Syllabus: Poetic Form and Theory (Fall 2010)
ARHU 319 section 0201; M 3:00-5:30pm; Room: TBA
Mr. Reginald Dwayne Betts, Instructor
office: _______ email: rdbetts@umd.edu
Note: This syllabus is subject to change depending on new developments or pace of the
class. You are responsible for any and all changes announced in class. If you miss some
or all of a class session for any reason, contact a classmate about changes to the syllabus.
Complete all readings and assignments by the listed date. Bring all readings to class on
the day they are due.
Texts:
ASA: Ali, Agha Shahid. Call Me Ishmael Tonight. New York: W.W. Norton & Company,
2003.
Norton: Ferguson, Margaret, Mary Jo Salter and Jon Stallworthy, The Norton Anthology
of Poetry. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2005.
YK: Komunyakaa, Yusef. Neon Vernacular. New England: Wesleyan University Press,
1993.
WB: Baer, William. Writing Metrical Poetry. Cincinnati: Writers Digest Books, 2006.
30 Aug: Course Intro: Reading as a Writer. Prosody: Sound’s Architect.
Poems:
Prose:
6 Sept: Labor Day- No Class
Poems:
Prose:
13 Sept: Meter. Blank Verse
9/13 Last Day of Schedule Adjustment
Poems: Milton “Paradise Lost {The Invocation},” (Norton 421-422); Samuel Taylor
Coleridge “Frost at Midnight” (Norton 810-812); Robert Frost “Mending Wall,” (12271228) “Home Burial,” (1228-1231); Philip Larkin “Church Going” (1649-1650),
Prose: Boundless Wealth from a Timeless Store, Timothy Steele (Bb); Letter on Meter,
Gibbons (Bb); Preface, Chapter 1, Chapter 4-5 (WB viii, 1-17, 40-76)
Search: 3 poems in Norton, 3 poems from outside sources (all written in blank verse)
Assignment: Assignment 2 (WB 59); Assignment 3 (WB 74)
20 Sept: Notes on Rhythm, Notes on Rhyme.
Poems: Alexander Pope, “from An Essay on Criticism” (Norton 596-604); William
Butler Yeats, “Easter 1916” (1194-1195); Joseph Brodsky, “May 24, 1980” (Bb);
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Prose: Robert Pinsky, Like and Unlike Sounds (Bb); Amittai Aviram, Why We Need a
New, Rhythm Centered Theory of Poetry (Bb); Reginald Gibbons, On Rhyme (Bb);
Merloff on Yeats 1916 (Bb)
Search: 3 in course texts; 3 musical examples
Assignment: Write a twenty line poem rhymed abxb
27 Sept: Fixed Forms I: Sonnet
Poems: George Herbert, “Prayer(1)” (Norton 371-372); Robert Hayden, “Those Winter
Sundays” (Norton 1533); Gwendolyn Brooks, “my dreams, my works, must wait till after
hell” (Norton 1586), “the rites for Cousin Vit” (Norton 1587); John Murillo, “Renegades
of Funk” (Bb); Robert Hayden, “Frederick Douglass” (Bb); Kevin A Gonzalez, “To You”
(Bb)
Prose: Stephen Burt, On Herbert’s Prayer (Bb); Robert Ray, On Herbert’s Prayer (Bb);
Gerald Hammond, On Herbert’s Prayer (Bb); Chapter 8 (WB 113-128); Owning the
Masters, Marilyn Nelson (Bb)
Search: 3 in course texts; 3 outside
Assignment: Assignment 6 (WB 127); Write a sonnet beginning with a line borrowed
from another poet (ex. Kevin A Gonzalez’s “To You”)
