poetry 1 1/9, 1/10
Defining poetry / What might we take away from these few weeks reading and thinking about poems?
We'll begin today by looking at a few of history's greatest definitions of poetry before trying to come up with one of our own.
Poems: Billy Collins, "Introduction to Poetry" and Eve Merriam, "How to Eat a Poem"
Raine, “A Martian Sends a Postcard Home”
MAIN TOPICS TODAY: DEFINING POETRY / DIFFERENCES BETWEEN POETRY AND PROSE
HOMEWORK: Remember that a poem often says something differently to make us see something differently. It often makes strange everyday things in our lives that are important to us. So, by our next class, write a poem of at least 5 lines that says something differently to make me see that thing or those things differently. Make strange to me an everyday thing I take for granted. And type it, please.
poetry 2 1/13
Today we’ll continue defining poetry. I’ll then give a little advice for reading poetry, beginning with what we mean by a paraphrase, the first step in thinking about a new poem.
We’ll then work through Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays,”.
MAIN TOPICS TODAY: APPROACHING A NEW POEM / PARAPHRASING
HOMEWORK: By our next class, write a five-line poem about your life. (Section 83 only)
poetry 3 1/14, 1/15
Sections 5, 6, and 7:
While I am out today, being respectful of your sub, silently and individually perform the following tasks:
(1) Take out the sheet with the three poems about memories of fathers. Recall the main idea we discovered about Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays”: We came to the conclusion that it dramatized a man recalling all of those things his father did for him as a child for which he never thanked him. Do you remember the overall tone of the poem? It seemed like most of you thought it was regretful. Keep this poem in mind as you move on to the rest of the work today.
(2) Move over to Theodore Roethke’s poem, “My Papa’s Waltz.” Read it once. Read it a second time. Beneath the poem, write a one-sentence paraphrase of what you think is happening in the poem. Please, please, please do not consult with anyone else because, when we compare your answers during our next class, I predict that your responses will be the exact opposite of what half of the class wrote down.
(3) You probably wrote one of two things: (1) The poem dramatizes a man recalling a happy time with his father, dancing with him around the kitchen. Or (2) The poem dramatizes a man recalling a very sad time with his father, who physically abused him. While those are very different, it’s possible for you to come to either conclusion because of the ambiguity in some of the language of the poem. Please now underline the words or phrases in the poem that made you think the poem was about what you wrote down.
(4) In your notebook, begin a draft of a paragraph (8-10 sentences for now) comparing “My Papa’s Waltz” and “Those Winter Sundays”. Your topic sentence might begin with something like the following: “While the speaker of “Those Winter Sundays” experiences… , the speaker of “My Papa’s Waltz” …” OR “While the tone of “My Papa’s Waltz” is … , “Those Winter Sundays” has a tone that is far more…” In any case, you want to highlight contrast if possible. In the rest of your paragraph, you’ll support your topic sentence with lots of great details from both poems.
(5) Finish your own poem that says something in a new way to make me understand it in a new way if you have not finished it already.
poetry 4 1/16, 1/17
Today we’ll continue to work on your ¶ comparing “My Papa’s Waltz” and “Those Winter Sundays.” We’ll also look at another pair of poems that are thematically linked, “A Barred Owl” and “The History Teacher”.
poetry 5 1/17, 1/21
Sections 5, 6, and 7:
Please remember I appreciate your attentiveness to your work and your respect of the sub while I am out today. Please, silently and individually, perform the following 2 tasks:
(1) Finish the handout containing “A Barred Owl” and “The History Teacher”. Skip #3, which we’ll finish together. Numbers 4 and 5 combine to make a paragraph just like you did last time while I was out. You’ll use the paragraph you like better to be the one you submit next week. We’ll spend time in our next class looking at what you wrote.
(2) Read the following two poems on your iPad
John Keats, “When I have Fears That I May Cease to Be”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Mezzo Cammin”
In your notebook, write a few sentences defining what the two poems have in common. I will help you with these more challenging poems when I return.
poetry 6 1/22, 1/23
Today we’ll look at some common figures of speech and then turn to your text book to think about why poets use figures at all. Remember that figures of speech are meant to make poems more concrete not abstract as most students seem to think.
Langston Hughes, “Mother to Son”
Alice Walker, “Women”
Today I’ll set the poetry project.
