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SyllabusREADING AND WRITING POETRY (E675-1)
Professor Joyce Peseroff Office: Wheatley 6-062 Office Hours: M 5:30-6:45, W 2:30-3:45 Phone: 617-287-6714 and by appointment E-mail: joyce.peseroff@umb.edu
SYLLABUS Texts: Texts: Required—1) Schakel, Peter & Jack Ridl. 250 Poems: A PortableAnthology (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003) 2) Access to the web through your computer or through computers on campus. We will be using the website <www.litandwiting@umb.edu> for assignments, notes, and for posting your work for comment. Instructions on how to access the website and post material will be given after the first week of class.
Recommended—1) Baldick, Chris. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990) or any other glossary of literary terms and usages 2) Access to good dictionary, such as the Oxford English Dictionary or American Hertiage Dictionary, that includes word derivations as well as usage
Goals and Requirements
Goal and Methods: This class involves the development of the process of writing your own poems and learning to be a cogent, helpful reader of others’ work. We’ll become familiar with examples of the genre by experiencing a variety of poems from a variety of periods. During the course of the semester, we will be writing in class and out of class, using individual and group exercises, free writing, and a certain number of formal assignments. Some of these poems we will share in a formal writing workshop; others we will simply read aloud to each other. In addition, we will read and discuss poems from 250 Poems, and from various handouts and websites. Your final project for the semester is a portfolio of 8-10 final drafts of poems to be handed in after our last class.
In addition, you will be expected to keep a readings journal in which you reflect on the weekly assignments, poems you’ve read for other classes, or poems in books and magazines you’ve read on your own.You’re expected to make at least one journal entry each week, with each entry consisting of at least 2 paragraphs. If you’re discussing a poem I may not be familiar with, please include it with your entry. I’ll collect this journal at least twice during the semester and respond to your comments.
We will be writing every week, either in or out of class. Each week we will discuss poems from the list of readings as well as from your own work. Each of you will have at least one of your poems read and discussed by the entire group. This formal writing workshop is meant to be friendly and comfortable for both writers and readers. Class discussion will be complimented by two individual conferences held in the middle and at the end of the semester.
To augment our writing workshop, we’ll be using the class website to post our own and respond to others’ work. You’re required to post at least three of your own drafts and to comment on three drafts by other students.
A schedule for the workshop and for posts will be distributed later in the semester.
When we discuss student poems please remember the following:
3. Be enthusiastic!!!! about what you like, and try to explain why you like it. 4. If you feel a poem is already complete, or if you've written a poem that's too personal to share with others, don't bring it to workshop. I'll be happy to discuss these poems with you during my office hours. 5. Proofread your work before you post or distribute it.
Requirements: There are five requirements for this class: 1.Every week, you will do a writing assignment either in or out of class, involving new work or revision of a poem you have begun. Most of these assignments will be collected and read by me. Everything I read will be returned with my comments. None of these individual assignments are graded. 2. You will attend one poetry reading during the semester. At least two readings sponsored by the English Department have been scheduled this semester, and on Monday night, Nov. 13, we will be meeting at the Blacksmith House in Harvard Sqaure at 7:45 pm to hear readers from Cave Canum. 3. You will write one short (3-5 pg) paper in the form of a book review. You may choose any single book of poetry published in the last 10 years. For some examples of reviews, check out the New York Times Book Review, Poetry Magazine, Harvard Review, or the “News, Reviews, and Special Features” section of Poetry Daily <www.poems.com>
4. At the end of the semester you will hand in a portfolio of 8-10 poems you have worked on and revised during the semester. This project is due MONDAY, DECEMBER 18 (you may, if you wish, hand in your portfolio early). As part of this process, you will have two required conferences with me (see weekly syllabus).
5. You'll keep a journal on what you've been reading this semester, handing it in twice during the semester and with your final portfolio.
6. Participation: This is a seminar/workshop, and your presence and participation are expected and required. In addition to class discussion, your use of the class website to post and respond to others’ poems will be considered part of your class participation.
Attendance policy—You are limited to FOUR unexcused absences. Unexcused absences are those for which you have not notified me beforehand, and which do not involve illness or an emergency. If you need to miss a class because of illness or other difficulties, please contact me or leave a message with the English Dep’t. My office number and e-mail address are printed at the top of this page. If your exceed four unexcused absences, or if for any reason you miss more than eight classes, you risk failing the course. LATENESS: If you’re 10 minutes late to 7 classes, you’ve missed the equivalent of one entire class. Persistent lateness will be noted and will affect your grade.
