English 105: Approaches to Poetry (fall 2005)
Instructor: Robert Brown
Office: Divinity 38 (ext. 2397)
Office hours: Office hours: Tuesday and Thursday 10:00-11:00 AM and 1:00-2:30 PM., or by
appointment
Texts:
Perrine‘s Sound and Sense. 11th ed. Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson. Harcourt Brace
English 105: Approaches to Poetry This is a booklet of photocopied poems.
Marking scheme:
First essay (1000-2000 words): 22%
Final essay (1000-2000 words): 22%
Mid-term exam: 11%
Final exam: 30%
Quizzes/discussions: 7.5%
Participation: 7.5%
Participation includes attendance and participation in discussions, whether in discussion groups or
whole-class discussions. A failure to be present for at least two-thirds of the quizzes/discussions
will result in a zero for this mark.
There is no supplemental examination in this course.
Tentative work schedule:
The titles preceded by an asterisk (*) refer to poems in the book of photocopies. All the other
titles are in Sound and Sense, but you may have to find them by using the index at the back of
the text.
The following is not a complete list. Almost certainly, additional poems will be assigned, either
in Sound and Sense or in the book of photocopies or on separate handout. For the mid-term and
final exam, you will be responsible for all the poems on the list and for any additional poems
examined in class during the course.
Sept. 8 Introduction: What Is Poetry?
from On Being with Child
“The Red Wheelbarrow”
“Terence, this is stupid stuff
Sept. 13 Speaker and dramatic situation
Read pp. 22-3 1, including the poems
Also: “Break of Day”
“There’s been a death in the opposite house”
“When in Rome”
Sept. 15 Speaker and dramatic situation
“My Last Duchess”
*“I being born a woman and distressed” “The Naming of Parts”
“When my love swears she is made of truth”
Sept. 20 Imagery
Read pp. 55-58, including the poems
Also: “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”
“Living in Sin”
*“Lament for the Dorsets”
Sept. 22 Imagery
“Spring”
“Pied Beauty”
“The Forge”
“Those Winter Sundays”
“The Darkling Thrush”
Sept. 27 Figurative language I
Read pp. 69-79, including the poems
Also: *“Africa’
*“Marks”
Sept. 29 Figurative Language I
“Mirror”
“Metaphors”
“Toads”
*“The White House”
Oct. 4 Figurative Language 2
Read pp. 90-101, including the poems
Also: * “Snake”
*‘The Rose Tree”
Oct. 6 Mid-term exam
First essay due
Oct. 13 Figurative Language 2
“Fire and ice”
“Curiosity”
“Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers”
“Power”
Oct. 18 Figurative Language 3
Read pp. 109-120, including the poems
Also: *from Hardy’s Satires of Circumstance
“Afterward”
Oct. 20 Figurative Language 3
“Batter my heart, three-personed God”
“The Unknown Citizen”
“Mr. Z
“American Holiday”
Oct. 25 Tone
Read pp. 161-165, including the poems
Also: “Crossing the Bar”
“The Oxen”
“I never saw a Moor”
“Faith’ is a fine invention”
“One dignity delays for all”
“Twas warm—at first—like us”
“The Apparition”
“The Flea”
Oct. 27 Tone
“Dover Beach”
“Church Going”
Nov. 1 Allusion, including the poems
Read pp. 135-137
Also: “in Just—”
“On His Blindness”
“Leda and the Swan”
“Journey of the Magi”
*“Penelope”
*Song of One of the Girls”
Nov. 3 Musical Devices
Read pp. 179-1 86, including the poems
Also: *song of Caedmon
“Woman Work”
Nov. 8 Musical Devices
“Nothing Gold Can Stay”
*“The Word Plum”
[Constantly risking absurdity]
Nov. 10 Rhythm and Meter
Read pp.195-209
Also: “Introduction” to Songs of Innocence “The Aim Was Song”
“Old Ladies’ Home”
“Had I the Choice”
“To a Daughter Leaving Home”
[Constantly risking absurdity]
[Because I could not stop for death]
[Break, break, break]
*“The Ruined Maid”
Nov. 15 Rhythm and Meter
Nov. 17 Pattern/Kind/Structure
Second essay due
*The Haystack in the Floods”
“Ulysses”
“To His Coy Mistress”
“The Dance”
“Church Going”
[There’s been a death in the opposite house]
*“Nude Descending a Staircase”
*“Flower in the Crannied Wall”
“The Oxen”
“The Mill”
“Pied Beauty”
“Break of Day”
[Constantly risking absurdity]
Nov. 22 Pattern/Kind/Structure
* “Michael” (excerpt)
“I wandered lonely as a cloud”
*“Daddy”
*“Flower in the Crannied Wall”
*[Naked I came--]
“My Last Duchess”
“Ballad of Birmingham”
*“A Late Aubade”
*Paradise Lost (excerpt)
* “The
Passionate Shepherd to His Love”
*“Song”
Nov. 24 Pattern/Kind/Structure
“Acquainted with the Night”
*“The Haystack in the Floods”
“The Waking”
“Ballad of Birmingham”
“In Just—”
“Out, Out—”
* The Rape of the Lock (excerpt)
“My mistress’ eyes”
“On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer”
*“Sestina”
Nov. 29 Cultural and Historical Contexts
*“peace” (Rupert Brooke)
*“The Soldier”
“Dulce et Decorum Est”
*“My Lady’s Presence”
[My mistress’ eyes]
*“The Ruined Maid”
Dec. 1 Cultural and Historical Contexts
“Ballad of Birmingham”
*“you Are the Brave”
*“May, 1968”
*“Annus Mirabilis”