MAIN TOPIC TODAY: FIGURES OF SPEECH
poetry 7 1/24
Today we’ll look at a few poems in your anthology in order to understand the difference between subject and theme. Then we’ll work to revise your comparison ¶.
MAIN TOPICS TODAY: SUBJECT / THEME and FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
poetry 8 1/27, 1/28
The form of the Sonnet
MAIN TOPICS TODAY: METER and SCANSION
poetry 9 1/29, 1/30
Practice poem comparison with
John Updike, “Ex-Basketball Player”
Langston Hughes, “Harlem”
poetry 10 1/30, 1/31
Poetry review
poetry 11 2/4, 2/5
Poetry Test
NEW RULES
Gentlemen: I’m instituting new policies in my courses, amending last semester’s syllabus. Please pay close attention to the following four changes. Know I’ve been thinking about these for years and thinking about them in earnest over the past few months. Also know that I truly believe these rules are for your benefit as fledgling adults.
(1) No more rewrites. I know, I know. This is what allows you to succeed the most in this class. Well, it became a crutch for far too many of you, and I no longer think it demonstrates the mastery of content I assumed it would demonstrate when I implemented the policy. Rather, I see students submitting mediocre work, intending to rewrite after the fact, which puts an unbelievable burden on my time. What I thought would be an effective way for students to learn has morphed into what education has really become about: grades, grades, grades rather than learning, learning, learning.
(2) No more extra credit. See above. Also, students aren’t actually doing the reading required to earn the extra credit. You’ll still have bonuses on quizzes, but nothing major. Do the course work; that’s credit enough.
(3) No more questions during assessments. You need to learn to struggle; you need to learn to figure things out and use a little bit of common sense. Students ask too many obvious questions during assessments. My dear students, you’re unnecessarily nervous about everything because you’re not asked to struggle enough and to be okay with that struggle. I wrote you instructions on the assessment or the assignment. I was thoughtful about those instructions. That’s what you get, and it’s enough. Have a question? Figure it out. Don’t understand a word? Intuit it. Don’t know where your response should go? Use your ingenuity. You don’t need help with everything. Be a person. Be logical. My dear boy, figure it out.
(4) No more e-mails.What?! This is an outrage! Well, no actually, it’s not. My students have lost their e-mail privileges for the remainder of the year after the barrage of unaddressed, unsigned e-mails to me at the end of the semester as though I were not an adult in your life to be treated with respect. More than that, as I consistently said all semester, you need not send me an e-mail to request a meeting or to tell me you’re going to be absent or to ask me a last-minute question about an assignment or to request an extension. I said these things can and should be done in person. You are always welcome to come into my office to make up a quiz, to discuss a paper, to go over a quiz. You need not schedule. And if you are going to be out due to sickness, it’s your responsibility to find out what you missed from a classmate. It’s on you, young man, not me. It’s your responsibility. It’s for you to handle. So handle it.
You may, however, send me an e-mail only if you are going to be out for an extended absence and need written clarification on assignments. Beyond that, for any other reason, come talk to me in person. That has always been and will continue to be enough time between student and teacher.
On a related note, if you are trying to see me and have been waiting outside my office, unfortunately there’s not much I can do about that. You’ll just have to sit on the couch or in a chair in the department offices, do some work, and wait until I’m free.
what's due?
Poem Pair Comparison - 1/27, 1/28
Please submit your 300-500 word comparison to turnitin.com ONLY. Do not forget to identify the thematic distinction between the two poems in addition to the similarities. Make sure your paragraph is properly formatted according to MLA. Titles of poems go in quotation marks. Use line numbers in your parenthetical citations after you quote. Due at 3:30 PM as always.
Poetry Test - 2/4, 2/5
Poetry Project - 3/3
current text to bring daily
STUDYING POETRY
Essays on poetic theory (Make Aristotle, Horace, Sidney, Keats, and Shelley a priority)
ENJOYING POETRY
Compilation by Maria Popova at BP
Brian Cranston reads Shelley's "Ozymandias"
enjoying literature
“In the realm of narrative psychology, a person’s life story is not a Wikipedia biography of the facts and events of a life, but rather the way a person integrates those facts and events internally—picks them apart and weaves them back together to make meaning. This narrative becomes a form of identity, in which the things someone chooses to include in the story, and the way she tells it, can both reflect and shape who she is. A life story doesn’t just say what happened, it says why it was important, what it means for who the person is, for who they’ll become, and for what happens next.”
