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SyllabusCW 603: MFA CRAFT WORKSHOP IN POETRY
Joyce Peseroff E-mail: joyce.peseroff@umb.edu Office: W-6-62 Phone: 617-287-6714 Office Hours: M 3:00-4:00; Tu 2:00-3:00 & by appointment
TEXTS: Friebert, Walker, & Young, eds. A Field Guide to Contemporary Poetry and Poetics (Oberlin: Oberlin College Press, 1997) Kinzie, Mary. A Poet’s Guide to Poetry (Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 1999) Longenbach, James. The Art of the Poetic Line (St. Paul: Graywolf, 2008) Young, Kevin. For the Confederate Dead (New York: Knopf, 2006) Various poems and articles posted on the class website and on electronic reserve E-reserve password: cwcraft
COURSE DESCRIPTION "There is only one recipe—to care a great deal for the cookery."—Henry James
This course is a workshop that focuses on aspects of poetic craft. Subjects covered in this course may vary from semester to semester, but each class will concentrate on one or more elements of the craft of writing.
The topic for this semester will be the function of the poetic line. By studying a variety of poets who use different strategies for ending the line, and by reading essays on theory, students will become more versatile in deploying this technique in their own work.
The line—the turn implicit in the Latin “versus”—is what formally distinguishes poetry from prose. This course will explore the use of the line in both traditional and contemporary verse. The class will discuss the accentual-syllabic system that distinguishes traditional English meter, as well as accentual systems used in ballads, blues, and Old English poems like Beowulf, and syllabic forms like haiku. The class will read sonnets by Shakespeare and Frost to understand the flexibility of iambic pentameter, as well as poems by Dickinson that simultaneously use and subvert their meter. The class will examine shaped poems by Herbert, syllabic poems by Moore, Plath, and Hall, and spend the final half of the semester discussing strategies for breaking the free verse line. During the semester, students will write their own poems, some in response to a series of assignments, and write three short analytical papers on their reading.
REQUIRED MATERIALS Texts, poems and essays listed in the syllabus and on the class website or library e-reserve.
GOALS AND METHODS The goal of this course is to familiarize students with different strategies for shaping the poetic line in order that they may introduce variety and flexibility into their own work.
Generally, the poetic line establishes the pulse of thought, transferring it from writer to reader. It introduces rhythm and sound, or melos. It organizes perception, since, like music and dance and unlike painting or architecture, a poem unfolds in time. A poem also offers information through its shape. The tight shape of a sonnet doesn’t look like the three-step stanzas of Williams’ “Asphodel;” each composition of lines directs the reader in how to read the poem. But the most important aspect of our study will involve the tension between sentence syntax and poetic line.
At the end of the semester, students will be familiar with four systems of organizing the poetic line: accentual; syllabic; accentual-syllabic; and free verse, as well as variations within these systems. With this knowledge, students will bring a critical eye to their own work, making sure each line successfully moves the poem forward.
By responding to five formal poetry writing assignments, by writing three short papers, and by using one of these papers as a basis for leading the class in discussion of one poem from the syllabus of readings, students will have the opportunity to incorporate what they learn from this class into their own work. The final project of the course is a portfolio of 8-10 poems that displays what the student has learned over the semester.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS Students are required to complete the following assignments:
POLICIES All work must be handed in on time, including poems presented to the workshop. Material received after the due date will automatically be downgraded.
Grades: The final portfolio of poems will make up 25% of your grade. Each of the three short papers will count for 10%. The presentation will count for 20%, and the final 25% will be based on class participation, which includes requirements #5-7.
Attendance: This seminar requires each student’s presence and participation. Students are allowed one unexcused absence during the semester. An unexcused absence is one that the student has not notified the instructor about beforehand. If you know you need to miss class, please let me know in advance. If you miss class because of an emergency, please let me know as soon as possible afterwards. More than two unexcused absences, or more than five absences for any reason, could lead to failure in the course.
Plagiarism: Students who draw from work not their own without giving credit to their sources will automatically fail the course. For a complete statement of the university policy on academic honesty, go to <www.umb.edu/students/student_rights/code_conduct.html>
SYLLABUS OF READINGS Field: Friebert, Walker, & Young’s A Field Guide to Contemporary Poetry and Poetics Kinzie: A Poet’s Guide to Poetry Longenbach: The Art of the Poetic Line Readings not listed on e-reserve are posted on the class website under “Assignments” and supplemented by your selections posted in the Class Portfolio.
Week 1, 9/1—Labor Day, no class. Please read Longenbach pgs. 3-81 by 9/15.
Week 2, 9/8: Introduction; theories of sound in poetry. Kinzie, Chapt. 1-2; Donald Hall, “Goatfoot, Milktongue, Twinbird (Field, p. 22-31); Robert Hass, “Listening and Making,” Twentieth Century Pleasures, p. 107-133 (e-reserve).
Week 3, 9/15: Accentual-syllabic verse; Robert Pinsky, “Technical Terms and Vocal Realities,” The Sounds of Poetry, p. 51-77 (e-reserve); Kinzie, Chapt. 8; p. 385; scansion, p. 457-8.
