English 412
Dr. Gordon Van Ness
Spring 2015
Office hours: M – Th 1:00-2:00 pm
434.395.2179
vannessag@longwood.edu
American Confessional Poetry
Catalog description: Poetry: Study in the tradition and qualities of poetry as a unique genre with
emphasis on one or more specific forms or a period in which the genre flourishes. May be
repeated for credit when topic changes. 3 credits. WI and SI
Course description: This course surveys American confessional poetry beginning in 1957, when
Robert Lowell finally broke free of modernist dicta and published Life Studies. Consequently,
attention will be given to the major confessional poets, including Theodore Roethke, John
Berryman, Randall Jarrell, Allen Ginsberg, Elizabeth Bishop, and Sylvia Plath. The poetry of
Anne Sexton and James Dickey will receive detailed scrutiny. The lives of these writers will
necessarily be a focus.
N.B. Students must earn a C- or better in this course in order to apply it toward their writingintensive course requirement.
Because this course is writing intensive, explicit instruction will be provided on the disciplinary
expectations of how to complete formal writing assignments. This instruction will include
detailed written assignment sheets and scoring guides showing both the explicit criteria and the
grading scale used to evaluate the assignment. Additionally, the procedures for gathering and
organizing the information will be discussed, and models of appropriate forms will be provided.
Drafts of each paper will be required so that students receive appropriate feedback for revision
and editing. Finally, students will analyze course reading and discuss rhetorical strategies.
To facilitate effective academic writing, informal writing will be part of the course.
Course objectives: Students will
Analyze confessionalism as a 20th-century literary movement, its origins, traits, and
themes, as demonstrated in formal academic essays, class presentation, and
examination;
Recognize and explain the interconnection between the lives of these writers and
their literary works as demonstrated in class discussion and in scholarly
assignments; and
Produce academic papers of various focus and scope that demonstrate a clear relevance to
the discipline and constitute professional contributions.
Required texts:
Dickey, James. The Whole Motion: Poems, 1945-1992. Hanover and London: Wesleyan U P,
1992. Print.
---. Self-Interviews. New York: Doubleday, 1970. Print.
Middlebrook, Diane Wood. Anne Sexton: A Biography. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991. Print.
Ramazani, Jahan, Richard Ellmann, and Robert O’Clair, eds. The Norton Anthology of Modern
and Contemporary Poetry. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 2003. Print.
Rosenthal, M.L. The New Poets: American and British Poetry Since World War II. New York:
Oxford U P, 1967. Print.
Sexton, Anne. The Complete Poems. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1981. Print.
Recommended texts:
Berryman
Halliday, E.M. John Berryman and the Thirties: A Memoir
Mariani, Paul. Dream Song: The Life of John Berryman
Bishop
Goldensohn, Lorrie. Elizabeth Bishop: The Biography of a Poetry
Dickey
Hart, Henry. James Dickey: The World as a Lie
Ginsberg
Merrill, James. Allen Ginsberg
Jarrell
Jarrell, Mary von Schrader. Remembering Randall: A Memoir of Poet, Critic, and
Teacher
Pritchard, William H. Randall Jarrell: A Literary Life
Lowell
Hamilton, Ian. Robert Lowell: A Biography
Mariani, Paul. Lost Puritan: A Life of Robert Lowell
Plath
Wagner-Martin, Linda. Sylvia Plath: A Literary Life
Roethke
Seeger, Allan. The Glass House: The Life of Theodore Roethke
Sexton
Hall, Caroline Kay Bernard. Anne Sexton
Recommended texts (con’t):
Breslin, James. From Modern to Contemporary: American Poetry, 1945-1965
Ferguson, Suzanne. Jarrell, Bishop, Lowell, & Co.
