EGL191 Section 6 (55728) Introduction to Lyric Poetry
Spring 2014
Douglas Pfeiffer
Tues. & Thurs. 2:30-3:50
Office – 1098 Humanities
Classroom: Earth & Space 181
douglas.pfeiffer@stonybrook.edu
Office hrs. Mon. 4-7pm & by appointment
Course description and intended learning outcomes: The purpose of this course is to
introduce you to the reading and interpretation of poetry both at the level of classroom discussion
and in writing. You will learn some of the greatest short poems in the Angl-American tradition
and, in doing so, develop a working vocabulary for literary study generally and for the study of
verse in particular. You will learn how to recognize and employ in your analysis numerous
features of a poem’s diction, sound, rhythm, genre, figurative language, persona, tone, and use of
allusion. We also will work (both individually and through peer evaluations and feedback) to
achieve in your expository writing an effective balance of summary, description, and analysis,
how to explain convincingly why your chosen textual evidence proves your thesis, and how to
adjust your readerly perception to be sensitive to literary form.
Syllabus subject to change. Readings are listed here on the date they are due. Items followed by
an asterisk (*) are available under “documents” on our course’s Blackboard page. Unless
otherwise noted, all assigned poems are in the Norton. SA = “Short Assignment.”
Week 1 Introductions and Definitions
Jan. 28 Introductions
Jan. 30 Definitions (literature & poetry) and resources (OED, OWL, MLA Bibliography,
Google Books & Google Scholar, EEBO & ECCO, Archive.org, LION) and on shelves
(handbooks of terms and ideas, style manuals, primary texts, Scholarship)
• SA 1 due in class = define “literature” and “poetry” with example of the latter and
explanation
Weeks 2 & 3 Rhythm
Feb. 4 Meter and scansion: the line. First read the following four poems, two from the Norton
(Wilfred Owen, “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori” and Robert Lowell, “Mr Edwards
and the Spider”) and two posted under “Documents” on our Blackboard site (William
Butler Yeats, “An Irish Airman Foresees his Death” and Lord Byron, “The Destruction of
Sennecharib”). Then read Jon Stallworthy’s “Versification” essay (Norton pp.1251-76)
and John Hollander, Rhyme’s Reason pp.1-20. Then read the poems again in light of
Stallworthy’s and Hollander’s explanations of poetic rhythm. Be ready to discuss in class
the way the rhythm of these poems contributes to their meaning.
Feb. 6 The dying fall: Bob Dylan, “Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll”*
Feb. 11 The line – end stops vs. enjambment: Chidiock Tichborne, “My Prime of Youth Is but a
Frost of Cares”; Christopher Smart, “From Jubilate Agno”; William Carlos Williams,
“The Dance”*; Emily Dickinson’s poems (all the selections in the Norton, pp. 719-732).
And read Margaret Ferguson’s essay “Poetry Syntax” in the Norton (pp.1277-1297).
• SA 2: in-class quiz on prosody
Feb. 13 Beyond meter: Caedmon’s Hymn; Walt Whitman, “From Song of Myself” (Norton
1
pp.679-84); Gerard Manley Hopkins, “The Windhover.”
Weeks 4, 5, 6 Genre: the sonnet
Feb. 18 Petrarch, Rime 140*; Thomas Wyatt, “”The Long Love, That in My Thought Doth
Harbor”; Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, “Love, That Doth Reign and Live within My
Thought”; Edmund Spenser, Sonnet 67 “Lyke as a huntsman after weary chace.” All
poems are in Norton except the Petrarch, which can be found on our Blackboard site
under “Documents.” Also re-read the part of the Stallworthy essay on sonnets (Norton
pp. 1266-1269) and Paul Fussel’s Poetic Meter and Poetic Form chapter 7 on sonnets.*
Feb. 20 Shakespeare sonnets 1, 12, 18, 20, 29, 73, 116, 129, 130, 138.
Feb. 25 Shakespeare, cont’d.
• SA 3 due in class = sonnet composition
Feb. 27 Renaissance sonnets: Robert Herrick, “To Find God” and “Delight in Disorder”;
George Herbert, “Sin (I)”; John Donne, Holy Sonnets # 7 “At the round earth’s imagined
corners,” 10 “Death, Be Not Proud,” and 14 “Batter My Heart, Three-Person’d God”;
John Milton, “How Soon Hath Time” and “When I Consider How My Light is Spent”
and “On the Late Massacre in Piedmont.”
