English 105: Approaches to Poetry
(winter 2007)
Instructor: Robert Brown
Office: Divinity 38 (ext. 2397)
Office hours: Office hours: Tuesday and Thursday 2:30-4:30 PM, or by appointment
Texts:
Perrine’s Sound and Sense. 11th ed. Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson. Harecourt Brace
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 a minimum of half 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 on handout. 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. Additional poems will be assigned, either in Sound
and Sense 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.
Jan. 9 Introduction: What Is Poetry?
*from On Being with Child
“The Red Wheelbarrow”
“Terence, this is stupid stuff
Jan. 11 Speaker and dramatic situation
Read pp. 22-31, including the poems
Also: “Break of Day”
1
“There’s been a death in the opposite house”
“When in Rome”
Jan. 16 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”
Jan. 18 Imagery
Read pp. 55-58, including the poems
Also: “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”
“Living in Sin”
“The Forge”
Jan. 23 Imagery
“Spring’
“Pied Beauty”
“Those Winter Sundays”
“The Darkling Thrush”
Jan. 25 Figurative language 1
Read pp. 69-79, including the poems
Also: “Batter my heart, three-personed God”
*“Africa”
Jan. 30 Figurative Language 1
“Mirror”
“Metaphors”
*”The White House”
Feb. 6 Figurative Language 2
Read pp. 90-101, including the poems
Also: *“Snake”
*”The Rose Tree”
Feb. 7 Mid-tern exam
First essay due
Feb. 8 Figurative Language 2
“Fire and Ice”
“Curiosity”
“Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers”
2
Feb. 13 Figurative Language 3
Read pp. 109-120, including the poems
Also: *from Hardy’s Satires of Circumstance
“Afterward”
Feb. 15 Figurative Language 3
“The Unknown Citizen”
“Mr. Z”
“American Holiday”
Feb.20 Tone
Read pp. 161-165, including the poems
Also: “Crossing the Bar”
“The Oxen”
“One dignity delays for all”
“Twas warm—at first—like us”
“The Apparition”
“The Flea”
Feb. 22 Tone
“Dover Beach”
“Church Going”
Mar. 6 Musical Devices
Read pp. 179-186, including the poems
Also: * Song of Caedmon
“Woman Work”
Mar. 8 Musical Devices
“Rite of Passage”
“Her Kind”
“Fear no more the heat o’ the sun”
“Nothing Gold Can Stay”
Mar. 13 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”
3
Mar. 15 Rhythm and Meter
Mar. 20 Patten/Kind/Structure
Second essay due
*”The Haystack in the Floods”
“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]
Mar. 22 Pattern/Kind/Structure
“I wandered lonely as a cloud”
*”Flower in the Crannied Wall”
“My Last Duchess”
“Ballad of Birmingham”
*‘A late Aubade”
* Paradise Lost (excerpts)
* “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”
*“Song”
Mar. 27 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’
Mar. 29 Allusion, including the poems
Read pp. 135-137
Also: “in Just—”
“On His Blindness”
“Leda and the Swan”
“Journey of the Magi”
4
*“Penelope”
*Song of One of the Girls
Apr. 3 Cultural and Historical Contexts
*Peace” (Rupert Brooke)
*“The Soldier”
“Dulce et Decorum Est”
*“My Lady’s Presence”
“My mistress’ eyes”
*“The Ruined Maid”
Apr. 5 Cultural and Historical Contexts
“Ballad of Birmingham”
*‘You Are the Brave”
*May, 1968”
*“Annus Mirabilis”
5