COML 1134: Reading Poetry (FWS) #
Week 1: August 26 – Introduction #
8/26: What Do You Notice?
We will collectively discuss several poems, go over important class information, and discuss the general purpose of freshman writing. Be sure to complete the preliminary survey by 10 PM!
Discussion Board — Introduce yourself (name, pronouns, hometown, prospective major, anything else you’d like to share) and write a brief reflection on your most recent writing course. What did you read and write? How was the experience overall? Was there anything about the course design that worked well for you or which didn’t work? What would you change if you could go back in time? What do you hope to work on in this course? Post by today, 8/26 at 22:00.
Writing Tasks — Think about what happens when you transfer your ideas to the page. Are you re-ordering them? Is it difficult to produce a coherent structure? What patterns do you observe in your own writing? Is there anything you’d like to change?
Essay 0 - “First Day” (Due 8/28, 22:00)
Essay 0 - Peer review (Due 8/30, 22:00)
Week 2: Aug 31, Sep 2 – Rhyme #
8/31: “Rhyme” (PEPP), “Repetition” (PEPP)
We will continue discussing the poems from the slides, with an emphasis on discussing repetition and rhyme within each. Read the above entries, under > Files > Encyclopedia.
9/2: Orality and Rhyme
Discussion of rhyme and repetition in written and oral poetries. Discussion will likely include: Alexander Pope, Gertrude Stein, R.A.P. Ferreira, Eminem, Wally McRae, Harryette Mullen, and Christian Bök.
Writing Tasks — What makes a good poem? How do you go about writing one?
Discussion Board — Think about our discussions of rhyme and repetition this week and identify an idea you would like to respond to. Then, find an excerpt from the PEPP entries or a poem which addresses that idea. Finally, write a poem responding to that quotation. Here’s a topical constraint: Write about something you fear. You may certainly begin by writing your poem first, before connecting it to a particular idea on rhyme/repetition. Regardless, write a brief paragraph afterwards sharing the quote and reflecting on your process, and how satisfied you are with your response to the cited text. Post by 9/5 at 22:00.
Week 3: Sep 7, 9 – Line #
9/7: Robert Hass: Introduction, Chapters 1-3, from A Little Book on Form
- Prior to class, put in the #line slack channel a favorite quote from Hass or favorite quoted poem from the reading. Briefly comment on why you chose it, or not (in which case I will probably call on you in class to comment further).
- Keep a list of favorite lines mentioned in these chapters, in previous or future readings, and in poems you may have independently found. Try to figure out why you like a given line, couplet, or tercet of poetry. How does it “embody the energy of the gesture of its making”?
9/9: Poems by Robert Hass, A.R. Ammons
Writing Tasks — What makes a good sentence, paragraph, essay? How do you move between sentences? How do you move between paragraphs?
Discussion Board — Draft a poem or a stanza from a poem. It could be an extension or revision of last week’s post, or something new. Show three different ways of writing it on the page (using line breaks, stanza divisions, or virgules) and see if you can determine which one you prefer. Write a paragraph describing how you came up with the three arrangements and why you prefer the chosen one over the others. Cite Hass or another poem where necessary. Post by 9/12 at 22:00.
Week 4: Sep 14, 16 – Meter #
9/14: Hass: “A Note on Stress,” “How to Scan a Poem”
Read these chapters, but we'll discuss some of the quoted examples.
9/16: Whitman, “Song of Myself”
We'll continue discussing some poems written in a fixed meter, but also ask: are there metrical patterns in Whitman's free verse?
Essay 1 “Rhyme, Line, Meter” (Due 9/24, 22:00)
Writing Tasks — How do you write the first paragraph of an essay?
Week 5: Sep 21, 23 – Sonnet (Early Modern) #
Individual Conference I
(Schedule by 10/1, use calendly.com/dp625)
In this conference, I will give you feedback on Essay 1. The earlier we meet, the more time you have to work on revisions. The final deadline for revisions is 10/8, 22:00, but if you turn them in earlier and request it, I can provide additional rounds of feedback. You may also come up with other questions or topics to discuss during the conference.
We will take an “inductive” approach to the sonnet form this week by reading a wide range of sonnets by Petrarch, Shakespeare, Rilke, Berrigan, Toomer, Hayes, Hopkins, Sor Juana, Pessoa, and others. Given these poems, we might ask: what do sonnets do? What subjects do they gravitate toward? What makes this form so robust and versatile? A small "reader" has been uploaded on Canvas ( > Files > Sonnet > 129-sonnets.pdf ).
9/21: Art of the Sonnet, selected sonnets
Read the Introduction (p. 5-25) from Art of the Sonnet. Start reading poems from the Sonnet Reader; post poems that catch your eye in #sonnet. We'll pick out some quotes from the AoS Intro and look at some poems in the Sonnet reader in class. A few questions we will address: Why 14 lines? Why these rhyme schemes? Why and how did this form emerge? What are common topics addressed by the sonnet? What are its rhetorical stances and social, political, and/or aesthetic functions?
9/23: Early Modern Sonnets
Continue posting sonnets in #sonnet, particularly those from the 19th-21st centuries. We will discuss the Early Modern sonnets (e.g., Petrarch, Shakespeare, Quevedo, Sor Juana) and look at some associated paintings. Why are death and eros such common topics, and how do these poets approach them?
