This syllabus is subject to change given the needs of our course
Poetry and the Lyric
Week 1
Thurs 1/29
-Introductions. Intro to Lyric Poetry. Sharon Olds’s “Take the I Out”
Diagnostic writing Go to the class blog to access readings and review the
syllabus in more detail. Syllabus Quiz at the start of class on Tues!
Poetry and Lyrical Forms
Week 2
Tues 2/3
Due: 1. Read intro to Ballad text 2. Bring in the lyrics from one of your
favorite songs with a 1-2 paragraph written response see blog for prompt
3. Read Shakespeare sonnet #29 & Dickinson “I am Nobody” All readings
can be found on our blog In class: Poetry and its musical inheritances.
Thurs 2/5
Week 3
Tues 2/10
Thurs 2/12 NO
CLASS
Week 4
Tues 2/17
Whitman “Song of Myself” I, II, VI & LII print from here:
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15755
Blog Posters DUE by 6pm night before Intro to dialogic journal format
The Gothic Self
Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” and take a look at the litgenius annotated
version: http://genius.com/Edgar-allan-poe-the-raven-annotated/. Blog
Posters DUE by 6pm night before Intro to Imitation assignment
The Gothic Self
Dickinson: “It was not death, for I stood up,” “They shut me up in prose”
and read Robin Ekiss’s short essay on Dickinson, music and adolescence
Blog Posters DUE by 6pm night before
Week 5
Tues 2/24
Dickinson “I felt a funeral in my brain,” “I heard a fly buzz when I died” &
“I never hear the word escape” Blog Posters DUE by 6pm night before
Gothic Self: Posthumous & Civil War Context Imitation assignment due.
Intro to Close Reading
Read Close Reading example(s) Dialogic Journal + 500 word essay
Thurs 2/26
Week 6
Tues 3/3
Discovery draft due (2-3 pages): In Class workshop
First Draft Conferences
You will sign up for individual conferences
Thurs 3/5
You will sign up for individual conferences
Week 7
Tues 3/10
Poetry, Ekphrasis and American Modernism
Intro to Ekphrasis: Painting--Pablo Picasso and Gertrude Stein “If I Told
Him” Blog Posters DUE by 6pm night before Intro to Ekphrasis
assignment First Paper Due via email
Thurs 3/12
Langston Hughes, “Weary Blues” and Blues Reading. Musical Ekphrasis
Blog Posters DUE by 6pm night before
America in Question: American Modernism
Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing,” Hughes’s “I, Too” Blog Posters
DUE by 6pm night before Poetic Convention Exam
Thurs 2/19
Week 8
Tues 3/17
Thurs 3/19
Claude McKay’s “America,” Gwendolyn Brooks’s “Sonnet-Ballad” and
Hughes’s “Theme for English B” Blog Posters DUE by 6pm night before
1
Week 9
Tues 3/24
Begin 2nd close reading paper
Lyrical Protests: Personal and Political
Frank O’Hara “Why I am not a Painter” “The Day Lady Died” and “I’m
having a Coke with You” Blog Posters DUE by 6pm night before
Ekphrasis Due
Week 10
Tues 3/31
Ginsberg “Howl” Blog Posters DUE by 6pm night before Second Close
Reading Paper - Begin
Lyrical Protests
Shakespeare “Full Fathom Five” and Sylvia Plath’s “Full Fathom Five”
and “Daddy” Extended Metaphor and the many versions Blog Posters
DUE by 6pm night before Dialogic Journal + 500 word essay due
Thurs 4/2
Adrienne Rich “Diving into the Wreck” and Blog Posters DUE by 6pm
night before Second Close Reading Paper Discovery draft due
Thurs 3/26
Week 11
Tues 4/7
SPRING BREAK!!
Thurs 4/9
Week 12
Tues 4/14
Thurs 4/16
Week 13
Tues 4/21
Thurs 4/23
Week 14
Tues 4/28
Thurs 4/30
Week 15
Tues 5/5
Lyrical Protests: Ancestry
Black Arts Movement: Etheridge Knight “Idea of Ancestry” Nikki
Giovanni “Nikki-Rosa” Blog Posters DUE by 6pm night before Second
Close Reading Paper due via email Intro to Mash-up
Excerpt from Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee (1982) pgs 45-58. Read
her short bio here: http://www.eai.org/artistBio.htm?id=7651 Blog
Posters DUE by 6pm night before
Persona Poems
Gloria Andaluza’s “Toward a New Consciousness” pg 77-80, Patricia
Smith “Skinhead” and “Buried” Blog Posters DUE by 6pm night before
Third Close Reading – Begin
Audre Lorde’s “Poetry is not a Luxury” and Jimmy Santiago de Baca
“There are Black” Blog Posters DUE by 6pm night before Mash-up Due
Citizenship in America
Claudia Rankine Citizen: An American Lyric excerpts Blog Posters DUE
by 6pm night before
Claudia Rankine Citizen: An American Lyric excerpts Blog Posters DUE
by 6pm night before Presentations begin the next week
3 groups present. Review portfolio requirements. Reading TBD
Thurs 5/7
Week 16
Tues 5/12
4 groups present Dialogic Journal Due
Thurs 5/14
Last class—reflections and end of the semester cheer. Portfolios due 5/24
with Third and Final Close Reading Paper
2 groups present AND Discovery Drafts due for 3rd close reading paper.
Peer-Review
2