American Poetry

English 3351-001

Spring 2004

Welcome to our survey of American Poetry. The purpose of this course is to help you develop a sound understanding of important poems, poetic forms, and the themes of significant American poets from the Colonial period to about 1940. We won't read all of the best, but we will read much interesting poetry by a variety of important writers.

Your course grade will be determined by your attendance and active class participation (10% of the course grade, based on my subjective judgement) and by your performance on three examinations (30% of the course grade each). The exams will ask you to discuss some aspect of a poem or group of poems, and perhaps to identify selected passages from our reading. Students may propose to substitute a 5 –7 page critical essay on a poem or group of poems for one of the first two examinations. See me about this option.

I ask that you keep a log or notebook in which you will record your responses to the class readings; you will also formulate two good questions about the poem(s) assigned for each class day, as well as note your reactions and analyses. I will ask you to help guide class discussions by sharing your questions as well as your insights. I will occasionally collect your notebook, the quality of which will influence my judgement of participation. Late work will not be accepted unless arrangements have been made in advance. Classes will begin promptly at 7 p.m. Plan to be in class until 9:30 p.m.

My office is Faculty Center 288, and my office phone number is 825-2360. I have voice mail, so you may leave a message if I'm not in when you call.

My office hours will be Tuesday from 6:30 to 7, MWF 10 – 1:45 a.m., TTh 9:30 – 11 a.m., and by appointment.

Please turn off all cell phones and pagers during class time, or set them to silent signal if you must be on call. If you are called and must answer, take the call outside. All members of the class are expected to be courteous and respectful of others; all students are subject to the TAMU-CC Code of Student Conduct, and the University’s rules on Academic Integrity and Academic Honesty, as stated in the University Catalog.

Our textbook this term is The New Oxford Book of American Verse, edited by Richard Ellmann.

Please read your assignments in advance of class discussion; our discussions won't mean much if you haven't read – and thought about – the poems. I look forward to an interesting and intellectually challenging semester with you.

David Mead

Professor of English

Provisional Schedule

Jan 20 Introduction to Course. How do we read poems?

27 Anne Bradstreet -- all selections; Edward Taylor – all

Feb 3 William C. Bryant -- all selections; Ralph Waldo Emerson – Each

Feb 10 Edgar A. Poe: A Dream..., To Science, Helen, Israfel, The Raven,

Ulalume, The Sleeper, Annabel Lee, The Conqueror Worm

17 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Hymn to the Night; The Fire of Drift

-wood; The Jewish Cemetery...; My Lost Youth; Aftermath;

Chaucer; The Tide Rises...; The Cross of Snow.

Whittier: Telling the Bees; Barbara Frietchie; My Triumph; Snow

-Bound

O.W. Holmes -- all selections.

24 Walt Whitman: Song of Myself. Out of the Cradle... Vigil

Mar 2 Emily Dickinson: 49,80, 216, 249, 258, 280, 328, 341, 435, 448,

9 E. L. Masters -- all selections plus handouts.

Edwin A. Robinson: Richard Cory; Reuben Bright; How Annandale

Went Out; Miniver Cheevy; Eros Turannos; Mr. Flood's Party

23 R. Frost: Mending Wall; After Apple-Picking; The Oven Bird; Fire

and Ice; Nothing Gold Can Stay; For Once...; The Need of Being

Versed...; Once By the Pacific; West-Running Brook;

Departmental; Neither Out Far...; Design.

30 T. S. Eliot: The Love Song...; Gerontion; Sweeney Among the

Nightingales; The Waste Land

Examination #2 Essays or Papers due.

Apr 6 H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) -- all selections.

M. Moore -- Poetry; Critics and Connoisseurs; Silence; The

Monkeys; The Pangolin

13 W. Stevens -- Thirteen Ways...; Sunday Morning; Anecdote of the

Jar; The Idea of Order..., and perhaps a handout.

20 E.E. Cummings: all selections.

W.C. Williams: Tract; The Red Wheelbarrow; The Yachts; The Dance;

27 Langston Hughes: all selections.

John Crowe Ransom: Bells for John Whiteside’s Daughter; Captain

May 4 TBA. Catch-Up Day. Evaluation.

May 11 In-Class Final Examination. 7 – 9:30 p.m.

HOW TO WRITE AN ESSAY

Essays (as we think of them in college English classes) are organized answers to interesting or worthwhile questions. In the particular case of writing essays for English, most of the questions will be about the literary work being studied, the author (life, opinions, other related works, etc.) or the age in which the poem, novel or play was written. There are other kinds of essay topics in English, but these are the most common ones chosen by undergraduates for their required papers on literature.

An essay, for English or any other humane discipline, consists of three basic parts. In order, these are the Introduction, the Body, and the Conclusion. Each part will contain one or more paragraphs.

The Introduction of an essay is extremely important because it introduces the reader to the subject you have chosen to write about. (Remember, your audience is not only your professor but also your fellow students; they all want to learn more about your subject.) So, your introduction should clearly state, usually at the beginning or end of the first paragraph, the answer you have formulated for the research question you have chosen to investigate. For example, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's famous poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" tells how a sailor who murders an albatross is punished by his shipmates by having the bird hung around his neck. Later the bird falls from the mariner's neck when he "blesses" the sea-creatures which swim around the ship. One of the questions a student might ask about this poem is what the albatross signifies or symbolizes; another might be why the mariner shot the bird. The Introduction of an essay about what the albatross symbolizes would contain the student's answer to the question. This answer is often called the THESIS. The Introduction also states the reasons why the writer thinks this answer, the thesis, is correct or valid.

