Writing 125/English 120 Kathryn Lynch Fall, 2002 Founders 111 Office Hours: M/W/Th 11-12 and by appointment Extension 2575 Poetry is indispensable if only I knew what for. (Jean Cocteau) Texts: Ferguson, Slater, Stallworthy, eds., The Norton Anthology of Poetry (4th edition) William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, ed. Brian Gibbons (Arden edition) Lunsford and Connors, The Everyday Writer Description and Expectations: This course fulfills both the Writing 125 requirement and also the English 120 requirement for the English major. We thus need to conform to the policies and meet the expectations of both these courses. This double mission means, among other things, that we follow the attendance policy of Writing 125, which requires regular attendance in class and the withdrawal of any student who misses more than four classes; please remember that there is no distinction within this policy between excused and unexcused absences, so do try to limit your absences to those occasions when you simply cannot be in class. We will also be meeting three times a week in order to cover both the writing and literary aspects of the course, and the course will include a research assignment, as expected in every section of 125. As in all sections of English 120, the focus of our work will be on close reading of poetry, though we will also read a Shakespeare play in addition to a selection of lyric poems. Five papers will be assigned. These will be submitted at the due dates listed on the syllabus and then also gathered together in a final portfolio; one paper, of the student's selection, should be revised to include the use of at least one critical source, a summary of which each student will also present to the rest of the class orally. Memorization and recitation of at least 40 lines of poetry can substitute for one of the papers, but not for the paper revision that incorporates a critical source. The syllabus, as you will see below, is divided into units, variously formal and thematic. As we move through the poetry and drama listed on the syllabus, the schedule below is a guide to what we will be doing, not a contract, and we will also be mixing in regular discussion of the writing issues that come up on your papers. We will discuss many of the poems on the list, but not all of them. Students, however, are expected to be ready to discuss any poem on the day it is assigned or any day afterward. In addition to doing the reading and attending class, each student is expected to participate actively in our discussions as a group, to read and workshop her peers' papers as assigned, to participate in other group work, to do the reading very carefully and critically, and to bring the assigned reading to class with her when it is being discussed. The amount of reading in this course is not large, but you should spend as much time on it as you would in a course on the novel or on longer pieces of narrative poetry. Read each poem on multiple occasions, reread, look up words, think about it at odd moments, 1
let it sink into your subconscious; don't just show up in class thinking that you can figure a poem out on the spot because it's not too long. You will also be asked to place each poem on a timeline, which I will distribute at the beginning of the semester. This course has an on-line course conference on firstclass, entitled WRIT125/ENG120- F02, which contains several subconferences, including one for course materials like assignments and syllabus. Special announcements will be posted in the "Alert!" subconference, and additional subconferences are dedicated to sharing poems, discussion, and suggestions about the course. Course Schedule: Unit 1 -- What is poetry? Wednesday, September 4-- in-class writing/found poems. Thursday, September 5 -- Geoffrey Chaucer, "Chaucer's Wordes Unto Adam, His Owne Scriveyn" (55); Robert Herrick, "Delight in Disorder" (318); Ben Jonson, "Still to be Neat" (308); W. B. Yeats, "Adam's Curse" (1086-87) Monday, September 9 -- Elizabeth Bishop, "Poem" (xerox); William Carlos Williams, "The Red Wheelbarrow," "Poem" (1166-67); Rita