260-221 Poetry Writing I

Time:  TTh 1-2:20                              Instructor: Dr. Hollis Robbins
Place:    206C                                  Office: Centre Street
hrobbins@jhu.edu
 
I.  Course Objectives:
This course will help you to develop your writing skills in poetry and prose, to expand your understanding of aesthetic and rhetorical principles, and to increase your ability to critique and appreciate poetry. You will learn how to identify and compose poetic forms; you will develop a critical vocabulary to help you read and interpret traditional poetry, to articulate your own poetic perspective, and to locate your own work within the tradition.

II.  Course Requirements:
Attendance
Poetry journal (not to hand in, but to read your work from)
Weekly writing and reading exercises (1-2 pages)
One long poem or poem sequence, formally presented (10 pages)
Occasional quizzes
Midterm exam: IDs, scanning
You will be required to read and be prepared to discuss your poetry without embarrassment. The schedule below indicates the date by which particular works in the anthology should be read and the amount of reading to be done each day to stay current with class discussion. You will be required to keep a journal and organized record of your work during the semester.  Bring the anthology and your journal to class each week.    
Attendance for this class is critical.  Much of what you will learn in this course will be the result of class exercises and discussion.  Discussion and debate are crucial to the learning process.  You are expected not only to attend but also to participate.  Three absences (excused or not) will begin to push your final grade downward.   


Grade: Your grade will be calculated as follows:
Class Participation:  includes attendance, poetry-reading, possible quizzes, contributions to class discussion, individual and group conferences:  45%
Weekly poems:  25%.
Final Poem Sequence: 20%  
Midterm Exam: 10%


Writing Policy:    
Poems should, when possible, be presented formally.  You will be asked to read your work aloud to the class and you should be prepared to discuss your work, defend your work, and accept both criticism and praise from your fellow students.
All written work should be your own.  You may riff on someone else�s poem, but do not copy it without acknowledging the source.  This is called plagiarism and you will be immediately expelled from my class.
A note about my grading:
A grade of A means you have produced work exemplary in almost every way. You have composed in a voice and in a form that is integrated and coherent, you have organized your thoughts effectively, and you have demonstrated an understanding of form and content.  An A poem is also one that is excellent in style and voice or tone.  And in an A poem, attention to form (spelling, punctuation, grammar, documentation) is as rigorous as it is to the content.  Your work is superior.
A grade of B means you have gone beyond the minimum requirements of the assignment and have successfully balanced content and form. You express yourself more clearly, meaningfully, and imaginatively than in a C poem.  Your work on is good.
A grade of C means you have successfully completed the minimum requirements of an assignment.  Your poem has no major problems of any kind, but it doesn�t rise to the level of art.  Your work is fair.
A grade of D means your work is seriously deficient in some way.
A grade of F means your work has failed to meet the minimum requirements.

IV.  Required Texts:
The Making of a Poem. [MoP] Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms, Ed. Strand and Boland, 2000.
Go to website:  http://rhetoric.byu.edu/

Schedule and Reading

Week 1        Introduction
9/4        Introduction to the idea of poetic forms.   Assignment: first poem for 9/8
        Read MoP Chapter I �Verse Forms� for next week

Week 2      Shape and Voice

9/9        Discuss MoP Verse Forms and the idea of the Dyad.   Read student poems aloud
9/11        In-class poetry.  Read Figures of Speech from website Forest of Rhetoric
        Assignment:  choose a dyad.
 
Week 3     Building Blocks: Figures of Speech, the Dyad

9/16           Discuss Metaphor, Metonymy, Constellation of Associations, Dyads.  Read poems
9/18         Read student poems
            Assignment:  Read MoP Verse form:  The Sonnet, and MoP on Meter

Week 4     More Building Blocks

9/22        Read all sonnets from MoP.   
9/25        Read student poems.  
        Assignment: read MoP Verse form:  Ballads and Couplets

Week 5     More Building Blocks

9/20         Read MoP  Ballads and Couplets; read student poems
10/2          Read last dyad: one last poem from your poetic voice to audience.
 
Week 6     New Voice, New Audience

10/7          Turnaround:  in class writing
10/9         Analysis: the nature of the poetic dyad
        Assignment: return to the forest of rhetoric and write a poem


Week 7     Rhetorical poems
 
10/16        Read poems.  Assignment: MoP on Shaping Forms

Week 8     Poems on Poems
 
10/21        Meter.
10/23        In-class group poetry-writing midterm
        Assignment: pick a poem in MoP and write a careful (not necessarily poetic) response

Week 9      Poems on Poems
 
10/29        Read responses in class
10/30        Extra: read poems on poem of your choice
        Assignment: Blazon
 
Week 9      New Styles
 
11/4        Read blazons
11/6        Assignment:  Aubade

Week 10     New Styles

11/11        Read Aubade
11/13        Reading Aubades
        Assignment:  Start Formal Project
        
Week 11    Sound and Rhythm

11/18        Propose project; explain it.
11/20        In class exercise:  write like your neighbor
        Assignment: Formal explanation of project; work on project

Week 12    Poetic contemplation
 
11/25         Maybe day off if you�re good

Week 13    Prose explanation  

12/2        Poetry Recital
12/4        Poetry Recital

Week 14    Final projects  

12/9        Final Poetry Recital
12/11          Final Poetry Recital