English 212
Introduction to Poetry
Summer 2010
Nick Shaner
nmshaner@eiu.edu
618-553-5038
Office Hours-Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 10am to 1pm
This course will be divided into four parts: What poetry is and how it differs from other literary forms;
how it evolved (the tradition of poetry); what special skills are needed to understand it; and what purpose
it serves in a utilitarian culture. Students in this course will read, analyze and discuss poems.
This is an introductory course in poetry and poetic expressions; however, it is assumed that students have
successfully completed the prerequisites for this course, English 101 and English 102, or their equivalent.
Therefore, students are expected to have the necessary background and experience in analyzing,
discussing, and responding to literature, as well as the ability to conduct independent research and to write
correctly documented research essays using MLA format.
OBJECTIVES
At the conclusion of this course, students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate the ability to read with understanding and perception while specifically
demonstrating the skills necessary to analyze works of poetry for thematic content;
2. Recognize the relationship between the genre of poetry and the interpreted messages;
3. Write critical explications of literary works;
4. Communicate literary analyses with clarity and effectiveness.
TEXTS:
Required:
Hunter, J. Paul. and Alison Booth, eds. The Norton Introduction to Poetry, Tenth Edition. New York: W.
W. Norton, 2009.
Any college-level English handbook covering grammar, research writing, and documentation using MLA
format.
Attendance and Participation:
According to the College Catalog, "Students are expected to attend all class, clinical, laboratory, and
studio sessions for the full duration of each instructional session." Students must not only attend every
class, but also be on time, be prepared, and take an active part in class discussions. Students will be
required to sign in each class session, to verify their attendance. Students who end the semester with
Perfect Attendance (never absent, never late) will receive an additional 5 points (Extra Credit!!!) on their
final grades.
Students unable to attend class should contact the instructor regarding missed work as soon as they return
to school. Excessive absences or repeated tardiness will result in a lowered grade and may result in failure
of the course at the instructor's discretion.
Plagiarism:
Plagiarism includes copying or paraphrasing another's words, ideas, or facts without crediting the source;
submitting a paper written by someone else, either in whole or in part, as one's own work; or submitting
work previously submitted for another course or instructor. Plagiarism on any assignment will result in
failure for that assignment and may result in further disciplinary action, including but not limited to
failure for the course. Plagiarism on a second assignment will result in failure for the course and further
disciplinary action, up to and including expulsion from the College. Please refer to the Student Handbook
for additional information regarding plagiarism and College regulations.
Homework/Essay Submission:
All writing assignments must be submitted on or before the due date indicated on the schedule. Late work
will not be accepted except under extraordinary circumstances; work submitted after deadlines will result
in reduction of the grade for that assignment by 10% for each day it is late.
ASSIGNMENTS:
ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION (10%):
As this class will combine both lecture and discussion, students are expected to take an active part in
class—joining in discussions and raising questions. Discussion is one of the best ways to clarify your
understandings and to test your conclusions. It is imperative that all students participate regularly in order
that we may together discover what each selection "means". Open discussion always involves personal
exposure, and thus the taking of risks: your ideas may not be the same as your fellow students’ or even
the instructor’s.
QUIZZES (10%):
With the exception of the first day, class may begin with a short (five- to ten-minute) quiz or writing
assignment on the reading(s) for the day, at the instructor's discretion. Quizzes or response papers missed
due to tardiness may not be made up.
PRESENTATIONS (20%):
At the beginning of the semester, all students will select at least one of the works from the list provided to
present to the class; each presentation must be ten to fifteen minutes long, and demonstrate familiarity
with the selection, its context, and its significance. Ideally, presentations will also be open-ended, leading
into class discussions with questions, major themes or topics for further thought.
ESSAYS (2 @ 15%):
Students will complete at least two essays during the semester, on topics to be assigned. Essays must be at
least 5 pages long (1250-1500 words), typed, double-spaced, grammatically correct, and submitted on or
before the due date indicated on the schedule, below. In addition, essays must include a cover page and
Works Cited page (at least three sources), and use MLA format for documentation.
EXAMS (2 @ 15%):
Students will complete two ninety-minute exams: an in-class midterm during the sixth class, and a final
during the the last class. These exams will each evaluate students' recognition and comprehension of
material studied during the previous weeks, covering specific texts, literary themes, and cultural and
historical backgrounds. The exams will combine objective questions and short essay answers. Students
may be entitled to use notes or textbooks for the essay portion of the exams only.