29 Sept: WH&N: John Murillo and ???????
4 Oct: Tercet (terza rima, triplet, blues stanza & variations)
Poems: Gjertrud Schnackenberg, “Supernatural Love” (Norton 2003-2005); Derek
Walcott, “from Omeros” (Bb ); Sylvia Plath, “Pheasant” (Bb);
Prose: Chapter 9 (WB 128-140); Wendell Berry, The Specialization of Poetry (Bb)
Search: 2 poems (1 terza rima, 1 triplet (or poem composed in blues stanzas)
Assignment: Assignment 7 (WB 140)
11 Oct: Stanzas, The End of the Line & Forms of Disjunction
Poems: TBA
Prose: Chapter 13 (WB 191-198); James Longenbach, The End of the Line (Bb), James
Longenbach, Forms of Disjunction (Bb)
Search: 3 in course texts; 3 outside (2 variations)
Assignment: TBA
18 Oct: Received Forms II: Ghazal, Canzone, Sestina
Poems: Agha Shahid Ali, Call Me Ishmael Tonight; Agha Shahid Ali, “Lenox Hill”
(Norton 1959-1960); Agha Shahid Ali, “Veiled Suite” (Bb); W.H. Auden, “Canzone”
(Bb)
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Prose: Agha Shahid Ali, Ghazal In America – May I? (Bb); Joshua Gage, “Review of
Call Me Ishmael Tonight” (Bb);
Search: 4 outside (any combination of the two forms)
Assignment: Write 1 ghazal, following strictly to the rules; Write 1 canzone
25 Oct: Fixed Forms III: Villanelle, Rondeau, Triolet,
Poems: A.E. Stallings, “Triolet on a Line Apocryphally Attributed to Martin Luther”
(Bb); Kate Northrop, “The Place Above the River” (Bb); Sylvia Plath, “Mad Girl’s Love
Song”
Prose: Chapter 10 (WB 141-156); Ellen Bryant Voigt, On Tone (Bb); Ann Townsend, A
Mind for Metaphors (Bb)
Search: 3 in course texts; 3 outside (2 variations)
Assignment: Assignment 8 (WB 156)
27 Oct: WH&N:
1 Nov: Meter Cont. Quatrain & Couplet.
Poems: Sir Walter Raleigh “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd,” (Norton, 132); Emily
Dickinson “620” (Norton 1121), “479” (Norton 1119), “764” (1122);
Rita Dove, “Cozy Apologia” (Bb); Terese Svoboda “Glass of Water Encounter” (Bb);
Thom Gunn, “Lament” (Bb); Gwendolyn Brooks “We Real Cool” (Bb); A.E. Stallings
“Recitative” (Bb)
Prose: Chapter 3 (WB 32-39), Chapter 6 (WB 77-95), Chapter 7 (97-110); Seamus
Heaney, Feelings Into Words (Bb)
Search: 3 in course texts; 3 outside (2 variations i.e. unrhymed, unmetered, etc)
Assignment: Assignment 1 (WB 34); Assignment 4 (WB 94)
8 Nov: Lyric: Ode & Elegy
11/8 Last Day to Withdraw from Classes with a “W”
Poems: Seamus Heaney, Station Island (Bb), Larry Levis, “Elegy Ending in the Sound of
a Skipping Rope,” “Elegy with an Angel at Its Gate” (Bb)
Prose: David Baker, I’m Nobody: Lyric Poetry and the Problem of the People; David
Baker, To Think of Time (Bb)
Search: 3 in course texts; 3 outside
Assignment: Write an Elegy of at least 40 lines
15 Nov: Free Verse.
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Poems: Yusef Komunyakaa “Songs for My Father” (YK 28-33); YK 37-84;
Prose: James Scully, Remarks on Political Poetry (Bb); Paul Lake, Verse that Print Bred
(Bb); Charles Olson, Projective Verse (Bb)
Search: 10 free verse poems
Assignment: Short essay details to be announced
22 Nov: Free Verse cont.
Poems: Li-Young Lee, “Persimmons” (Norton 2011); Simon Armitage, “from Killing
Time” (Norton 2021-2022); Allen Ginsberg, “from Howl” (Norton 1708-1713); YK 87129
Prose: Major Jackson, A Mystifying Silence (Bb); Tony Hoagland, The Dean Young
Effect (Bb); Thomas Sayers Ellis, The New Perform-A-Form (Bb);
29 Nov: Blank Verse. The Necessity of Poetry
Poems: YK 129-178; Dante Micheaux, “Negation” (Bb); Terrance Hayes, “Lighthead’s
Guide to the Galaxy” (Bb); Heather McHugh Selection (Bb)
Prose: A.E. Stallings, Presto Manifesto (Bb); Okri, While the World Sleeps (Bb)
1 December: WH&N:
6 Dec: Farewell
Poems: TBA
Prose: James Longenbach, Composed Wonder (Bb)
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