the day the test is given. Final For your final, youll work on a creative project of your own poem, accompanied by a short paper that expresses how youve integrated/responded to concepts weve discussed throughout the semester. Well talk in greater detail about this as it approaches. Attendance & Participation Because so much of this class will be centered on discussion and your own participation, it is absolutely essential that you attend class and participate actively. I will do my part to call on those who are getting left out and moderate those who may try to dominate discussion, and each of you must do your part to engage actively in class discussions and contribute sufficiently and productively. Your participation grade will be marked down if you do not contribute to discussion, spend the hour on facebook or your cell phone, or cause distractions to other students.

Three weeks of unexcused absences (six classes) constitute grounds for failure of the course. Only official university absencesabsences REQUIRED by an official body of TCUwill be excused, e.g. will not count against you. Absences due to illness, sleeping, and long weekends are NOT excused--they all count toward the three weeks' absences limit. Official university absences must be documented in writing BEFORE they occur, and work due during the intended absence must be submitted in advance. However, as participation and contribution are so important for this class to succeed (as well as for you to succeed in it), after three unexcused absences you will start to receive a penalty. I will deduct two percentage points per absence from your grade, and one point for each late arrival or early departure of 10 minutes or more. If you have an illness or family emergency, contact me before your absence to ask me about the issue. Assignments should be begun well in advance of the due date, so that if you find yourself suddenly unable to attend class because of illness or family emergency, you have a product to turn in for your grade.

In accordance with college academic standards, simply fulfilling the minimum requirements of the course warrants an average grade (i.e., C). Coming to class every day and doing assignments is not something that earns extra credit or an automatic A; it is a baseline expectation for being in the course. A higher than average grade will be based on: 1) the distinctive quality and development of your work; 2) consistently demonstrating critical and creative thinking in your writing; 3) demonstrating an understanding of the topics read and discussed in class; and 4) a willingness to take risks by exploring new subjects, genres, and techniques. Below is a breakdown of how final grades are calculated. Grades will be posted on PLS Gradebook. Letter Grade
A AB+ B BC+ C CD+ D F

100 Point Scale

100-93 92-90 89-87 86-83 82-80 79-77 76-73 72-70 69-67 66-60 59 or below

4.0 Scale
4.00 3.67 3.33 3.00 2.67 2.33 2.00 1.67 1.33 1.00 0

Quality of Work
Outstanding

Exceeds Expectations

Meets Expectations/Average

Below average/needs work Unacceptable/Incomplete

Paper/Poem 1 Paper/Poem 2 Poets Context Presentation Recitation Presentation

20% 20% 10% 10%

Midterm Exam Final Participation

15% 17% 8%

Late Work Unless previous arrangements are made, I will drop a letter grade per day from any paper that is not turned in during the class period the assignment is due, including weekends, no exceptions. As stated above, a missed quiz cannot be taken unless arrangements are made in advance of the exam date, no exceptions. Academic Dishonesty (The following is an excerpt of English Department policy) The English Department has a zero tolerance policy regarding academic dishonesty. The Department now requires that all suspected cases of academic dishonesty be submitted to the Director of Composition or the Chair of the English Department for evaluation. The minimum penalty for cases in which academic dishonesty is discovered is a grade of 0 for the assignment. In addition, instructors are typically advised by the Department to request from the Dean of AddRan that students guilty of academic dishonesty receive an F for the course. For a definition of academic dishonesty, please see the Student Handbook. Most commonly, academic dishonesty in writing courses involves the use of others words and ideas without attribution (e.g. citation information and quotation marks where exact wording is preserved, giving credit to the original source). This includes the unattributed use of writing produced by other students, or of print sources or Internet sources in part or in whole. It is also academically dishonest to submit writing you have done for previous courses, which has already received academic credit and cannot be given credit twice. The best guard against academic dishonesty is to take seriously the writing assignments given, to allow enough time to complete them properly, to submit drafts when required, and to seek advice from your instructor, the writing center, or competent references (e.g. the Little, Brown Handbook) regarding the use of outside sources in your writing. Keep in mind that if you can find it on the Internet, so can we. The Center for Writing The William L. Adams Center for Writing provides writing assistance to all TCU students. Writing specialists and peer tutors are available for one-on-one tutorials from 8 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday in the Rickel Academic Wing of the University Recreation Center (at the north end of the top floor, Room 244). Drop-ins are welcome, but students may also make an appointment by calling 817-257-7221. Disabilities Accommodations Texas Christian University complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 regarding students with disabilities. Eligible students seeking accommodations should contact the Coordinator of Services for Students with Disabilities in the Center for Academic Services located in Sadler Hall, 11. Accommodations are not retroactive, therefore, students should contact the Coordinator

as soon as possible in the term for which they are seeking accommodations. Further information can be obtained from the Center for Academic Services, TCU Box 297710, Fort Worth, TX 76129, or at (817) 257-7486.