Mar. 4 Romantic sonnets: John Keats, “On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer,” “When I
Have Fears,” “On the Sonnet,” and “Bright Star”; Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Ozymandias”
and “England in 1819”; John Clare, “Farewell,” and William Wordsworth, “London,
1802,” “Surprised by Joy,” “The World Is Too Much With Us,” and “Scorn Not the
Sonnet.”
Mar. 6 Modern sonnets: George Meredith, Modern Love 1 “By this he knew she wept with
waking eyes,” 17 “At dinner, she is hostess, I am host,” & 50 “Thus piteously Love
closed what he begat”; John Berryman, sonnet 117 “All we were going strong.” Gerard
Manley Hopkins, “No Worst, There is None,” and “Pied Beauty”; Geoffrey Hill, “The
Laurel Axe.” All in Norton except Berryman*.
• PAPER 1 DUE IN CLASS
Weeks 7, 8, 9 Figurative Language
Mar. 11 Metaphor and simile: Thomas Wyatt, “They Flee from Me,” Walt Whitman, “A
Noiseless Patient Spider,” Frost, “The Silken Tent.”
Mar. 13 Conceit: John Donne, “A Valediction Forbidding Mourning.”
• SA 4: Figures of Speech
Mar. 18 & 20 NO CLASS. SPRING RECESS.
Mar. 25 Symbol: S. T. Coleridge, “Kubla Kahn,” Hardy, “The Convergence of the Twain,” W.
B. Yeats, “Sailing to Byzantium,” Wallace Stevens, “The Emperor of Ice Cream.”
• SA 5: Symbolic poem
Mar. 27 Symbol: Adrienne Rich, “Diving Into the Wreck”
Week 10,11 Persona and Post-expressionism
Apr. 1 John Donne, “The Flea”; Robert Browning, “My Last Duchess”; Alfred, Lord Tennyson,
2
“Tithonus,” John Berryman, “Dreamsongs” (the selections in Norton Anthology)
Apr. 3 T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.”
* April 4, Friday: • SA 6: attendance of Paradise Lost marathon reading
Apr. 8 Kenneth Goldsmith, selection from Traffic, Walter Abish, from “Skin Deep,” Sally
Alatalo, from “Unforeseen Alliances,” Charles Bernstein, “My/My/My” and from “I and
The,” and Jen Bervin, from “Nets.” All = *
Apr. 10 • SA 7: IN-CLASS RECITATIONS, LAST NAME A-M
Weeks 12,13,14 Poetry & Narrative
Apr. 15 IN-CLASS RECITATIONS, LAST NAME N-Z
Apr. 17 Alexander Pope, Rape of the Lock cantos 1-2
• SA 8: Summary vs. paraphrase
Apr. 22 Rape of the Lock cantos 3-5
• SA 9: in-class reading quiz
Apr. 24 Pale Fire (the poem)
Apr. 29 Pale Fire (the rest of the novel)
• SA 10: reading quiz
May 1 • SA 11 BAD POEMS, LAST NAME Q-Z
Week 15: Criticism: bad poems
May 6 BAD POEMS, LAST NAME L-P
May 8 BAD POEMS, LAST NAME A-K
May 11 Final paper due via email attachment (docx or doc format only)
Books
All required books listed below are available at the University Bookstore. You must obtain
copies of everything below in the specific edition listed.
• Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, and Jon Stallworthy eds., The Norton Anthology of Poetry,
Shorter Fifth Edition (2005)
• John Hollander, Rhyme’s Reason
• Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire
All additional reading selections will be available in dowloadable electronic versions available
on our course’s Blackboard site under “documents.” I also recommend that you obtain copies of:
Diana Hacker ed., A Writer’s Reference with Writing About Literature and an unabridged
dictionary for use in your own writing.
Course requirements and expectations
1. Reading: The amount of reading for this course is manageable, partly to give you the
opportunity to read every assigned text very closely. You will be expected to have read each
day’s assigned material twice in preparation for class. You will be expected to look up any
3
words in the assigned reading that you do not know. As the class begins to take shape, the
preofessor may make minor modifications to the reading schedule as necessary.
