Fall 2009
106-01: Introduction to Poetry
MHRA 2207
9:00-9:50am MWF
Mercer Bufter
Email: dmbufter@uncg.edu
Office/Office Hours: MHRA 3210D 1-2 MWF
Office Phone: 334-5867
Course Description
In this course, we will read poetry (and some prose) with an eye toward learning effective strategies for
understanding and enjoying verse. We will use prose texts from prominent critics and poets to guide us as we
engage with English-language poetry that will represent a variety of centuries, social perspectives and individual
voices.
Our goal as readers will be first to notice what is being said in a poem, then to analyze how the poet speaks. We will
examine poems that have similar goals, but achieve them in different ways. We will look at poems’ structures and
gain a vocabulary for discussing poems. We will listen to poets read their own work, and each student will memorize
a single poem of at least ten lines.
Required texts
Oliver, Mary. A Poetry Handbook: A Prose Guide to Understanding and Writing Poetry. New York:
Harcourt, Inc., 1994. ISBN: 978-0-15-672400-5
Vendler, Helen. Poems Poets Poetry: An Introduction and Anthology. 2d. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s,
2002. ISBN: 0-312-25706-6
Supplemental PDFs available on Blackboard
Student learning goals: At the completion of this course, the student will be able to
 Identify and understand varied characteristics of literature;
 Apply techniques of literary analysis to texts;
 Use literary study to develop skills in careful reading and clear writing;
 Demonstrate understanding of the diverse social and historical contexts in which literary texts have been
written and interpreted.
Class Conduct
Being Prepared
You should have your textbooks, paper, and writing utensils ready for every class. You are required to print out
hardcopies of poems and other material posted to Blackboard and bring it to class. Making notes in the margins of
your hardcopy is essential to working out your thoughts on a poem, its workings, its goals, etc.
Attendance
Per department policy, students in this course are allowed a maximum of four (4) absences without a grade penalty. I
do not differentiate between “excused” and “unexcused” absences. For every absence beyond four (4), students will
be penalized one-half letter grade. Students who miss eight classes on a three-day schedule will fail the course.
Assignment of Grades
Midterm Exam
Reading Essay
Library Research Project
Poem Recitation
Final Exam
20%
30%
10%
10%
30%
Academic Integrity
University Policy
“Academic integrity is founded upon and encompasses the following five values: honesty, trust, fairness,
respect, and responsibility. Violations include, for example, cheating, plagiarism, misuse of academic
resources, falsification, and facilitating academic dishonesty. If knowledge is to be gained and properly
evaluated, it must be pursued under conditions free from dishonesty. Deceit and misrepresentations are
incompatible with the fundamental activity of this academic institution and shall not be tolerated” (from
UNCG’s Academic Integrity Policy). To ensure that you understand the university’s policy on academic
integrity, review the guidelines and list of violations at <http://academicintegrity.uncg.edu>. I expect you to
abide by the Academic Integrity Policy.
Sanctions
Sanctions for violations of the academic integrity policy will vary depending on the severity of the
violation, per instructor discretion. Sanctions may include, but are not limited to, failure (a grade of “F”) of
an assignment, failure of an examination, or failure of the course. Faculty have discretion in assigning any
grade-related sanction. When a student is found responsible of a first violation, whether by accepting
responsibility during the Faculty-Student Conference, or through the panel process, the faculty member
makes the final decision about any grade related sanctions. Additional sanctions, including suspension or
expulsion, may only be assigned by a hearing panel. See the recommended sanctions in the “Information
for Instructors: Campus Resources and University Policies” (p. 11).
The Office of Disability Services
Students with documentation of special needs should arrange to see me about accommodations as soon as possible.
If you believe you could benefit from such accommodations, you must first register with the Office of Disability
Services on campus before such accommodations can be made. The office is located on the second floor of the
Elliott University Center (EUC) in Suite 215, and the office is open 8am to 5pm, Monday - Friday. Telephone: 3345440; e-mail: ods@uncg.edu.
The Writing Center
The purpose of the Writing Center is to enhance the confidence and competence of student writers by providing free,
individual assistance at any stage of any writing project. Staff consultants are experienced writers and alert readers,
prepared to offer feedback and suggestions on drafts of papers, help students find answers to their questions about
writing, and provide one-on-one instruction as needed. The Writing Center is located in the Moore Humanities and
Research Building (MHRA) room 3211.