Readings subject to change. Note: For all chapters from the Vendler text, Poems, Poets, Poetry, read only the initial meat of the chapter, stopping at the section titled In Briefyou have no need to go on to Reading Other Poems, as the other poems we will discuss are assigned separately in the syllabus. I advise you to read the chapter for that week before you read the poems, but do so lightly and with a focus on Vendlers main point. The emphasis for each week will be the individually assigned poems, using Vendlers chapters as a guide and a focus for how we read them. Individual poems will be taken primarily from Vendlers text and Anthology (starting on p. 369), with some additional poems assigned from the internet or a provided pdf. If no url or other indication appears, the poems will be found in the Vendler text, Poems, Poets, Poetry, listed by author, in her Chronological Contents beginning p. xxv. Student Presentations Tu 14 Tr 16 Syllabus, Hellos, Presentation sign-ups Vendler Ch. 10: Poets on Poetry (p. 307)

Tu 21

Tr

23

Vendler ch. 1: Poem as Life (p. 3-14) (web) Caedmons Hymn, http://www.heorot.dk/bede-caedmon.html Anonymous: The Cuckoo Song, Sir Patrick Spens (web) The Dream of the Rood, http://www.apocalyptictheories.com/literature/dor/medora1.html# The Battle of Maldon http://www.johnderbyshire.com/Readings/maldon.html

Context: Recitation: C: R:

Tu 28

Tr

30

Vendler ch. 2: Poem as Arranged Life (p. 27) Sidney, 1, 31 (web) Wyatt, Whoso List to Hunt, http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174862 Shakespeare: Sonnets 116, 129, 130 Donne: Holy Sonnet 14, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

C: R: C: R:

Tu 4

Vendler ch. 11: Writing About Poems (p. 323) Jonson, On My First Son Bradstreet, Before the Birth of One of Her Children, A Letter to

C: R:

Tr

Her Husband Herrick, Corinnas Going A-Maying Herbert, Easter Wings, Love (III) Milton, When I Consider How My Light is Spent (web) Vaughan, The World, http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174701

C: R:

Tu 11

Tr

13

Paper/Poem 1 Due Smart, From Jubilate Agno (i.e., my Cat Jeoffry) Cowper, The Castaway Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard Wheatley, On Being Brought from Africa to America, To S. M. a young African Painter (web) Barbauld, The Rights of Woman, http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/172871, Washing-Day, http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/barbauld/works/balwashing.html

C: R: C: R:

Tu 18

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20

Vendler ch. 3: Poems as Pleasure (p. 77) Blake, The Lamb, The Tyger Wordsworth, Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, My Heart Leaps Up Coleridge, Kubla Khan Shelley, Ozymandias Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn, On First Looking into Chapmans Homer

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Tu 25

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27

Vendler ch. 4: Describing Poems (p. 111) Tennyson, Ulysses Browning, My Last Duchess Bront, Remembrance Whitman, From Song of Myself (web) Whitman, The Wound-Dresser, http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/237970, To a Locomotive in Winter, http://www.bartleby.com/142/260.html

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Tu 4

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Vendler Appendices (p. 653) Dickinson, The Brain is wider than the Sky, I heard a Fly buzz when I died, I like to see it lap the Miles Midterm Exam

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Tu 11 Tr 13

SPRING BREAK SPRING BREAK

Tu 18

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20

Vendler ch. 5: The Play of Language (153) Arnold, Dover Beach Hardy, The Convergence of the Twain, Darkling Thrush Yeats, Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop, Sailing to Byzantium (web) Housman, Is My Team Ploughing http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/182369

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Tu 25

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27

Vendler ch. 6: Constructing a Self (179) Robinson, Richard Cory Dunbar, We Wear the Mask H.D., Helen (web) Lowell, Patterns, http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171725 Hopkins, Gods Grandeur (web) Hopkins, As Kingfishers Catch Fire, http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173654 Williams, This Is Just to Say (web) Williams, Raleigh Was Right, http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse/56/2#!/205 82126

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C: R:

Tu 1

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Vendler ch. 7: Poetry and Social Identity (213) Stevens, Anecdote of the Jar, The Idea of Order at Key West (web) Jeffers, Shine, Perishing Republic, http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/176411 Pound, In a Station of the Metro (web) Pound, A Pact, https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/html/1807/4350/poem1661.html H.D., Helen Moore, Poetry

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Tu 8

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10

Paper/Poem 2 Due Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Owen, Disabled Auden, Muse des Beaux Arts (web) Cummings, pity this busy monster,manunkind,

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http://web.cs.dal.ca/~johnston/poetry/pitmonster.html (web) Parker, The Passionate Freudian to His Love, http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/21356

R:

Tu 15

Th 17

Vendler ch. 8: History and Regionality (239) Hughes, Harlem, I, Too (See Whitman, I Hear America Singing, http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175779) Cullen, Heritage Bishop, Poem, Sestina (web) Brooks, kitchenette building, http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/guide/240198#poem Boy Breaking Glass, http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/172094

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Tu 22

Th 24

Vendler ch. 9: Attitudes, Values, Judgments (281) Rich, Diving into the Wreck, I Am in DangerSir Dove, Dusting Alvarez, Homecoming Alexie, Evolution Su, The English Canon Saito, Turkey People

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Tu 29 Th 8

Last Day of Class 3:00-5:30 Final Exam