2. Seminar participation: you are required to participate actively during every class period.
Successful participation also entails a balance between vigorous engagement in the class
discussion and allowance for others to speak; in other words, you must make sure that you
volunteer to speak frequently yet make sure not to dominate discussion.
3. Attendance: more than three absences will lower your participation grade. More than five
absences will result in F for your participation grade. Tardiness will also count as an absence as
will repeatedly absenting yourself during class.
3. Short Assignments: these eleven exercises will be graded A, B, C or F. A for exceptionally
well-executed assignments, B for competent but not exciting work, C for minimal effort, F for
incomplete or late work. When the short assignment is a four-question quiz, A = all four right, B
= three right, C = 1 right. Note that one of the exercises will be your recitation in class of at least
14 lines of a poem from the Norton Anthology. Another exercise will be your selection and
explanation to the class of what you take to be a bad poem from the Norton Anthology; you’ll
need to have it chosen and be ready to explain on May 1st.
4. Formal papers: there are two for the course. The first will be 4 pages long, the second will
be 6 pages. Late papers will not be accepted, but you may have one extension should you need it,
arranged with me in advance of the due date. Other late papers will be penalized a half grade for
each day late (a B+ paper 1 day late becomes a B; two days late = C+). When handing in papers
electronically, always use .doc or .docx format (not .pdf or .html or anything else).
5. Grades
Participation:
Short Assignments:
Paper 1:
Paper 2:
25%
25%
25%
25%
6. Possible Additional Requirement. Tutorials in the SBU Program in Writing and Rhetoric’s
Writing Center: as frequently as weekly. Also possible recommendation to take WRT200
course in English Grammar (twice weekly). Consultation with Director of Program in Writing
and Rhetoric in 2042 Humanities.
University Policies
Computers and other electronic devices in class: None allowed. If you have a medical
condition that prevents you from taking notes by hand, please make an appointment to see me in
office hours during the second week of class. Cell phones off. No texting, tweeting, etc.
Academic Integrity: Each student must pursue his or her academic goals honestly and be
personally accountable for all submitted work. Representing another person's work as your own
is always wrong. Faculty are required to report any suspected instances of academic dishonesty
4
to the Academic Judiciary. Faculty in the Health Sciences Center (School of Health Technology
& Management, Nursing, Social Welfare, Dental Medicine) and School of Medicine are required
to follow their school-specific procedures. For more comprehensive information on academic
integrity, including categories of academic dishonesty, please refer to the academic judiciary
website at http://www.stonybrook.edu/uaa/academicjudiciary/
Americans with Disabilities Act: If you have a physical, psychological, medical or learning
disability that may impact your course work, please contact Disability Support Services, ECC
(Educational Communications Center) Building, room128, (631) 632-6748. They will determine
with you what accommodations, if any, are necessary and appropriate. All information and
documentation is confidential.
https://web.stonybrook.edu/newfaculty/StudentResources/Pages/DisabilitySupportServices.aspx.
Critical Incident Management: Stony Brook University expects students to respect the rights,
privileges, and property of other people. Faculty are required to report to the Office of University
Community Standards any disruptive behavior that interrupts their ability to teach, compromises
the safety of the learning environment, or inhibits students' ability to learn. Faculty in the HSC
Schools and the School of Medicine are required to follow their school-specific procedures.
Further information about most academic matters can be found in the Undergraduate Bulletin,
the Undergraduate Class Schedule, and the Faculty-Employee Handbook..
Electronic Communication Statement: Email and especially email sent via Blackboard
(http://blackboard.stonybrook.edu) is one of the ways the faculty officially communicates with
you for this course. It is your responsibility to make sure that you read your email in your official
University email account. For most students that is Google Apps for Education
(http://www.stonybrook.edu/mycloud), but you may verify your official Electronic Post Office
(EPO) address at http://it.stonybrook.edu/help/kb/checking-or-changing-your-mail-forwardingaddress-in-the-epo. If you choose to forward your official University email to another offcampus account, faculty are not responsible for any undeliverable messages to your alternative
personal accounts. You can set up Google Mail forwarding using these DoIT-provided
instructions found at http://it.stonybrook.edu/help/kb/setting-up-mail-forwarding-in-google-mail.
If you need technical assistance, please contact Client Support at (631) 632-9800 or
supportteam@stonybrook.edu.
5