Assignments

English 4446/5446 Modern Poetry, Spring 2011

Section 01 (CRN 21149/21150): TR 3:30-4:45PM, Arts & Sciences 243

In Class Activities

1. Poetry Devices Review

Let's review the poetry devices as we discuss a few of Thomas Hardy's poems. To prepare for Monday's class, besides reading Ramazani's Introduction and Hardy's poems, answer the Poetry Analysis questions regarding the devices (speaker, diction, etc.) for the following poems:

2. W. B. Yeats

Because I cannot narrow which Yeats' poems to closely read today, let's divide into five groups of four to discuss five different poems. Here are the tasks:

  1. Each group should first characterize Yeats' overall world view and poetic concerns as illustrated in his general body of work.
  2. Second, do a mini-close reading of core conflicts, connotations, ironies, and themes.
  3. Finally, report your analysis to the class.

And here are the poems:

3. Reassembling The Waste Land

Next week, we will interpret T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land. Our discussion will benefit if we all do some homework. Here are the two tasks I'd like each of you to complete for your assigned part of the poem:

  1. narrative: reconstruct the overarching narrative thread from the various voices and situations in your assigned section
  2. allusion and theme: look up major allusions and interpret what they add to your assigned section's theme (Modern American Poetry's page on The Waste Land is a good place to start)

Here are the assigned sections:

4. William Carlos Williams vs/and High Modernism

To practice the kind of comparative analysis required in the upcoming exam, let's begin our first day of discussion of William Carlos Williams by breaking into groups and then comparing his themes and poetics with those of the high modernists T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. (We'll focus on "To Elsie" and "Spring and All" next time.)

5. The Fugitives

Let's discuss the Fugitives on their own in small groups of no more than 5, then compare them as a class.

6. Book of Frost

To prepare for the book of poetry wild card option, let's talk about Robert Frost's poems as if they were all from a single book by Frost. Take a few moments to briefly answer the following questions about what your assigned poem, noting that some questions might not be appropriate for your particular poem:

  1. What are the ironic tensions in the poem?
  2. What idea regarding nature does the poem advance?
  3. What does the poem say about tradition and/or region?
  4. What does the poem say about death and/or nothingness?

Here are the assigned poems:

  1. "Mending Wall" (203) Elizabeth Bohnhorst
  2. "Home Burial" (204) Katie Conrad
  3. "After Apple-Picking" (207) Melissa Cossey-Borries
  4. "The Wood-Pile" (208) Kathryn Dee
  5. "The Road Not Taken" (209) Cody Fox
  6. "An Old Man's Winter Night" (210) Katie Hedglin
  7. "The Oven Bird" (211) Miranda Jaynes
  8. "Birches" (211) Ashley Jenkins
  9. "'Out, Out—'" (213) Samantha Mandernacht
  10. "Fire and Ice" (214) and "Dust of Snow" (214) Chris McKenzie
  11. "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" (214) Michelle Richards
  12. "For Once, Then, Something" (215) or "To Earthward" (215) TJ Sandella
  13. "The Need of Being Versed in Country Things" (216) Erin Schubach
  14. "Acquainted with the Night" (217) Sal Talluto
  15. "Two Tramps in Mud Time" (218) Drew Thomas
  16. "Desert Places" (220) Chelsea Thomas
  17. "Design" (221) Hannah Vaughan
  18. "Provide, Provide" (222) Jessica Ward
  19. "The Most of It" (223) Leanna Wharram
  20. "The Gift Outright" (224) Mary Wilson

7. Bridging Criticism

Read for Thursday, March 31

 

Now that we've done close readings of individual poems and compared and contrasted poets, let's practice reading scholarly criticism on modernist poetry. For Thursday's class, reread all of The Bridge, be prepared to discuss your assigned sections of The Bridge, and read and annotate your assigned scholarly interpretation of The Bridge.

Discuss on Thursday, March 31

  1. Narrative: What is literally going on in your group's assigned sections?
  2. Meaning: What are the keys issues and ideas in your assigned sections?
  3. Criticism: What question does the author ask? What evidence does she use? What conclusion does she draw? What does the article explain?