Week 4, 9/22: Iambic patterns; Gwendolyn Brooks, “A Street in Bronzeville: Southeast Corner;” Sylvia Plath, “Granchester Meadows,” Adrienne Rich, “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers,” Thom Gunn, “Meat,” “The Man with Night Sweats.”
Week 5, 9/29: Sonnets: Kinzie, p. 462, Shakespeare, “That Time of Year;” Robert Frost, “Acquainted with the Night,” “The Silken Tent;” Anne Marie Macari, XXII from “Their Eyes Were Opened”
Week 6, 10/6: Accentual Verse: Kinzie, Chapt. 10; p 385. Selections from Beowulf, trans. Seamus Heaney; Dudley Randall, “The Ballad of Birmingham;” Langston Hughes, “Ballad of the Landlord,” “Dream Boogie,” “Song for a Dark Girl,” “Sliver.” Sign up for individual conferences.
Week 7, 10/13 (Columbus Day; no class) Individual conferences during the week
Week 8, 10/20: Syllabics: Kinzie, Chapt. 10, p. 465. A selection of haiku; Marianne Moore, “No Swan So Fine,” Sylvia Plath, “Metaphors,” Donald Justice, “Poem for a Survivor,” Donald Hall, “Baseball”
Week 9, 10/27: : Free verse; essays on theory Kinzie, Chapt. 11; Ezra Pound, “A Retrospect;” Denise Levertov, “On the Function of the Line;” Field, “The Poetic Line—A Symposium,” p. 75-94; Charles Olson, “Projective Verse” (e-reserve)
Week 10, 11/3: Free verse, cont’d. Bill Knott, “To Live By;” Kay Ryan, “Patience;” William Carlos Williams, “Spring and All.” Begin reading For the Confederate Dead.
Week 11, 11/10: Free verse, cont’d. Allen Ginsberg, “Howl;” Jane Kenyon, “Having It Out with Melancholy,” Lucia Perillo, “New Hat.”
Week 12, 11/17: Shaped poems and prose poems: Longenbach, pg. 83-120. George Herbert, “Easter Wings,” John Hollander, “Swan and Shadow,” Joyce Peseroff, “Egg-Candling.” THREE SHORT PAPERS DUE. Sign up for individual conferences.
Week 13, 11/24: Kevin Young in class. Individual conferences held this week.
Week 14-15, 12/1-12/8: Revision workshops.
FINAL PORTFOLIO DUE MONDAY 12/15 (may be handed in any time after 12/8)
*Please note that this syllabus and its assignments are subject to alteration. Students are responsible for any changes announced in class. Students should plan to exchange phone #s or e-mail addresses with a buddy to keep up-to–date with reading and writing assignments should they miss a class.
**Students with Disabilities: If you have a disability and feel you will need accommodations in order to complete course requirements, please contact the Ross Center for Disability Services (Campus Center, 2nd fl., Rm, 2100) at 617-287-7436.
CW 603 Bibliography Beowulf (trans. Seamus Heaney). New York: W.W. Norton, 2000
Brooks, Gwendolyn. Selected Poems. New York: HarperCollins, 2006
Brown, Deborah (ed.) Lofty Dogmas: Poets on Poetics. Fayetteville: Univ. of Arkansas Press, 2005
Cook, Jon (ed.) Poetry in Theory: An Anthology. Boston: Blackwell Publishers, 2004
Dickinson, Emily. Final Harvest. Boston: Back Bay Books, 1994
Dobyns, Stephen. Best Words, Best Order: Essays on Poetry (2nd ed). New York: Palgrove MacMillan, 2003
Frost, Robert. The Poetry of Robert Frost. New York: Holt, 1969
Fussel, Paul. Poetic Meter and Poetic Form (2nd ed). New York: McGraw Hill, 1979
Gunn, Thom. Collected Poems. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1994
Hall, Donald Goatfoot, Milktongue, Twinbird. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press, 1978 The Museum of Clear Ideas. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994
Hass, Robert. Twentieth Century Pleasures. New York: HarperCollins, 1984
Herbert, George. The Works of George Herbert. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978
Hughes, Langston. Collected Poems. New York: Vintage, 1995
Justice, Donald. Collected Poems. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004
Kenyon, Jane. Collected Poem. St. Paul: Graywolf Press, 2005
Knott, Bill. The Unsubscriber. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2004
Denise Levertov, “On the Function of the Line,” <http://www.everypoet.org/pffa/showthread.php?s=&threadid=31654>
Marshall, Tod (ed.) Range of the Possible: Conversations With Contemporary Poets. Spokane: Eastern Washington University Press, 2006
Moore, Marianne. Complete Poems. New York: Penguin, 1991
Perillo, Lucia. Luck Is Luck. New York: Random House, 2005
Pinsky, Robert. The Sounds of Poetry. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1998
Plath, Sylvia. Collected Poems. London: Faber & Faber, 1981
Pound, Ezra. “A Retrospect” http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/pound/retrospect.htm
Ryan, Kay. The Niagara River. New York: Grove Press, 2005
Shakespeare, William. Complete Sonnets www.everypoet.com/Archive/Poetry/William_Shakespeare/william_shakespeare.contents.htm
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