Writing Tasks — How do you provide context and historical breadth in an essay? How do you conduct preliminary research on a complex topic or time period?
Week 6: Sep 28, 30 – Sonnet (19th-21st c) #
9/28: 19th Century Sonnets
Read Post-Petrarchism, Introduction (p. 1-13) and Chapter 1 (p. 22-27). Post sonnets of interest in #sonnet.
9/30: 20th and 21st Century Sonnets
Read Chapter 1 from Theory of the Lyric (p. 10-38)
Writing Tasks — How do you write an essay that involves comparison? How do you paraphrase, define, and write in response to another person’s text?
Week 7: Oct 5, 7 – Sonnet (Comparisons) #
Essay 1 Revisions (Due 10/8, 22:00)
10/5 - Sonnets + External Readings
10/7 - Sonnets + External Readings, cont.
Writing Tasks — How do you provide context and historical breadth in an essay? How do you conduct preliminary research on a complex topic or time period?
Discussion Board — Pick a sonnet or ghazal and discuss its relationship with another poem of the same form. See if you can relate the poems with one of the concepts we learned in class, from the theoretical readings of the Encyclopedia. Your comparison may relate to the poems’ differing takes on a similar topic, their enunciative apparati, the degree to which they are “hyperbolic,” differing uses of ritual and fictional elements, and/or their respective takes on a similar conceit. Post by 10/3 at 22:00.
Week 8: Oct 14 – Review #
Essay 2 “Poems in Dialogue” (Due 10/22, 22:00)
10/12 - Fall Break, No Class
10/14 - Review: What is “Lyric”?
Writing Tasks — How do you write a strong thesis statement?
Discussion Board — Update your DB post with either an introductory paragraph or notes on the poem. If you already wrote an introduction, you may want to update your thesis statement after having collected your notes.
Week 9: Oct 19, 21 – Apostrophe #
We will discuss the function of apostrophe in the lyric. Does apostrophe come with ethical stakes?
10/19 - Keats, Césaire
Read the selected poems, alongside Barbara Johnson's "Apostrophe, Animation, and Abortion"
10/21 - Hughes, Baraka, Plath
Writing Tasks — How do you identify a poetic “problem”?
Week 10: Oct 26, 28 — Image #
Individual Conference II
(Schedule by 10/28, use calendly.com/dp625)
In this conference, I will give you feedback on Essay 2. The earlier you schedule it, the more time you have to work on revisions. The final deadline for revisions is 11/5, 22:00, but if you turn them in earlier and request it, I can provide additional rounds of feedback. You may also come up with other questions or topics to discuss during the conference.
10/26 - Ezra Pound, H.D., Mina Loy, William Carlos Williams, etc.
10/28 - Secondary readings: William Carlos Williams
Week 11: Nov 2, 4 — Image, cont. #
Essay 2 Revisions (Due 11/5, 22:00)
11/2 - Secondary readings: H.D.
11/4 - Secondary readings: Richard Wright
Week 12: Nov 9, 11 – Sentence #
Why did certain poets start to write in prose?
11/9: Baudelaire, Paris Spleen, Ponge
11/11: Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge
Week 13: Nov 16, 18 — Page #
Essay 3 (“Studium, Punctum”) (Due 11/19, 22:00)
11/16: Mallarmé, Haroldo de Campos
11/18: Emily Dickinson, Rupi Kaur
Week 14: Nov 23 — Values and Controversies #
Essay 4 Proposal (Due 11/23, 22:00)
11/23: Rita Dove, Marjorie Perloff, Helen Vendler
Thanksgiving Break runs from 11/24-11/28.
Week 15: Nov 30, Dec 2 — Presentations #
Guidelines
Presentations are opportunities for you to share what you have been working on and stay accountable during the final stretch of writing for this course. Here are some constraints:
- Each presentation block is 16-25 min. You may designate as little as 5 minutes or as much as 20 minutes to presenting. Remaining time will be dedicated to discussion.
- Assign up to 2 pages of prose + 14 lines of poetry for the class to read prior to your presentation. If you want to share more, designate excerpts for your classmates to focus on. Submit the materials to me at least two days in advance so I can distribute them. Earlier is better.
- During your presentation, recite the poems you are dealing with; if you are writing about multiple poems or long poems, you may delegate (have someone in the class read them out) and/or present shorter excerpts.
Here are some suggestions for what to present:
- Poem-centric: Share a poem and prompt the class to share their reactions to it; provide some questions or an exercise to guide the discussion. No need to share your essay ideas, but having clear ideas about the poem is crucial to producing a well-moderated discussion. Pretend you’re interviewing the class, or collecting data which may supplement your own writing.
- Essay-centric: Share a paragraph or more of your essay draft; contextualize it, talk about your writing process, ask for feedback, make live modifications.
- Idea-centric: Show us the argumentative arc of your essay. Point out areas where you are struggling to connect broader ideas to specific examples you’d like to include.
- Class-centric: Discuss how your essay and its ideas arise from specific units in the class, talk about how your essay is in dialogue with past class sessions. Best to do this if you’re close to done with your essay and if you’re one of the last presenters.
These are simply suggestions. Your presentation may be a blend of these options or something else entirely.
11/30:
12/2:
Week 16: Dec 7 — Presentations #
12/7:
Essay 4 “Final” (Due 12/10, 22:00)
Course-Teacher Evaluations due (online)
Final exam period runs from Dec 11-18.