8. Applying Criticism

One of the issues that will arise as you conduct research on a poet, poem, or poetic issue is that you will not be able to find an article on a particular poem you're discussing or you will find an article on a poem that you aren't discussing. Today we will practice applying Marjorie Perloff's interpretation of the Objectivist journal Pagany in "'Barbed-Wire Entanglements": Entanglements": The 'New American Poetry,' 1930-1932" to our understanding of Louis Zukofsky's poetry. Break into groups of three and complete the following tasks:

  1. Define Objectivism, according to Perloff's article and Ramazani's headnote.
  2. What poetic traits characterize Objectivist poems, according to your group's assigned passages from Perloff's article?
  3. Discuss the poetics and meaning of your group's assigned poem.
  4. How might the passage(s) help to illuminate your group's assigned poem?

The Groups:

9. Realing Imagination / Imagining Reality

For our first day of discussion of Wallace Stevens, let's consider these aphorisms and quotations:

Next, let's apply what we've just analyzed about the relationship between imagination and reality to some pertinent poems:

10. Concluding Thoughts

For our final discussion, select a poem from our anthology by a poet we've read that you consider to be emblematic of modern/-ist poetry. In class we'll highlight the characteristics of modern/-ist poetics.

Close Reading

Select any short poem on the syllabus through February 17 that we have not discussed in class and rigorously analyze it like we did as a class with Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," Owen's "Apologia pro Poemate Meo," Sassoon's "'Blighters,'" Yeats's "The Lake Isle of Innisfree," Hopkins's "Pied Beauty," and Hardy's "I Looked up from my writing." Comment on the figurative language, discuss the form, address the tone and diction, explain any symbols. What are the key ironies and paradoxes, tensions and ambiguities? Into what idea or theme do these conflicts resolve (or fail to resolve)?

Exam

You will write 2-3 comparative essays from your choice of 4-6 questions, the topics of which will be generated by the class on Thursday, March 3. You may only use a particular poet in one essay in the entire exam.

 

Undergraduates will take the exam in-class on Thursday, March 10. Graduate students will take the 10-12 page exam at home (the questions will be posted in this space at 3:30PM on Thursday, March 10) and submit to TurnItIn > Exam (Graduate Only) by 3:30PM Tuesday, March 15.

 

If I were to study for this exam, I would 1) create summaries of each poet that describes their key poems, core conflicts, important themes, and poetic style and 2) write practice essays on the topics generated in class on Thursday, March 3 that compare and contrast different poets.

Topics Selected by the Class on Thursday, March 3

  1. Classical Literature: modern poetry's use of classical literature
  2. Religion and Spirituality: the function and themes of Christianity, mysticism, and/or religion in modern poetry
  3. War: the attitudes toward and effects of war on modern poetics
  4. Women: portrayal and/or agency of women
  5. Imagism: the influence and effects of Imagism on modern poetry
  6. Nature: the treatment and function of nature in modern poetry
  7. Identity: modern identity

The Graduate Exam

Write two 5-6 page, MLA styled essays on four different poets' works by answering two of the following five essay questions. Submit your exam to TurnItIn > Exam (Graduate Only) by the start of class on Tuesday, March 15; retrieve your graded exam in GeorgiaVIEW > Exam (Graduate Only) approximately one week later.

 

Here are important guidelines for essays:

Here are the poets:

Here are the essays:

Research Paper

Undergraduate Students

You will write an 8-10 page research paper. Research a poem, poet, or poetic issue or problem in modernist poetry selected by you (but not one you did your close reading or wild card paper on) and approved by the professor by April 21, and then compose an essay that proves an interpretation of your focused and studied analysis.

 

For instance, if focusing on a poem, you could study The Bridge and write an essay on the metaphorical meaning of its poetic structure; if focusing on a poet, you could study Hart Crane's democratic, mystical vision as reflected in selected poetry; if a poetic issue, you could study the problem of the "Logic of Metaphor." Whatever your topic, make sure it's narrow and researchable, integrating at least 5 secondary sources including both scholarly journal articles and books.

Graduate Students

Graduate Students will write a 12-15 page research paper entering, engaging, and advancing the scholarly discourse of modernist poetry selected by you and approved by the professor by April 21. You could, for instance, research how two modernist poets respond to one another, analyze how a modernist poet has influenced a contemporary poet or movement, or focus on a key poetic or thematic issue for a particular modernist poet.