Tuesday, July 8: Introduction
Selections for Class Presentations
Introductory Poems:
William Shakespeare, "[Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?]" (22)
anonymous, "[There was a young lady of Riga]" (198)
Hashin, "[No sky and no earth]" (350)
William Carlos Williams, “The Red Wheelbarrow” (135)
e.e. cummings, “[l(a]” (271)
Lewis Carroll, "Jabberwocky" and "Humpty Dumpty Explicates 'Jabberwocky'" (handout)
*Carol Lin, "Language and Structure in Sharon Olds's 'The Victims'" (247-249)
*"Writing about Poetry" (A1-A46)
Thursday, July 10: Poems About Art and Poetry
John Keats, "On the Sonnet" (256)
John Keats, "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (303)
Archibald Macleish, "Ars Poetica" (270)
Marianne Moore, ""Poetry”" (266-7) [* see also 1925 & 1967 versions (451-2)]
Ishmael Reed, "beware: do not read this poem" (268-269)
Adrienne Rich, "Diving Into The Wreck" (184-186)
Wallace Stevens, “Anecdote Of The Jar” (464-465)
*Christine Woodside, "Metrical Variation and Meaning in 'To the Memory of Mr. Oldham'"
(220-222)
Tuesday, July 15: Love Poetry
Thomas Wyatt, "They Flee from Me" (77)
Christopher Marlowe, "The Passionate Shepherd to his Love" (345-346)
Sir Walter Ralegh, "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" (354)
William Shakespeare, “[Let me not to the marriage of true minds]” (17)
John Donne, "The Sun Rising" (481-482)
John Donne, "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" (482)
Robert Herrick, "Delight in Disorder" (143)
Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, “Of the Theme of Love” (136)
*Meaghan E. Parker, "Tragedy in Five Stanzas: 'Woodchucks'" (290-294)
Thursday, July 17: Love Poetry continued
Essay 1 Due
John Donne, "The Flea" (89-90)
Andrew Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress" (100-101)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, "How Do I Love Thee?" (2)
Denise Levertov, "Wedding-Ring" (7)
Sharon Olds, "Sex Without Love" (133)
Linda Pastan, "love poem" (4-5)
Adrienne Rich, “[My mouth hovers across your breasts]” (323)
Tuesday, July 22: Poems of Age, Death, and Mourning
William Shakespeare, "[That Time of Year thou mayst in me Behold]" (159)
Edna St. Vincent Millay, "[What lips my lips have kissed] (Sonnet XIX)" (18)
Roger McCough, “Here I Am” (509)
Ben Jonson, "On My First Son" (9)
John Donne, “Death, be not proud” (481)
Henry King, "Sic Vita" (170)
Emily Dickinson, "[Because I could not stop for Death, ]" (477)
Thursday, July 24: Poems of Age, Death, and Mourning continued
Midterm Exam
Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Spring and Fall” (205-206)
Dylan Thomas, "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" (266)
Walt Whitman, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" (540-547)
W. H. Auden, "In Memory of W. B. Yeats" (244-245)
W. H. Auden, "Funeral Blues [Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone]" (16)
Seamus Heaney, "Mid-Term Break" (11)
Margaret Atwood, "Death of a Young Son by Drowning" (65)
Tuesday, July 29: Religious Poetry
John Donne, "Batter my heart, three-person'd God" (167-168)
George Herbert, "The Collar" (285)
George Herbert, "Easter Wings" (274)
William Cowper, “Light Shining out of Darkness” (476-477)
Matthew Arnold, "Dover Beach" (96-97)
Gerard Manley Hopkins, "The Windhover" (500)
Gerard Manley Hopkins, "God's Grandeur" (500)
Wallace Stevens, "Sunday Morning" (527-530)
Howard Nemerov, “Boom!” (340-342)
Thursday, July 31: Poems About Identity
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Ulysses" (534-535)
Walt Whitman, “[I celebrate myself, and sing myself]” (83)
Walt Whitman, "I Hear America Singing" (540)
Walt Whitman, "A Noiseless Patient Spider" (546)
Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken" (489)
Langston Hughes, "Theme For English B" (502-503)
Audre Lorde, "Hanging Fire" (76)
Tuesday, August 5: War Poetry
Richard Lovelace, “Song: To Lucasta, Going to the Wars” (392)
Thomas Hardy, "Channel Firing" (375-376)
Wilfred Owen, "Dulce et Decorum Est" (386)
Wilfred Owen, "Disabled " (392-3)
Randall Jarrell, "The Death Of The Ball Turret Gunner" (169)
Richard Eberhart, "The Fury of Aerial Bombardment" (387)
Seamus Heaney, "Punishment" (388-389)
Sharon Olds, “Leningrad Cemetery, Winter of 1941” (174-5)
Mary Jo Salter, "Welcome to Hiroshima" (381-2)
Thursday, August 7: Selected Modern and Contemporary Poems
Essay 2 Due
T. S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (485-489)
W. B. Yeats, "The Second Coming" (556)
W. B. Yeats, "Leda And The Swan " (557)
e. e. cummings, “[in Just-]” (138-139)
William Carlos Williams, "This Is Just To Say" (135)
Robert Frost, "Design" (286)
Margaret Atwood, "Siren Song" (99-100)
Billy Collins, “Taking Off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes” (475-476)
Tuesday, August 12: Race and Gender
Paul Laurence Dunbar, “Sympathy” (483)
Claude McKay, “America” (382)
Countee Cullen, “Yet Do I Marvel” (263)
Langston Hughes, "I, Too, Sing America" (502)
Claude McKay, “The White House” (382)
Langston Hughes, "Harlem (A Dream Deferred)" (383)
James Emanuel, “Emmett Till” (374)
Dudley Randall, “Ballad of Birmingham” (387-388)
Gwendolyn Brooks, “To the Diaspora” (472-473)
Pat Mora, “La Migra” (80-81)
Thursday, August 14: Race and Gender continued
Final Exam
Mary, Lady Chudleigh, “To the Ladies” (21)
Edna St. Vincent Millay, "[I, being born a woman...]" (403)
Dorothy Livesay, “Other” (171-2)
Sylvia Plath, "Lady Lazarus" (519-521)
Paulette Jiles, “Paper Matches” (400)
Marge Piercy, “Barbie Doll” (26)
*"Critical Contexts: A Poetry Casebook" (411-442)