Unit Three: Poetry
Tuesday, March 29
Bridges from Prose to Poem
Making Language Strange
Assignment Due:
Writing:
1. Recall as early an experience as possible with language that moved you.
Write about that experience in any way you like but try to make us feel that
language as you did.
2. Write a page of prose snapshots of the most important people from your
childhood. Be as precise, brief and concrete as possible (a couple of sentences or
so each), trying to capture each of these people at a specific, telling moment.
Think concretely. (Think if it as writing stranger studies about people you know,
through the gauze of memory)
3. Add 100 words to your Personal Universe Deck-- 30 for their sounds, 30 for
their rhythms, 30 for the sensory images they conjure; 10 your choice. Any part
of speech. Bring to class.
Reading:
Skim Hammer and Blaze, exploring the different poets—their forms, their
subjects. Find a poem you hope we’ll read together and discuss (as writers
reading writers).
H & B: Renate Wood “German Chronicle” p.311
Wednesday, March 30
Bring a poem you love—be ready to read it aloud. (Next week you have to
memorize a poem, so you could think about getting started now…)
Thursday, March 31
Approaches: Narrative and Not
1. Snapshot Poem-- Experiment with your snapshots; try turning them into verse
by dividing the lines in different ways for different effects. The secret is to listen
to the words and the rhythm of the thinking/feeling process going on, arranging
the words and listening, and listening again. Turn one of the snapshots into an
early draft of a poem--this means you can now change words, add and delete
when necessary, abandoning the original prose version altogether. Bring it to
class.
2. Myth/Story Poem—Return to your Re-appropriation from fiction and write a
poem telling the tale from the point of view of a character not ordinarily stressed.
OR—take a different tale and write a poem about the tale from the perspective of
a secondary character. Bring it to class.
Reading:
H & B: Marie Howe “Reading Ovid” p.160; Ed Hirsch “The Desire
Manuscripts” p. 146
Tuesday, April 5
Meter
Due: Writing:
1. Meter Exercise: Choose one of the following exercises—
a) List poem: Write a poem that is simply a list of things; use meter to
create the mood and much of the meaning. Read Dean Young’s
“Sunflower” p.323
b) “Lyric Poetry Exercise” Make sure you stick to the original rhyme
scheme and meter. Rap songs are good as are Broadway show tunes. (See
hand-out for details.)
2. Translation Poem-- Translate a poem written in a language you
neither read nor speak. Write about the experience and what you
tried to accomplish in your translation. Bring the original and
your translation to class.
Wednesday, April 6
Memorize poem—be ready to recite
Thursday, April 7
Sounds and Lines/The Rhythms of Words and Lines
Reading:
Other: Record one of your poems and a poem by someone else in the class
Tuesday, April 12
Form
Due: Writing:
1. Sonnet: Write a free-verse poem based on/in response to a specific
painting or in response to a musician performing; then write a sonnet
based on the same painting or performance.
2. Recast an earlier poem as a pantoum or in unrhymed, but metered
couplets.
.
Reading:
Wednesday, April 13
Workshop at BG’s house; Proposal Due for Final Project
Thursday, April 14
Open Forms
Due: Writing: Recasting prose--Take one of your essays or stories and rewrite it
as a confessional poem and then as a narrative poem.
Reading:
Monday, April 18 Poetry Portfolios Due 5 p.m.