The Learning Assistance Center
The Learning Assistance Center offers free services to the entire UNCG undergraduate community and is located in
McIver Hall, rooms 101-104, and 150. For help with study skills, contact Erin Farrior, Academic Skills specialist.
Telephone: 334-3878; e-mail: lac@uncg.edu.
Communication
I will make every effort to respond to e-mail messages within forty-eight hours. If I have not replied to your message
after forty-eight hours, then please re-send the message. Emails should be thoughtfully composed and appropriate.
No blank subject lines or fragmented demands, please.
Late and Incomplete Work
I will not accept late work. I do not accept work via email. If you know you are going to come into conflict with a
due date, you should contact me ahead of time and propose a solution.
Paper Format
All work should be typed, stapled and presented in MLA format. Failure to follow paper format may result in a
lowered grade.
A Note on Backing Up your Work
You should have electronic and hard copy backups of all your work. Personally, I not only print out drafts of papers,
I obsessively email them to myself.
This syllabus and course calendar is subject to change. I will notify you of any changes via email and
Blackboard.
Course Calendar
APH=A Poetry Handbook Mary Oliver
PPP=Poems Poets Poetry Helen Vendler
We will listen to poems in boldface during class
M 8/24:
W 8/26:
F 8/28:
M 8/31:
W 9/2:
F 9/4:
M 9/7:
W 9/9:
F 9/11:
M 9/14:
W 9/16:
F 9/18:
Intro to Course—MacLeish “Ars Poetica” (PPP 522); Borges “A Dream” (PDF); Moore “Poetry”
(PPP 541-543); O’Hara “Autobiografia Literaria” (PDF)
Ginsberg “America” (PPP 476-479), Smart “For I Will Consider My Cat Geoffrey” (PPP 587590); Tichborne’s Elegy (PPP 64); Antin “A List of the Delusions of the Insane What They are
Afraid of” (PDF)
Last day to Add/drop; APH 1-12; Borges “The Riddle of Poetry” (PDF); Yeats “The Collar-bone of a
Hare” (PDF); Adams “The Horn” (PDF); “The Names of the Hare” trans. Heaney (PDF)
APH 13-28; Frost “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” (PPP 154) “Desert Places”
(PDF) and “Acquainted with the Night” (PDF)
APH 29-34; Hopkins “No worst, there is none” (PPP 501), “The Windhover” (PPP 501); Pound
“The Seafarer” (PDF); Wilbur “Junk” (PPP 636)
Line and Meter: APH 35-42; PPP 659-674
Class cancelled
Lines: APH 42-57; Pound “Salutation” (APH 55); Marvell “The Mower to Glowworms” (PPP 529);
Coleridge “Kubla Khan” (PPP 258-259)
Listening to Lines
Yeats “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” (PPP 654)
Auden “Musee des Beaux Arts” (PPP 373)
Thomas “And Death Shall Have no Dominion” (PDF)
Berryman “Dream Song #4” (PPP 374)
Knight “The Idea of Ancestry” (PDF)
Stein “She Bowed to her Brother” (PDF)
Brooks “kitchenette building” (PPP 402)
Lines: Alvarez “Dusting” (PPP 360); Strand “Keeping Things Whole” (PPP 614); Edward
Thomas “Rain” (PDF); Whitman “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” (PPP 301)
Stanzas: APH 58-66; Wright “Before a Cashier’s Window in a Department Store” (APH 63-64);
Donne “The Sun Rising” (PPP 461); Thomas “The force that through the green fuse drives the
flower” (PDF); “Sailing to Byzantium” (PPP 655)
Stanzas: Harper “We Assume” (PPP 493); Jonson “On His First Son” (PPP 16); Wyatt “Is it Possible?”