Grades: I base grades on the amount of work you do during the semester. Work is measured by the revisions you make to your own poems, the care you take in reading the poems of others, your presence and participation in class, and the progress you've shown from beginning to end of semester. Your final portfolio is the best measure of the work you’ve done during the semester, and will be the most important element of your grade (50%). Equal weight (15%) will be given to the short paper and your readings journal, and 20% to your level of class participation, which includes attendance, participation in class discussion, the required poetry reading, and your posts on the class website.
I look forward to working with each of you during the semester. SYLLABUS OF READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS*All poems are from 250 Poems: A Portable Anthology unless otherwise noted. Please read through the end of this syllabus, including final paragraphs marked with asterisks. WEEK 1 (9/11): Introduction; in-class exercise: creating a (self) portrait using a series of metaphors. William Shakespeare, “That Time of Year” (9); Sylvia Plath, “Metaphors” (221).
WEEK 2 (9/18): Coming to your senses: using imagery rather than abstract language in your poems. In-class exercise: writing “An Autumn Evening at U. Mass.” T.S. Eliot, “Preludes,” part I (151); Elizabeth Bishop, “The Fish” (170); James Welch, “Christmas Comes to Mocccasin Flat,”(246), Robert Pinsky, “Shirt,”(247); Jane Kenyon, “From Room to Room” (275).
WEEK 3 (9/25): Extended metaphor: Life is Like…. Creating a metaphor circle; some differences between metaphor and simile. See class website for Langston Hughes, “Mother to Son,” and Gail Mazur, “Baseball”; Joy Harjo, “She Had Some Horses” (291)
WEEK 4 (10/2): The uses of narrative: how a poem tells a story; reinventing childhood; myth and fairy tale. Elizabeth Bishop, “In the Waiting Room” (website); Anne Sexton, “Cinderella,” (211); Louise Gluck, “Circe’s Power” (website); Ethridge Knight, “Hard Rock Retruns to Prison…” ;Mark Halliday, “Functional Poem” (283)
WEEK 5 (9/9): Columbus Day; no classes. WEEK 6 (10/16): The function of the line in meter and free verse (see link)Writing in forms: stanza, scansion, alliteration, assonance and rhyme, both full and slant; Shakespearan, Petrarchan, and American sonnets. P.B. Shelley, “Ozymandius” (64), John Keats, “When I Have Fears…” (67), E.B. Browning, “How Do I Love Thee?” (83), Claude McKay, “America,” (154).. Please bring in your readings journal this week.
WEEK 7 (10/23): Individual conferences; no class meeting this week. WEEK 8 (10/30): Writing in forms, cont’d; word choice and word order in creating the sestina and villanelle. Elizabeth Bishop, “One Art” (172); Dylan Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle…” (178); Alice Fulton, “You Can’t Rhumboogie…” (298), Alberto Rios, “Nani,” (299), Elizabeth Bishop, “Sestina,” <http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/03/ahead/sestina.html>
WEEK 9 (11/6 ): Writing in forms, continued. BOOK REVIEW DUE THIS WEEK. Workshop begins and continues through Week 15.
WEEK 10 (11/13): Cave Canum reading; meet at Blacksmith House, 56 Brattle St., Harvard Sq. at 7:45. Admission with student ID, $2.00.
WEEK 11 (11/20): Found poetry: looking for possibilities around you. Anne Carson, “Sumptuous Destitution” (287), Bern Porter, <http://www.ubu.com/historical/porter/porter.html>
WEEK 12 (11/27): Dramatic monologue and dialogue: writing a poem in the voice of someone other than yourself. Robert Browning, “My Last Duchess” (89); T.S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (147); Ai, “Why Can’t I Leave You?” (273) Please bring in your readings journal this week; I’ll return it during your individual conference.
WEEK 13 (12/4): Individual Conferences; no class meeting. Please bring all drafts of poems you’ve written since our first conference and you plan to include in your final portfolio.
WEEK 14 (12/11): Revision Workshop
WEEK 15 (12/18): FINAL PORTFOLIO AND READINGS JOURNAL DUE
*Please note that this syllabus and its assignments are subject to alteration. You are responsible for any changes announced in class or posted on the class website, so please check the website at regularly. Exchange phone #s or e-mail addresses with a buddy so you’ll keep up-to–date with reading and writing assignments should you 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., 2100) at 617-287-7436.
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