Office: TUR4332 Phone: 352-392-6650 x259 Email: pcraddoc@english.ufl.edu
Office hours: M6th period, F 4th period, and any other time by appointment.
Purpose of the Course:
I respectfully but earnestly request that all students read the following statement carefully, and that if their purposes in signing up for the course do not match these purposes, they drop it and choose a course more appropriate for their needs. Please do not take this course if you hate and resent poetry, just because it meets at a convenient hour or fills a requirement. Thank you.
We will study the ways in which poetry works-and by poetry, we will mean not just anything that has rhyme or rhythm, but specifically the results of people trying to use all the powers of language simultaneously-its ability to appeal to our intelligence, our imagination, and our senses. In other words, students will learn the language and craft of the practicing poet, though this course will not focus on the writing of their own poems.
Our focus will be on readings some of that large body of poems in English, from the twelfth century almost to the twenty-first, that have been, or might be, set to music--"lyric" poetry in its most literal sense. Students do not have to be musicians to take this class, but they will find it helpful if they enjoy music, because we will often find ourselves listening to these poems in their musical settings. But we will also study poems that are, like the title Yeats gave to one of his volumes of poems, "Words for Music--Perhaps."
Most lyric poems fall into one of three broad classes: songs (and sonnets)--short, intense expressions of reaction to an emotional experience or of a particular state of mind and heart; ballads--story poems told in the form of reports of intense episodes at key moments in the story; and odes (or elegies, or meditations, or "conversation poems")--longer poems that do not tell a story, but rather work through some intense emotional crisis or philosophical issue before the eyes, as it were, of the reader. Intensity, then, will be the keynote of our study.
While we will compare and contrast poems from different periods, in these different varieties, that deal with universal topics such as love, loss, commitment, and betrayal, we will not attempt to establish a history of the lyric poem. Rather, our emphasis will be primarily on what the poems of the past have to offer us who live, feel, and sing in the present day, and to a secondary extent on the question of which poems of the present may have such value for future readers.
BOOKS AND SUPPLIES NEEDED
The books required for this course are available at Goerings' Textbook Branch, between17th and 18th street on NW 1st Avenue-also known as "Books and Bagels." They are
Grades in this course will be based on the following:
1. 10% Class attendance and participation. Everyone starts with 60 points. Every class meeting attended counts one point for you; every unexcused absence counts three points against you. Lateness may count as a partial absence. Not bringing the necessary equipment, including the appropriate books, counts as a partial absence. The first two class meetings don't count against anyone. In letter grade terms, 60-64 = D, 65-69 = D+, etc. 90 and above is an A. There are 44 class meetings in the semester, not counting holidays and reading days, i.e., 42 after the first two.
2. 10% Quiz 1:on technical terms
3. 10% Quiz 2: in-class essay analyzing a poem
4. 20% Workshop Portfolios-analytical exercises and other activities to be explained below
5. 25% each: two papers, to be explained below.
What To Bring to Class
At every class meeting except those when we have a quiz, you will need to have with you the following:
1. your "portfolio"-whatever you're keeping your work in
2. some blank notebook paper
3. an index card with your name and the date on it, to indicate that you were present (you may also write comments and questions on these cards, and possibly earn extra credit for doing so)
4. the Steve Kowit book and/or the "Many Worlds" handout, except that when we have a guest, you may not need the Kowit book; I'll let you know.
On Mondays, bring all of the above and Major American Poets.
On Wednesdays, bring all of the above and Six Centuries of Great Poetry.
On Fridays, bring all of the above and Trouble the Water.
Not having your books in class will count as half an absence twice; thereafter, it will count as a whole absence, though you will still get a point for turning in your card.
Poems to Read
The assignment outline below does not include specific poems. The poems are listed on a separate "poem list", which so far includes only the first two weeks. You will receive later assignments as you and I select poems that we want to read, considering the class members' interests and taste. Sometimes the emphasized poems will be brought in from other sources, either by me or by other class members. Occasionally you may be asked to download them from the Internet, especially women's poems, which are underrepresented in these anthologies. Specific reading assignments will be announced, handed out, and posted on the Internet. It is YOUR responsibility to know what you were supposed to read and/or write for a given date, and your obligation to come to class prepared and on time. Changes, if any, will be posted on the Internet on our class syllabus page, which is at http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/pcraddoc/lit3031s.htm.