Dove, "My Father's Telescope" (xerox) Wednesday, September 11 -- draft of first paper due for peer review. Thursday, September 12 -- Wallace Stevens, "The Poems of Our Climate"; John Keats, "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (848); Frank O'Hara, "Why I Am Not a Painter" (1619-20) Monday, September 16 -- W. B. Yeats, "Sailing to Byzantium" (1094); W. H. Auden, "Musée des Beaux Arts" (1367-68), "In Memory of W. B. Yeats" (1368-69) Unit 2 -- Fixed Forms Wednesday, September 18 -- final copy of first paper due. The Sonnet: John Keats, "On the Sonnet" (842); William Shakespeare, Sonnets 18, 20 73, 129, 130, 138 (234-41) Thursday, September 19 -- Aubades: Geoffrey Chaucer, from Troilus and Criseyde (xerox); Philip Larkin, "Aubade" (1549-50) Monday, September 23 -- Mixed Forms: Rita Dove, "Parsley" (xerox); Concrete Poetry: George Herbert, "Easter Wings" (330-31); John Hollander, "Swan and Shadow" (1664) 2
Wednesday, September 25 -- draft of second paper due for peer review. Thursday, September 26 -- Tours de Force: Elizabeth Bishop, "Sestina" (1412-13); T.S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1230-33) Monday, September 30 -- Mixed Traditions: Gerard Manley Hopkins, "God's Grandeur" (1062); Seamus Heaney, "Digging" (1788-89). Unit 3 -- History of the Language Wednesday, October 2 -- Excerpt from Beowulf, the approach of Grendel (Old English, and Seamus Heaney translation, xerox) Thursday, October 3 -- Introduction to history of the English language, etymology, using historical dictionaries. Second paper due. Monday, October 7 -- More discussion of Beowulf; Caedmon's Hymn (1, and xerox) Wednesday, October 9-- "The Seafarer" (10-12; and Old English, xerox); Ezra Pound, "The Seafarer" (1187-89) Thursday, October 10 -- draft of third paper due for peer review. %$#%$#%$#%$#%$#%$#%$#&^% FALL BREAK %$#%$#%$#%$#%$#%$#%$#%$ Wednesday, October 16 -- the opening lines of the Canterbury Tales (17); the opening lines of the Middle English Pearl (55-57). Thursday, October 17 -- Dream-vision translation project (xerox); final copy of third paper due. Unit 4 -- Poems of Loss Monday, October 21 -- Ben Jonson, "On My First Daughter," "On My First Son" (291-92); Katherine Philips, "Epitaph" (482); William Wordsworth, "Three Years She Grew" (721-22). Wednesday, October 23 -- Theodore Roethke, "Elegy for Jane" (1390-91); John Crowe Ransom, "Bells for John Whiteside's Daughter" (1255). Thursday, October 24 -- Auden, "Funeral Blues" (1362); Larkin, "The Explosion" (1548-49); John Dryden, "To the Memory of Mr. Oldham" (479); Dylan Thomas, "A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London" (1463). 3
Monday, October 28 -- fourth paper due (this will be a different kind of assignment, and will not be due in drafts); it can, however, be included in your final portfolio as one of your three papers, if you think that it raises some interesting points in regard to your writing). Unit 5 -- Romeo and Juliet Wednesday, October 30 -- R & J, I.i-ii (pp. 82-99). Thursday, October 31 -- R & J, finish I (pp.100-121). Monday, November 4 -- draft of fifth paper for peer review. Wednesday, November 6 -- R & J, II.i-ii (pp. 122-37). Thursday, November 7 -- R & J, finish II (to p. 158). Monday, November 11 -- final copy of fifth paper due; discussion of criticism, how to use, where to find. Wednesday, November 13 -- R & J, III.i-ii (pp. 159-75) Thursday, November 14 -- R & J, finish III (to p. 195). Monday, November 18 -- first set of presentations of critical articles. Wednesday, November 20 -- second set of presentationf of critical articles. Thursday, November 21 -- critical articles, wrap-up; writing issues. Monday, November 25 -- R & J, IV (to p. 216) %$#%$#%$#%$#%$#%$#%$#%$# THANKSGIVING %$#%$#%$#%$#%$#%$#%$# Monday, December 2 -- No class. Wednesday, December 4 -- R & J, V (to p. 235). Thursday, December 5 -- R & J, wrap-up. Monday, December 9 -- Final class Wednesday, December 11 -- letter and portfolio due (includes one paper rewritten to include the use of at least one secondary, critical source). 4
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