COML 1134: Reading Poetry (FWS) #

Week 1: Feb 8, 10, 12 – Introduction #

This week we will read and respond to five poems. What do you notice in each?

2/8: Introduction

Today we discuss what "reading" and "poetry" mean to you.
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 FWS experience last semester. What did you write about in your final essay? How was the experience overall? Was there anything about the course design that worked particularly well for you? What would you change if you could go back in time? What do you hope to work on in this course? Post by today, 2/8 at 22:00.

2/10: Continuation

We will start discussing two poems from the slides: "A Light and Diplomatic Bird" by Gwendolyn Brooks, and "Hello, the Roses" by Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge. What do you notice?

Essay 0 - “First Day” (Due 2/12, 22:00)

2/12: Continuation, Rhyme

We continue with the remaining poems on the slides, including an excerpt from Christian Bök's The Xenotext.
Be sure to turn in Essay 0 tonight, by 10 PM.

Essay 0 - Peer review (Due 2/14, 22:00)

Week 2: Feb 15, 17, 19 – Rhyme #

2/15: “Susie Asado,” “Rhyme” (PEPP), “Repetition” (PEPP)

Discussion of Stein's poem, and how to scan through reference sources for key information.

2/17: “Shearing the Sheep”

An exercise in poetry composition. Our topic is fear. Our formal constraint is rhyme. But how do we go from vague ideas and various rules to an actual written text? Using rhymezone, the dictionary, and crowdsourced ideas about fear and related words, we'll attempt to write a poem together.

2/19: Harryette Mullen, Christian Bök, R.A.P. Ferreira, Eminem

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.

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 2/20 at 22:00. Upload your work as a PDF attachment to a DB post; follow MLA formatting and citation rules.

Week 3: Feb 22, 24, 26 – Line #

2/22: 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”?

2/24: Poems by Robert Hass and Louise Glück

2/26: Poems by A.R. Ammons and Walt Whitman

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 2/27 at 22:00. Upload your work as a PDF attachment to the DB post; follow MLA formatting and citation rules.

Week 4: Mar 1, 3, 5 – Meter #

3/1: Hass: “A Note on Stress,” “How to Scan a Poem”

Read these chapters, but we'll discuss some of the quoted examples.

3/3: 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 3/7, 22:00)

3/5: Whitman, cont.

Week 5: Mar 8, 10, 12 – Sonnet #

Individual Conference I

In this conference, I will give you feedback on Essay 1. The earlier you schedule it, the more time you have to work on revisions. The final deadline for revisions is 3/19, 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 ).

3/8: 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?

3/10: No Class

3/12: 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?

Week 6: Mar 15, 17, 19 – Sonnet, cont. #

3/15: Early Modern sonnet, cont.; Sonnets from the 19th Century

Read Post-Petrarchism, Introduction (p. 1-13) and Chapter 1 (p. 22-27). Post sonnets of interest in #sonnet.

3/17: Sonnets from the 19th Century, cont.

Read Chapter 1 from Theory of the Lyric (p. 10-38)

Essay 1 Revisions (Due 3/19, 22:00)

3/19 - Sonnets from the 20th and 21st century

We will also discuss and apply terms from the theory readings in class.

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 3/21 at 22:00.

Week 7: Mar 22, 24, 26 – Ode #

This week we pay closer attention to notions like “voice,” “address,” and “dialogue” in order to better understand these longer poems work. We will also continue to apply the concepts encountered last week: ritual, fiction, deixis, the four parameters, and ask ourselves which of these terms seem most helpful.

3/22 - Hayes and Yau (Contemporary Sonnet), The Three Voices

3/24 - Marianne Moore, “An Octopus”

3/26 - John Ashbery, “Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror”

Discussion Board — Write a poem, preferrably a sonnet, that employs apostrophe. Post by 3/27 at 22:00.

Week 8: Mar 29, 31, Apr 2 – Ode and Elegy #

Essay 2 “Speaker” (Due 4/4, 22:00)

3/29 - Amiri Baraka, “Dope”

See Rambsy's "Catching Holy Ghosts: The Diverse Manifestations of Black Persona Poetry"

3/31 - Class Cancelled!

4/2 - Langston Hughes, “The Weary Blues”

See Ramazani's Poetry of Mourning, Chapter 4

Week 9: Apr 5, 7, 9 – Image #

Individual Conference II

(Schedule by 4/2, 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 4/16, 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 discuss the validity of identifying poetry with photography, and practice identifying puncta in both photos and poems. Poets may include: Will Alexander, Paul Celan, Aimé Césaire, Emily Dickinson, Robert Hass, Mina Loy, Stéphane Mallarmé, Jean Toomer, Tomas Tranströmer, and César Vallejo.

4/5 - Sylvia Plath, “Daddy”

See Ramazani's Poetry of Mourning, Chapter 7

4/7 - Barthes, Camera Lucida (First part)

4/9 - Barthes, Camera Lucida (cont.)

...With application of the terms "studium" and "punctum."

Week 10: Apr 12, 14, 16 — Image, cont. #

Essay 2 Revisions (Due 4/16, 22:00)

How does knowing about the poet's life affect your relationship with their work?
Poets are subject to change, depending on class input.

4/12 - Richard Wright, Haiku

4/14 - Mina Loy, Vicente Huidobro

4/16 - Will Alexander, Aimé Césaire

Week 11: Apr 19, 21, 23 — Image, cont. #

Essay 3 (“Punctum”) (Due 4/24, 22:00)

4/19 - Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, Arthur Sze

4/21 - Paul Celan, Atsuro Riley

4/23 - No class

Week 12: Apr 26, 28, 30 – Values and Controversies #

Can you ascertain the values of a poet from reading their poetry?
What are some ways in which poets might clash and disagree?

4/26: No class

Essay 4 Proposal (Due 4/30, 22:00)

4/28: Rita Dove v. Helen Vendler, Marjorie Perloff

4/30: Rupi Kaur, Internet Poetry

Week 13: May 3, 5, 7 — Characters (Presentations) #

May 3:

May 5:

May 7:

Week 14: May 10, 12, 14 — Characters (Presentations) #

May 10:

May 12:

May 14:

Essay 4 “Final” (Due 5/19, 22:00)
Course-Teacher Evaluations due (online)

Final exam period runs from May 19-25.