(PDF); Larkin “Home is so Sad” (PDF); Keats “This Living Hand” (PPP 508)
F 9/25:
APH 76-108 (focus on “Imagery”); Bishop “The Fish” (APH 95-97); Marvell “The Mower’s Song”
(PPP 528); Frost “Mowing” (PDF); Toomer “Reapers” (PDF)
Forche “The Colonel” (PDF); Gurney “To His Love” (PDF); Komunyakaa “Facing It” (PPP 24);
Pound “from Hugh Selwyn Mauberley” (PDF); Owen “Dulce et decorum est” (PPP 249)
Rexroth “from The Love Poems of Marichiko” (PDF)
M 9/28:
W 9/30:
F 10/2:
The Poem as Private Life PPP 27-47
The Poem as Public Life PPP 47-53
Six-Week Progress Report; Nature and Time PPP 53-61
M 10/5:
Poems as Pleasure PPP 73-95; Brooks “We Real Cool” (PPP 85); Lorca “from Poet in New
York” (PDF); Blake “London” (PPP 88); Pound “In a Station of the Metro” (PPP 562)
Poems as Pleasure; Chin “Autumn Leaves” (PPP 417); Simic “Fork” (PPP 587); Stevens
“Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” (PPP 613-614); Bronk “I Thought it was Harry”
M 9/21:
W 9/23:
W 10/7:
F 10/9:
(PDF)
EXAM 1
M 10/12:
W 10/14:
F 10/16:
Class cancelled
Intro to RESEARCH PROJECT; Lyric vs. Narrative: PPP 107-125
Last Day to Drop without Academic Penalty; Hayden “Those Winter Sundays” (PPP 20),
Komunyakaa “My Father’s Loveletters” (PPP 511); Kunitz “The Portrait” (PPP 513); Plath
“Daddy” (PDF) and “Lady Lazarus” (PPP 555-557)
M 10/19:
W 10/21:
F 10/23:
Person and Agency: Exploring a Poem PPP 125-134
Reading Keats; “Writing About Poems” 311-328
The Play of Language: PPP 151-157
M 10/26:
W 10/28:
F 10/30:
Ordering of Language: PPP 158-165
Dickinson (PPP 455-459)
Brodsky “Odysseus to Telemachus” (PDF); Tennyson “Ulysses” (PPP 619-620); Auden
“Who’s Who” (PDF)
M 11/2:
RESEARCH PROJECT due; Intro to READING ESSAY; Rukeyser “The Minotaur” (PDF); Olds
“The Ferryer” (PDF); Simic “Charon’s Cosmology” (PPP 587); H.D. “Helen” (PPP 488)
Kees “After the Trial” (PDF); Murray “Infant Among Cattle” and “The Mitchells” (PDF); Ondaatje
“To a Sad Daughter” (PDF)
Dickey “The Heaven of Animals” (PDF); Clare “Badger” (PPP 422); Baudelaire “The Albatross”
(PDF); Harjo “She Had Some Horses” (PDF); Dickinson “A Narrow Fellow in the Grass” (PPP 18)
W 11/4:
F 11/6:
M 11/9:
W 11/11:
F 11/13:
M 11/16:
W 11/18:
F 11/20:
M 11/23:
W 11/25:
F 11/27:
Li Po trans. Sze “The Song of Ch’ang-kan” (PDF); Pound “The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter”
(PDF)
Browning “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister” (PDF) and “My Last Duchess” (PPP 168)
Bishop from “Crusoe in England” (PDF)
PPP 177-194; from Shakespeare’s Sonnets (PDF)
Eliot “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock” (PPP 200); Donne “Song” (PDF); Shakespeare “from
Hamlet” (PDF)
Auden from For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio (PDF); Southwell “The Burning Babe”
(PPP 229); Eliot “Journey of the Magi” (PDF); Wright “Saint Judas” (PDF); Herbert “Redemption”
(PPP 498)
Clare “I Am” (PPP 423-424); Schwartz “The Heavy Bear who Goes with Me” (PDF); Lawrence
“Snake” (PPP 101)
Class cancelled
Class cancelled
M 11/30:
W 12/2:
F 12/4:
READING ESSAY DUE; Making Connections
Making Connections
Bukowski “The Secret of My Endurance”; Parker “Resume” (PDF); O’Hara “Ave Maria” (PPP
548); Larkin “This Be the Verse” (PPP 515); James Tate “Goodtime Jesus” and “The List of Famous
Hats” (PDF)
M 12/7:
Last day of class; Stevens “Of Mere Being” (PDF), “The Emperor of Ice-Cream” (PPP 172), and
“On The Emperor of Ice Cream” (PDF)
Final Exam: Wednesday, December 16 8:00–11:00 A.M. MHRA 2207