406
(01) and (03) Poetry: Analysis Semester II, 2009
|
"Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history" (Plato, Ion) |
(Images of poets and manuscripts are
available to registered students through METU Online)
We
will concentrate on the interaction of lexis, rhetoric and meaning in
selected Modern English poems, and practice close reading in class. The classes will comprise introductory lectures
or presentations, detailed study of individual poems, and class discussion about the poem(s). The students will be required to
study the poems in advance and to study some of the poems on their own,
without detail class analysis and explanation. There will be a term
paper, one mid term exam and a final exam. Attendance is mandatory.
Materials
The poems to be studied are
listed on this page (scroll down). Most of the poems can be found in the
Norton Anthology of English Literature, volume 2 and on my 'poems'
page here. You should read the poems from the anthology where possible,
because the background information and footnotes are invaluable. You are
expected to come to class having read the poems set for that week, also
the introductory sections about the period and the poets.
|
"True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As
those move easiest who have learned to dance.
'Tis not enough no
harshness gives offense,
The sound must seem an echo to the sense"
(A. Pope,
Essay on Criticism) |
Course outline
| Week 1 |
Introduction: modern poetry, Hardy |
| Week 2 |
Hopkins |
| Week 3 |
Yeats |
| Week 4 |
Yeats |
| Week 5 |
Brook, Sassoon and Owen |
| Week 6 |
High Modernism, Eliot and Sitwell |
| Week 7 |
Eliot |
| Week 8 |
Midterm exam |
| Week 9 |
Auden |
| Week 10 |
Larkin |
| Week 11 |
Larkin, Stevie Smith |
| Week 12 |
Dylan Thomas |
| Week 13 |
Hughes |
| Week 14 |
Heaney |
There will be one mid-term exam
and one paper. The subject of the paper is: EITHER ‘Discuss the extent
to which Eliot’s The Wasteland demonstrates the arguments of
“Tradition and the Individual Talent”.’ OR ‘The meaning or meanings of
The Wasteland.’
Grading
Paper
30% (OR Presentation 10%, Paper 20%)
Mid term
30%
Final
40%
FLE 406 Poems
Hardy: "Hap". "The Man He Killed"
Hopkins: "The Windhover" (p1548),
"Pied Beauty" (p1548)
Yeats:
"The Lake Isle of Innisfree" (p1867),
"No Second Troy"
(p1872), ‘A Coat’ (p1875),
‘Easter 1916’ (p1878), ‘Sailing to
Byzantium’ (p1883) ‘The Circus Animal’s
Desertion’ (p1893)
Brook: ‘The Soldier’ (p1827)
Sassoon:
‘They’ (p1832), ‘On Passing the New Menin Gate’ (p1834)
Owen:
‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ (p1845)
Eliot:
‘The Lovesong
of J. Alfred Prufrock’ (p2140), The Wasteland
(p2164), ‘Tradition and the
Individual Talent’ (p2170)
Edith Sitwell:
‘Trio for Two Cats and a Trombone’ (p2132),
Auden:
‘In Memory of W. B. Yeats’ (p2267),
‘Musee des Beaux Arts’
(p2266), ‘Lullaby’ (p2266), ‘In praise of Limestone’ (p2269),
‘The Shield of
Achilles’ (p2272)
Dylan Thomas:
‘The Force . . .’ (p2279),
‘Fern Hill’ (p2284) ‘Do Not
Go Gentle . . .’ (p2286)
Larkin:
"Church Going" (p2324),
"Ambulances" (p2326), "High Windows" (p2327),
"MCMXIV" (p2325)
Stevie Smith: "Not Waving but Drowning" (p2223), "Thoughts
about the Person from Porlock" (read Coleridge's preface to
"Kubla Khan" before reading this poem)
Ted Hughes:
"Pike" (p2354), "Wind" (p2353), "Examination at the Womb-Door" (p2355) .
Heaney: "Digging" (p2422),
"The Tollund Man" (available on
www.ibiblio.org/ipa/heaney/tollund.html)
There will be one mid-term exam
and one paper. The subject of the paper is: EITHER ‘Discuss the extent
to which Eliot’s The Wasteland demonstrates the arguments of
“Tradition and the Individual Talent”.’ OR ‘The meaning or meanings of
The Wasteland.’
Class and office hours
Classes are on Thursdays (Section 03) and
Fridays (Section 01) at 11.40-14.30
Office hours are
Mondays at 08.40-11.30
For poems and links to other poetry sites, see
the poems page
