This class is about poetry. An introduction to poetry. Though that statement certainly sounds vague—and obvious, in light of this course’s title—it helps us realize how expansive the art form is. As the preface to your anthology states, “Poetry . . . encourages us to embrace paradox and contradiction, the unexpected, the never-thought-of (and also paradoxically, the universal, the shared, the familiar).” In a similar way, definitions of poetry are equally as vague—there are nearly as many different definitions as there are poets. Alexander Pope felt the best poetry was what was “oft thought, but ne’er so well expressed.” For Coleridge it was “the best words in the best order.” No matter how we might differ in our definitions, the one constant that we can place upon poetry is that it is always changing—and that change is governed by influence, both positive and negative. In a sense, all art moves forward in this manner; that is, artists react to prior conventions, both through incorporation and by the throwing off of prior conventions. The poet is both alone at the desk and surrounded by every other voice to have "uttered" verse. The poet's work exists to the private satisfaction of the poet himself/herself, but also in the public sphere of society/history/posterity, or whatever name one wants to place upon the masses.
Since it would be impossible to cover thousands of years of verse in three months, we will use the constant time-line of influence to help focus our study. Harold Bloom has said that poets contend with, even as they are inspired by, earlier poets, in an effort to assert their own priority. In this way we can consider the movements of poetry—evolving formal structures, themes, visions, etc.—as well as the individual poem. This will allow for an examination of both the private and public implications of the poetry we read, which seems appropriate; after all, poetry is always aimed both inward at the self and outward toward humanity.
The philosophy of this course is just that, that poetry is both public and private, simultaneously, whatever the intentions of the poet - once it has been written and published, the ideas inhabiting a poem cease to be only the poet's. For this reason, literature is often a powerful and volatile political space where artists grapple with the culture at large. Seeing literature as more than just "telling a story" requires a shift in thinking. It requires that we displace our own preconceptions, stereotypes, biases (we all have them) and approach the text objectively. It requires that we think of literature as a kind of machine; each text has a function and produces an effect. I think it was Walt Whitman who said that poetry is a small or large machine made out of words. Machines don't mean something; they do something. Our task will be to investigate what these dramatic texts are trying to do.
As a teacher, I am not governed by the notion that there is only one correct reading or interpretation of any literary work. Rather, my hope is that by the end of the semester you will be able to appreciate the many effects of any given poem. Early in the semester, I won’t expect you to be an expert on literary matters. I do, however, expect you to share your reactions and questions. As the semester progresses, you will become better versed in the methods of critical reading, and as result, will also become a more articulate, discerning, and critical writer.
Please be aware that many of the poems that we will read and consider will come from poets with widely different backgrounds and the poems will often deal with decidedly provocative issues including class, race and racism, sexuality, religion, politics, etc. We will, at times, encounter coarse language. You know your level of tolerance concerning such matters; it's up to you whether to stay in the course or seek another one more in line with your personal tastes/opinions. If you elect to stay, please know that we will not discuss whether a poet's ideas are moral/immoral, proper/improper, etc. Rudeness regarding such matters will not be tolerated and offenders will be asked to leave the class. The goal of learning to read literature is seeing beyond one's own experience and worldviews.
Welcome aboard,
Jamie Thomas
* * * * * *
Tentative Course Schedule
This schedule will evolve as the class progresses. Changes will be announced both on my blog and on WebCT. Full instructions for the items on this list, including page numbers will be posted as they become available. Unless otherwise noted, all blog assignments and discussion questions will be assigned on Monday and due by Sunday. All readings unless noted will be from the Norton Anthology of Poetry. Other readings will be provided in handout form/online at my blog and on WebCT.
Week
8.20
Course Intro (review syllabus, policies, and visit
http://intro2poetryhouston.blogspot.com/– Intro to Poetry
Reading: Versification and Poetic Syntax pp. 2027-2073
Alexander Pope (pp. 596-598, lines 1-300)
Discussion online
Blog Assn. Getting started on Blogger (Due 8/27)
8.27 [English Romantics]
Reading: Blake – from Songs of Innocence
“Introduction”
“Holy Thursday”
“The Divine Image”
from Songs of Experience
“A Divine Image”
“Holy Thursday (II)”
“London”
Wordsworth – “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey”
“London, 1802”
“Ode: Intimations of Immortality”
Coleridge - “Frost at Midnight”
“Dejection: an Ode”
Discussion online
Blog Assignment: Due 9/1
9.3
Reading: Byron – “Written after Swimming from Sestos to Abydos”
“She Walks in Beauty”
Shelly – “Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples”
“England in 1819”
“Ode to the West Wind”
Keats – “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer”
“Ode on Melancholy”
“To Autumn”
“This Living Hand”
Discussion online
Blog Assignment: Due 9/8
9.10 [American Romanticism]
Reading: Whitman, Emerson, Dickinson (poems forthcoming)
Discussion online
Blog Assignment: Due 9/15
9.17 [Victorian to Modern]
Reading: Hardy, Hopkins, Yeats, Robinson, Houseman
Discussion online
Blog Assignment: Due 9/22
(Paper #1 assigned)
9.24 [Modernism (Imagism)]
Reading: Pound, Eliot, Amy Lowell, Stein, H.D., William Carlos Williams
Discussion online
Blog Assignment: Due 9/29
10.1
Discussion online – Paper Proposals/Progress
Strategies for writing about poetry (handouts forthcoming)
Paper #1: Due 10/7
10.8 [Modernism cont.]
Reading: Lawrence, Stevens, Moore, Hart Crane, Auden, Macleish
Discussion online
Blog Assignment: Due 10/13
10.15
Reading: Frost, Sandburg, Cummings, Dylan Thomas, Millay
Discussion online
Blog Assignment: Due 10/20
10/22 [Harlem Renaissance and Black Arts Movement]
Reading: Hughes, Cullen, Toomer – Baraka, Brooks, Lorde (further
handouts forthcoming)
Discussion online
Blog Assignment: Due 10/27
10.29 [Contemporary]
Reading: Bishop, Berryman, Jarrell, Larkin, Rukeyser, Creely, Hayden,
Roethke
Discussion online
Blog Assignment: Due 11/3
11.5 [Beats & N.Y. School]
Reading: Corso, Ferlinghetti, Ginsberg – Ashbery, Koch, Schuyler, O’Hara
Discussion online
Blog Assignment: Due 11/10
(Paper #2 assigned)
11.12 [Confessional Poets]
Reading: Plath, Robert Lowell, Snodgrass, Sexton, James Wright, Bly
(further handouts forthcoming)
Discussion online
Blog Assignment: Due 11/17
11.19
Paper # 2 Proposals (Discussion online)
THANKSGIVING BREAK
11.26
Disscussion/Virtual Workshop
Semester Wrap-up
Paper #2 Due 12/5
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