There are many ways of organizing the Introduction of a paper, and most handbooks of grammar and rhetoric contain a chapter which describes some of these. Two patterns are common: in the first kind, the thesis is the first sentence of the Introduction and the reasons follow; in the second kind of Introduction, some prefatory remarks pertinent to the subject lead the reader to the reasons and the thesis. Check with your professor to see if one style of Introduction is preferred.

Note: a clearly formulated, focussed question will elicit a clearly formulated, focussed thesis and essay. How do you know what questions to ask? By thinking hard about your general assignment. What are you writing about? Choose a general topic first...a novel, a poem, a poet you liked. Then try to find an aspect of that topic which interests you. Try to think of several possibilities. A student who begins by asking how Coleridge feels about birds won't produce much of an essay. Think how much research would be involved! All those poems to read, all those books and articles to research, would quickly use up all your time. Narrow and focus the question more; Does the albatross stand for something in marine lore of the middle ages? Ask a question like this and you will provide a better, certainly more informational, essay. Narrow even further and ask, "Is there anything in medieval marine lore which might help us understand the meaning of Coleridge's albatross better?" Now the answer (which will look something like -- "We can understand Coleridge's albatross better if we realize that to medieval English sailors the albatross stood for...,") will surely help your reader understand the poem better ... and that is the goal of a literary essay.

What if you can't get an answer to your question? You should probably try to get a new question. Some just can't be answered in the time or with the research materials available. Some questions just can't be answered satisfactorily. And some badly asked questions can only cause you problems. When in doubt, consult your professor. Allotting plenty of time to do your work will help; waiting until the last minute to think up a paper topic won't.

Back to the parts of the essay! The Introduction is most important because it sets up the discussion of reasons which follows, the Body of the paper. The Body should deal with those points of discussion which were cited in the Introduction as grounds for the truth of the thesis. Don't ramble, don't add new reasons, don't leave any out. Discuss your points in the order you promised (implicitly, in the Intro). After all, the Body of your essay repeats for the reader the thoughts which you decided were valid and interesting about the question and which led to your answer, to your thesis. The Body of the essay is the place where one places details, quotations, logical arguments, substantiation of assertions, etc. All material in the Body should be pertinent to the subject, and it should be arranged in a sensible way. Usually a sensible order will easily be derived from the subject matter ... order of time, of importance, of distance, of persuasiveness, of provability.

By the way, if you find in writing your paper that you come up with new, hitherto-unthought-of ideas, don't leave them out ... change the Introduction!

Conclude your paper. Don't just quit writing. One good way to close is to recapitulate your main ideas and thesis. Sometimes you can suggest related topics that remain to be explored in the light of your ideas or insights. For example, if you discussed the albatross in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, you might suggest that the other animal life may have special meaning also and be worthy of analysis; you might speculate that Coleridge wants us to see them as contrasting creatures, contrasting symbols of good and evil.

Essays try to tell an audience some reasonable, truthful, sincerely presented ideas about a specific subject. People write them in order to educate themselves and others. (And of course to get a passing grade!) Essays are hard work because productive thinking -- i.e. thinking that profits us -- requires time and serious effort. They get easier the more you do them. Good luck with yours.

P.S. If your background in writing essays about literature is thin or antiquated, don't hesitate to visit your professor and ask for advice and the loan of further material on writing about literature. It will help if you have some prior thought to your potential topics and interests; a show of effort is always impressive and a sign of seriousness. Keep in mind that nobody finds such writing easy or natural ... it isn't. But it is terrific mental exercise which will prepare you for the discourse you will engage in as an educated professional.

ESSAY EXAMS

The advice given above regarding writing a critical or analytical essay applies to essay-exam questions too, with one important modification. A good essay-exam answer responds directly, clearly, and immediately to the assigned topic or question. This means that your opening sentence should address the assigned topic and your introductory paragraph should answer the question which is posed by the test item. Directness is a virtue for both in-class essay exams and take-home examinations.

For instance, if your American Poetry exam gives a poem by Wallace Stevens and asks you to discuss how it is like Stevens's other poetry, you should .. . think before you write. First, you should read the sample poem and determine its stylistic qualities (form, rhyme and rhythm, diction, syntactical style) and meaning (theme, symbolism, metaphors and similes, and so forth). Then you should review what you have learned about the poetry by Stevens, looking to see if/how the qualities of the sample poem are similar to the work you already know. Once you find some similarities (and perhaps some differences) to talk about, you are ready to write the Introduction. The first sentence of your examination answer should state that the sample poem is like Steven's other works with respect to its .... whatever you have discovered, or that it is typical of Stevens's poetry because .... Don't start your Introduction with broad generalities about Stevens's life or art; those weren't the question (and they aren't immediately pertinent). JUST ANSWER THE QUESTION which you have been asked, or address the topic you've been assigned.