Simpson, Eileen. Poets in Their Youth: A Memoir
Class schedule:
January
14
16
--19
21
23
--26
28
February
30
--2
4
6
--9
11
13
--16
18
March
20
--23
25
27
--2–6
---
Introduction to the course
Lecture on confessionalism: Rosenthal, Chapter 1
No classes
Lecture (con’t): Chapters 2, 3; Writing in the discipline: Dave Smith’s
“The Big Wink,” a review of Robert Kirschten’s James Dickey and the
Gentle Ecstasy of Earth: A Reading of the Poems
Robert Lowell: A Biographical Overview
Lowell: “The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket”
Lowell: “After the Surprising Conversions” and “Memories of West
Street and Lepke”
Lowell: “Skunk Hour”; Roethke: (handouts)
Paper I Draft
Roethke: (handouts); Writing in the discipline: John Boyd’s “Texture and
Form in Theodore Roethke’s Greenhouse Poems”
Roethke: (handouts)
Jarrell: “90 North,” “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner,” and “Eight Air
Force”
PAPER I DUE
Jarrell: “Next Day” and “Thinking of the Lost World”
Bishop: “The Fish,” “At the Fishhouses,” and “Over 2000 Illustrations and
a Complete Concordance”
Bishop: “The Armadillo,” “In the Waiting Room,” and “One Art”
Dickey: A Biographical Overview
Dickey: Into the Stone; Writing in the discipline: H.L. Weatherby’s “The
Way of Exchange in James Dickey’s Poetry”
Dickey: Drowning with Others
Dickey: Helmets
Paper II Draft
Dickey: Buckdancer’s Choice
Dickey: Falling, May Day Sermon, and Other Poems
Spring Break
9
11
13
--16
18
20
--23
April
25
27
--30
1
3
--6
8
10
--13
15
17
--20
22
24
Dickey: The Eye-Beaters, Blood, Victory, Madness, Buckhead and Mercy
Dickey: The Zodiac PAPER II DUE
Sexton: A Biographical Overview
Sexton: To Bedlam and Part Way Back
Sexton: All My Pretty Ones
Sexton: Live or Die
Sexton: Love Poems; Writing in the discipline: William Shurr’s “Anne
Sexton’s Love Poems: The Genre and the Differences”
Sexton: Transformations
Sexton: The Death Notebooks
Paper III Draft
Sexton: The Awful Rowing toward God
Plath: “The Disquieting Muses,” “Metaphors,” “The Colossus,” and
Morning Song”
Plath: “In Plaster,” “Daddy,” “”Ariel,” “Lady Lazarus,” and “Edge”
Presentations
Presentations
Presentations
Presentations
Presentations
Berryman: Selections from The Dream Songs
Berryman: Selections from The Dream Songs
Ginsberg: “Howl”
Ginsberg: “A Supermarket in California,” “Sunflower Sutra,” and
“America”
PAPER III DUE
--Course grade
Paper I
Paper II
Paper III
Presentations
Final examination
20%
20%
20%
20%
20%
(500-1,000 words)
(1,000-1,500 words)
(1,500 -2,000 words)
Essay-review
Critical overview
In-depth analysis
Papers
Three academic essays are required. The first, due February 6, is a book review of M.L.
Rosenthal’s The New Poets: American and British Poetry Since World War II. Students will
choose an appropriate venue for such a review, research the requisite length and style, and then
write the review accordingly. The second essay, due March 11, analyzes several poems either by
Randall Jarrell or Elizabeth Bishop, seeking to provide a larger understanding of the themes
inherent in their works and what the poet was endeavoring to do, either consciously or
unconsciously. The final paper is due April 24 and will center exclusively on the poems of either
Dickey or Sexton. The second and third papers require a minimum of five secondary or critical
sources. Only academic web sites are allowed.
Manuscript requirements
All written assignments must be typed and double-spaced with 12-point New Roman font and
with margins of one inch on the sides and one-and-a-half inches on top. All essays must be
paginated. When necessary, assignments must include appropriate MLA documentation and a
Works Cited page. Staple or paperclip all essays, which are due at the beginning of the class
period. All assignments must have the Longwood Honor Pledge correctly written out in full and
signed. Failure to do so will result in the assignment being graded down by one-half letter.
Presentations
Additionally, students will formally present their third paper to the class and department faculty
followed by a question-and-answer period in which students will be expected to show a larger
understanding of academic material.
Final examination
The final exam will be a series of cumulative essays that must reveal student comprehension of
the origins, traits, and themes of confessionalism as well as a clear recognition of this movement
in the development of 20th-century American poetry.
Attendance policy: Class attendance is vital to the learning process. It is impossible to glean the
maximum benefit from this class when frequently absent. University policy mandates that a
student attend at least 75% of her or his classes to pass a course. Therefore ten (10) is the
maximum number of absences allowed in a MWF course. Four (4) absences are allowed without
penalty; five result in automatic reduction of one letter grade for the course. Unreasonable
tardiness (more than five minutes) will count as an absence.
Honor Code: Papers suspected of plagiarism will automatically be turned over to the Honor
Board for disciplinary action, including suspension or expulsion from Longwood.