Selected Readings in Modern Poetry
Spring 2009
Shuli Chang
Course Description: This course is designed to equip students with the analytical skills
necessary for the appreciating and understanding of modern poetry. We will identify and
discuss figures of speech such as irony, parody, allegory and perspective. We will also
explore and analyze the themes of different poems, focusing especially on the rhetorical
strategies the poets use to convey their ideas and visions. Finally, we will also expose
ourselves to the styles and concerns of as many different poets as we may possibly cover in
one semester.
Office Hours: Mondays: 11:00～12:00; Tuesdays: 10:00～15:00 & by appointments
Office: Hsiu-chi Building, Room 26628
Telephone: 06-2757575 ext 52255
e-mail: zhuli@mail.ncku.edu.tw
Course Requirements: Participation & Presentation 30%; Midterm Exam: 35%; Final Exam:
35%
Required Texts:
Kennedy, X. J. & Dana Gioia, eds. An Introduction to Poetry. 12th edition. New York:
Longman, 2007.
A Course Reader
Tentative Syllabus (subject to revision):
Week 1: Introduction: What to Look for in Poems?
 William Butler Yeats, “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” (1892; 5)
 Lyrical Poetry:
 Robert Herrick, “Upon Julia’s Clothes” (1648; 60)
 A. R. Ammons, “Beautiful Woman” (reader)
 Narrative Poetry:
 Robert Forst, “Out, Out—“ (1916; 11)
 Dramatic Poetry
 Robert Browning, “My Last Duchess” (1842; 12); Thomas Hardy, “The
Workbox” (1914; 38); “The Ruined Maid” (1901; 63)
 E. A. Robinson, “Richard Cory” (1897; 136); “Miniver Cheevy” (1910; 502)
Week 2: Voice, Take 1: Tone
 Theodore Roethke, “My Papa’s Waltz” (1948; 18)
 Walt Whitman, “To a Locomotive in Winter” (1881; 21)
 Emily Dickinson, “I like to See It Lap the Miles” (1862; 22)
 Weldon Kees, “For My Daughter” (1940; 23)
 Robert Hayden, “Those Winter Sundays” (1962: 461)
 Donald Justice “Men at Forty”(1967; 289)
Week 3: Voice, Take 2: Author/Speaker/Voice
 Natasha Trechewey, “White Lies” (2000; 24)
 Edwin Arlington Robinson, “Luke Havergal” (1897; 26)
 Ted Hughes, “Hawk Roosting” (1960; 27)
 Suji Kwock Kim, “Monologue for an Onion” (2003; 28)
 Anne Sexton, “Her Kind” (1960; 31)
 William Carlos William, “The Red Wheelbarrow” (1923; 32)
Week 4: Voice, Take 3: Irony
 Dorothy Parker, “Unfortunate Coincidence” (reader); “Resume” (1926; 180)
 D. H. Lawrence, “The English Are so Nice” (reader)
 Robert Creeley, “Oh No” (1959; 32)
 W. H. Auden, “The Unknown Citizen” (1940; 34)
 Sharon Olds, “Rites of Passage” (1983; 35)
 Joseph Stroud, “Missing” (1998; 38)
 Henry Reed, “Naming of Parts” (1946; 500)
 Wilfred Own, “Dulce et Decorum Est” (1920; 42)
Week 5: Words: Denotation and Connotation
 William Carlos Williams, “This Is Just To Say” (1934; 51)
 Robert Graves, “Down, Wanton, Down” (1933; 53)
 Carl Sandburg, “Grass” (1918; 58)
 Richard Eherhart, “The Fury of Aerial Bombardment” (1947; 64)
 Wendy Cope, “Lonely Hearts” (1986; 65)
 E. E. Cummings, “anyone lived in a pretty how town” (1940; 66); “next to of
course god america i” (1926; 80)
 Billy Collins, “The Names” (2002; 67)
 Robert Frost, “Fire and Ice” (1923; 81)
Week 6: Imagery
 Ezra Pound, “In a Station of the Metro” (1916; 87)
 Elizabeth Bishop, “The Fish” (1946; 90)
 Anne Stevenson, “The Victory” (1974; 92)
 Jean Toomer, “Reapers” (1923; 93)
 Chana Bloch, “Tired Sex” (1998; 99)
 Robert Bly, “Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter” (1962; 99)
 Louise Glück, “Mock Orange” (1985; 100)
 Billy Collins, “Embrace” (1988; 101)
 John Haines, “Winter News” (1966; 101)
 Stevie Smith, “Not Waving but Drowning” (1957; 101)
Week 7: Figures of Speech: Metaphors and Similes
 Emily Dickinson, “My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun” (1863; 114); It Dropped so
Low – in My Record” (1863; 116)
 Sylvia Plath, “Metaphors” (1960; 115)
 N. Scott Momaday, “Simile” (1974; 116)
 Craig Raine, “A Martian Sends a Postcard Home” (1979; 117)
 Margaret Atwood, “You Fit into me” (1971; 122)
 Charles Simic, “My Shoes” (1967; 123)
 Robert Frost, “The Silken Tent” (1942; 124)
 April Lindner, “Low Tide” (2005; 125)
 Jane Kenyon, “The Suitor” (1978; 125)
 Heather McHugh, “Language Lesson, 1976” (1981; 126)
Week 8: Closed and Open Forms
 William Butler Yeats, “Leda and the Swan” (1928; 164)
 Fred Chappell, “Narcissus and Echo” (1985; 165)
 Robert Frost, “Acquainted with the Night” (1928; 203)
 Kim Addonizio, “First Poem for You” (1994; 204)