Paper Topics:
(1) Choose two or more poems by the same poet, OR in the same form, OR dealing with the same subject, to compare and contrast. At least one of the chosen poems must come from one of our textbooks, though it need not have been assigned reading. Your job is not to see where the poet(s) went wrong, or to praise his, her, or their wonderful work in vague generalities, but to help another reader appreciate exactly what the poet says and how he or she says it. You might think of yourself as answering the question, how and why do these poems differ from a simple prose summary of their content. If it helps, you may define your audience-are you telling your "significant other" about these poems? Your mom? Your roommate? Your kid brother? Remember, to love something you must understand it, and to understand it, you must love it. This paper should be approximately 1700-2500 words long.
(2) (A) Select or write a poem and make it into a song. If you can't write music, sing the song onto a tape and/or for me and/or for the class at the last class meeting. If you can write music, it would still be nice to sing the song for the class. Write a 500-word "autobiography" of the poem-into-song process.
OR
(B) Find a musical setting of one of the poems in our books, or of another poem previously approved by me, and compare and contrast the relationship beween the poem and the music in that example and in one other, which may be either another setting of the same poem, or a song-that is, a work in which poem and music were written more or less at the same time, though not necessarily by the same people-which has a closely similar subject and tone.
Assignment Outline:
Note: read the assigned pages in Kowit and/or the "Many Worlds" handouts, plus the indicated poems on the poem list (the number in parentheses on the poem list is the page on which the poem begins. Read the whole poem!) BEFORE the date on which they are listed, which is the date of the class meeting in which they will be discussed. Written assignments are due on the date listed, except that I have a policy of counting a major paper as on time if you can turn it in at the next class meeting after it is due AND can show me, on the listed due date, that you are already working on it and making progress on completing it. "Portfolio" assignments will be handed out in class and (when possible) posted on the Internet on their own page. If you are absent when a handout is given to you, you can usually download the material from the Internet.
W25 Kowit, "A Few Words," pp. iii-vi. Pick out the key sentences. Read also the poem on p. 6. Read poems in SC, set 1 (see Poemlist)
F27 Kowit, 8-16. In TW, read the first set of poems. Portfolio exercise 1.
M30 Kowit, 38-46. In MA, set 1 (see Poemlist)
W September 1, Many Worlds-"Imagery." SC poem set 2. Portfolio exercise 2.
F3 Kowit 48-52, TW poem set 2.
LABOR DAY M6
W8 Kowit 56-61, SC poem set 3 Portfolio 3
F10 Guest, TW poem set 3
M13 Many Worlds-"Diction." MA, poem set 2 Portfolio 4
W15 Guest, SC set 4
F17 Kowit 64-76, TW set 4
M20 Guest, MA set 3
W22 Kowit 79-84, SC set 5
F24 Many Worlds-Rhyme, TWset 5 Turn in your choices for SC set 6.
M27 Kowit 88-92, MA set 4 Portfolio 5.
W29 Kowit 94-99, SC set 6 Portfolio 6
F October 1, Guest, TW set 6
M4 Kowit 146-52, 165-68, MA set 5
W6 Guest, SC set 7
F8 Many Worlds-Rhythm, TW set 7
M11 Portfolio 7 MA set 6
W13 Kowit 137-44, SC set 8
F15 Many Worlds-Structure, TW set 8
M18 Portfolio 8 Quiz review
W20 QUIZ 1
F22 ->MA<- set 7; GUEST: Debora Greger, poet
M25 Kowit 121-26; please notice that you will need Trouble the Water, not Mentor American Poets, today. TWset 9
W27 Kowit 169-78, Many Worlds-Tone, SC set 9
F29 PAPER 1 due
M November 1 Kowit 154-58, MA set 8
W3 Kowit 159-63, Portfolio 9
HOMECOMING F5
M8 Kowit 182-90, MA set 9
W10 Kowit 194-203, SC set 10Portfolio 10
F12 Guest, TW set 10
M15 Kowit 206-12, MA set 10
W17 Guest, SC set 12 Portfolio 11
F19 Kowit 215-22, TW set 11
M22 Guest, MA set 11
W24 Kowit 225-31, SC set 13, which is in portfolio 12
THANKSGIVING F26
M29 Kowit 234-41, MA set 12 (see portfolio 12)
W December 1 Review, Portfolio 13
F3 QUIZ 2
M6 Guest
W8 PAPER 2 due In class: portfolio 13
F10 READING DAY-NO CLASSES. Last day to turn in late work.