 

Your essay should be worthy of being presented at a conference, integrate at least 6 secondary sources on the modernist poet(s) including both scholarly journal articles and books and at least 2 theoretical articles on modernism

Student Topic

Elizabeth Bohnhorst

Stevens, nihilism

Katie Conrad

Hughes, musicality

Melissa Cossey-Borries

McKay, protest sonnet

Kathryn Dee

Oppen, subjectivity and worldliness

Cody Fox

Eliot, sexuality, desire, fragmentation

Katie Hedglin

Cullen, alienation and exile

Miranda Jaynes

Hardy, war

Ashley Jenkins

Dickinson, time, love, death, and religion

Samantha Mandernacht

Harlem Renaissance sonnet

Chris McKenzie

Yeats, gyres

Michelle Richards

flashbacks in World War I poetry and Iraq War poetry

TJ Sandella

Cummings and Marie Howe, destruction and reconstruction

Erin Schubach

Frost, darkness

Sal Talluto

the bridge in Eliot, Pound, and Crane

Drew Thomas

Cummings, "Anyone Lived in a Pretty Town"

Chelsea Thomas

Hughes, stereotypes

Hannah Vaughan

modernist spring

Jessica Ward

H. D., female archetypes

Leanna Wharram

McKay, modernist sonnets

Mary Wilson

Pound, symbolism

UndergraduateS Only

Response Paper

In the 3-4 page response paper submitted to GeorgiaVIEW > Discussions > Response Paper, you will react to a poet in general and then focus on one poem in particular. What issues do the poet and poem raise, and what do you think about those ideas? What is the poem saying to you, and what do you reply? What questions do you have for and about the poet and the poem?

 

In class, you will informally present your response paper (without simply reading it), read the poem aloud in class, and broach questions for class discussion.

 

Your graded paper will be returned approximately one week after your informal presentation in GeorgiaVIEW > Assignments > Response Paper.

 

Due Date Reading Student
T, 1-25

Yeats

Hannah Vaughan
T, 2-1

Sassoon or Owen

  
R, 2-3

Eliot

Samantha Mandernacht
T, 2-15

Pound

Jessica Ward
T, 2-22

Williams

Chelsea Thomas
R, 3-3

H. D. or Moore

Erin Schubach
T, 3-8

Stein

Drew Thomas
T, 3-15

Ransom or Tate or Riding

Katie Hedglin
T, 3-29

Crane

Leanna Wharram
T, 4-5

Toomer or Brown

Katie Conrad

R, 4-7

McKay or Cullen

Cody Fox
T, 4-12

Hughes

Ashley Jenkins
R, 4-14

Zukofsky

Miranda Jaynes
T, 4-19

Oppen

Chris McKenzie

R, 4-21

Niedecker

Mary Wilson

T, 4-26

Stevens

Kathryn Dee

Wild Card

Choose one of the following three options, being sure to have a strong thesis and textual analysis regardless of selection:

  1. Write an essay discussing the theme of an entire book of poetry by one of the poets we've read.
  2. Write an essay analyzing how a contemporary poet has been influenced by one of the poets we've read.
  3. Write an essay examining how two poets we've read respond to each other's work.

GraduateS Only

Presentation

For the 30 minute presentation, you will select an article that helps the class understand a poet or poem(s), then teach the article and poem(s) to the class. Let me know the article and poem(s) you're going to cover at least one week before your presentation so I can distribute the article to the class.

 

Presentation Due Date Reading Student
R, 1-27

Yeats

Sal Talluto

T, 2-8

Eliot

  
R, 2-17

Pound

Michelle Richards

T, 3-1

Williams

  
R, 3-3

H. D. or Moore

  
T, 3-8

Stein

  
R, 3-16

Frost

  
R, 3-31

Crane

  

R, 4-7

McKay or Cullen

Melissa Cossey
T, 4-12

Hughes

TJ Sandella
R, 4-14

Zukofsky

  
T, 4-19

Oppen

 
R, 4-21

Niedecker

 
R, 4-28

Stevens

Elizabeth Bohnhorst

 

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