 Mark Jarman, “Unholy Sonnet: Hands Folded” (1997; 204)
 A. E. Stallings, “Sine Qua Non” (2002; 205)
 R. S. Gwynn, “Shakespearean Sonnet” (2002; 206)
 Robert Pinsky, “ABC” (2000; 210)
 Dylan Thomas, “Do not Go Gentle Into the Good Night” (1952; 211)
 Denise Levertov, “Ancient Stairway” (1999; 217)
 Stephen Crane, “The Heart” (1895; 223)
 Wallace Stevens, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at Blackbird” (1923; 224)
 E. E. Cummings, “in just-“ (1923; 233)
Week 9: Songs
 Dudley Randall, “Ballad of Birmingham” (1966; 140)
 Bessie Smith with Clarence Williams, “Jailhouse blues” (1923; 142)
 W. H. Auden, “Funeral Blues” (1940; 143)
 Run D.M.C. “Peter Piper” (1986; 144)
 John Lennon & Paul McCartney, “Eleanor Rigby” (1966; 145)
 Bob Dylan, “The Times They Are a-Changing” (1963; 146)
 Aimee Mann, “Deathly” (1999; 148)
Week 10: Midterm Exam
Week 11: Modernisms:
 T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1917; 395)
 Wallace Stevens, “Anecdote of the Jar,” (1923; 250) “The Idea of Order at Key
West” (1934; reader) “Of Modern Poetry” (1923; reader)
 Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken” (1916; 245); “Nothing Gold Can Stay” (1923;
255)
 William Carlos Williams, “To Elsie” (1923; reader) “Landscape With the Fall of
Icarus” (1962; reader)
Week 12: Modernism with Racial Accents and Gender Inflections
 Paul Laurence Dunbar, “We Wear the Mask” (1895; 349)
 Claude McKay, “America” (1922; 282); “If We Must Die” (1922; reader); Outcast
(1922: reader)
 Langston Hughes, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” (1921; 374); “Mother to Son”
(1922; 375); “Dream Variations” (1924; 375); “I, Too” (1926: 376); “The Weary
Blues” (1926; 376); “Song for a Dark Girl” (1927; 377); “Prayer” (1931; 377);
“Ballad of the Landlord” (1940; 378); “Ku Blux” (1942; 378); “Theme for English
B” (1951; 379); “Dream Deferred” (1951; 381); “Dream Boogie” (1951; 190)
 H. D., “Helen” (1924; 257)
Week 13: Anxious 1950s & Turbulent 1960s
 Elizabeth Bishop, “Filling Station” (1965; 428)
 Adrienne Rich, “Aunt Jennifer's Tigers” (1951; 8)
 Allen Ginsberg, “A Supermarket in California” (1956; 454)
 Dylan Thomas, “Fern Hill,”(1946; 521)
 Robert Lowell, “Skunk Hour” (1959; 482)
 Sylvia Plath, “Lady Lazarus,” (1962; 278) “Daddy” (1962; 494)
 Samuel Menashe, “The Shrine Whose Shape I Am” (1961; 283)
Week 14: New Black Poetry
 Gwendolyn Brooks, “The Ballad of Rudolph Reed” (reader); “We Real Cool”
(1960; 177); “Bean Eaters” (reader); “Primer for Blacks” (reader); “The Mother”
(1945; 433); “the preacher; ruminates behind the sermon” (1945; 434)
 Robert Hayden “Whipping” (1970; 341)
 Ntozake Shange, “My Father Is a Retired Magician” (1972; reader)
 Marilyn Nelson, “A Strange Beautiful Woman” (1985; 488)
 Ishmael Reed, “I am a Cowboy in the Boat of Ra” (reader)
 Ysef Komunyakaa, “Facing It” (1988; 286)
 Lucille Clifton, “Homage to my hips” (1991; 439)
 Patricia Smith, “Skinhead” (1992: reader)
Week 15: Women’s Voices
 Anne Sexton, “The Ace of Marriage” (1964; 479); “Cinderella” (1971; 267)
 Adrienne Rich, “Women” (1968; 289)
 Elizabeth Bishop, “One Art” (1976; 342);
 Denise Levertov, “The Ache of Marriage” (1964; 479)
 Anne Stevenson, “Sous-Entendu” (1969; 287)
 Margaret Atwood, “Siren Song” (1974; 423)
 Andrea Hollander Budy, “Snow White” (1993; 266)
 Emily Grosholz, “Listening” (1992; 288)
 Eavan Boland, “Anorexic” (1980; 432)
 Sharon Olds, “The One Girl at the Boys’ Party” (1983; 491)
 Judy Grahn, “I Have Come to Claim Marilyn Monroe’s Body” (1971; reader)
 Louise Gluck, “Penelope’s Song” (1997; reader) “Circe’s Power” (1997; reader)
Week 16: Indian Renaissance
 N. Scott Nomaday, “Carriers of the Dream Wheel” (1972; reader)
 Simon J. Ortiz, “Four Poems for a Child Son” (1976; reader)
 Leslie Marmon Silko, “A Long Time Ago” (1986: reader)
 Joy Harjo, “Deer Dancer” “Equinox” (reader)
 Louise Erdrich, “Indian Boarding School: The Runaways” (1984: 450)
 Sherman Alexie, “Grief Calls Us to the Things of This World” (reader); “Soon to
be a National Geographic Special” (2000: reader)
Week 17: Voices of the Asian Americans & Latinos
 Sandra Cisneros, “Once Again I Prove the Theory of Relativity” (1991; reader)
 Marilyn Chin, “How I Got That Name” (reader)
 Cathy Song, “Stamp Collection” (1988; 512)
 Ana Castillo, “While I Was Gone A War Began” (reader)
 Amy Uyemastsu, “Deliberate” (1992; 285)
 Shirley Geok-lin Lim, “Riding into California” (1998; 481)
Week 18: Final Exam