Peter Schmidt, Department of English Literature, Swarthmore College
Authors featured, Spring 1998: Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, Langston Hughes, Sylvia Plath, and Robert Hayden.
VOICES AND VISIONS VIDEOS ON THE POETS FEATURED IN THIS COURSE, IN MCCABE'S VIDEO COLLECTION
Selected WWW Pages for authors on the syllabus
Books Ordered for English 53
Modern American Poetry: English 53 Syllabus
Peter Schmidt
class: MWF 10:30-11:10am, LPAC 301
e-mail: pschmid1
English 53 Web page address:
http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/pschmid1/courses/engl53.html
office hours: LPAC 206, WF 11:15-12; 1pm-2pm
Course Readings
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass [1855 edition]
Emily Dickinson, Complete Poems
Robert Frost, A Boy's Will and North of Boston [Frost's first books of poems]
Marianne Moore, Collected Poems
Wallace Stevens, Collected Poems
Langston Hughes, Collected Poems
Sylvia Plath, Complete Poems
Robert Hayden, Collected Poems
(see also below for listings of Web sites on these authors)
Course Requirements
· Regular attendance: more than 3 unexcused absences over the course of the semester will hurt your grade. You are also responsible for viewing the assigned videos.
· Come to class having studied the materials assigned for that day, with questions and ideas and passages from the poetry you'd like to discuss.
· The course will be part lecture and part group discussion, using both small group and the whole class. Participation in class discussions and other class activities will be a crucial part of your grade. This includes both leading class discussion occasionally as part of a group of student discussion leaders and contributing to discussion on your own during group sessions.
· Completion of writing assignments on time. There will be a series of three short papers assigned for the course: this format tends to work better with lyric poems. (For due dates, see syllabus below.) Late papers will be penalized in their grade. Some students who need work with their writing English papers may also be asked to revise a paper either whole or in part; such revision assignments become part of the course requirements. Note: we have WAs assigned to the course to work with you on your papers.
There will be a final exam covering all the poets on the syllabus.
· Grading: The three papers will count towards 60% of your final grade; final exam, 20%; Quality of class participation, 20%. Poor attendance, poor class participation, and/or late papers will negatively affect your grade.
A note about honesty and coursework in English 53: All writing that you turn in for this course should be yours alone and done solely for this course. When you are borrowing ideas and language from others it is your responsibility to acknowledge these sources accurately-whether your sources are your fellow students or published literary critics. Not acknowledging borrowings from others constitutes plagiarism and severe penalties may be involved regardless of whether you "intended" to plagiarize or not. (For more information, see the Swarthmore Student Handbook on Academic Honesty). This does not mean you should be afraid of consulting with others (fellow students, me, a student at the Writing Center) or of borrowing good ideas from others: it is very simple to acknowledge these with a "thank you" at the end of a paper, or through footnotes. When you borrow from published material, including books used in this course and/or books in McCabe, you must acknowledge this in a bibliography at the end of your paper
In almost all cases, you can cite relevant page numbers in the paper itself and the books or articles themselves in a Works Cited section at the end of the paper.
I will discuss in class special ways appropriate to cite poetry to indicate line numbers, line breaks, etc.
For a brief and simple guide to English paper citations, see the links to the English Department's Web page statements about plagiarism and how to cite sources for English papers. These include examples of the most common kinds of footnotes and bibliographic citations; they also include examples of citing poetry.
SYLLABUS SPRING 1998
[Note: a more detailed reading assignment for each author will be given out in class]
Jan. 19 course introduction
21 Dickinson introductory lecture, with a focus on poems 258, 290, 419, 520, and 1461.
22 (Thurs.) view Voices and Visions: Emily Dickinson in a Kohlberg classroom, 7:30pm [which room will be announced soon]
23 Browse on your own through the first 100 or so poems too. For overall reading, use my abbreviated "subject guide" (Dickinson handout) and note also the "subject index" at the back of the Johnson edition.
26 selections from one of Dickinson's "own" books, Fascicle 37 (see Dickinson handout). student-led discussion.
8pm, lecture by Hugh Kenner on modernism: required attendance. location TBA
28 Student-led discussion: Dickinson poems on art (see Dickinson handout)
30 Student-led discussion: "love" poems; selected "Master" poems (see Dickinson handout)
Feb. 2 Dickinson, conclusion
4 Whitman [tentative]: introductory lecture. Read "Europe," "A Boston Ballad," "There Was A Child Went Forth," "To Think of Time," and sections 1-6 of "Song of Myself"
5 view Voices and Visions: Walt Whitman in a Kohlberg classroom, 7:30pm
6 "I Sing the Body Electric" and "Song of the Answerer" (esp. second half)
9 Whitman: "Song of Myself" 1-16 and "The Sleepers" section 1, including passages censored after 1855 by WW.
arrange for WA interview
11 "Song of Myself" 17-33; "Sleepers" as a whole
13 finish "Song of Myself"
16 4-5pp. paper on a Dickinson poem or a Whitman poem or excerpt due in class
16 Frost: introductory lecture. read "Reluctance," "Mending Wall," "After Apple-Picking," and "Death of a Hired Man"
17 view Voices and Visions: Robert Frost in a Kohlberg classroom, 7:30pm
18 Frost
20 Frost
23 Frost
24 view Voices and Visions: Marianne Moore in a Kohlberg classroom, 7:30pm
25 Moore: introductory lecture. Read "The Steeple-Jack," "Melanchthon," and "Sojourn in the Whale"
26 8 pm, poetry reading by Yusef Komunyakaa, Scheuer Room, Kohlberg: required attendance
27 discuss Komunyakaa reading. Moore
March 2 Moore
4 Moore
6 Moore
Spring Break
March 16 Stevens
arrange for WA interview
17 view Voices and Visions: Wallace Stevens in a Kohlberg classroom, 7:30pm
18 Stevens
19 Stevens
23 4-5pp. paper due on a poem by Frost, Moore, or Stevens
23 Stevens
25 Stevens
26 view Voices and Visions: Langston Hughes in a Kohlberg classroom, 7:30pm. optional film on Hughes to follow: Isaac Julien's Looking for Langston
27 Hughes
March 30 Hughes
April 1 Hughes
3 Hughes
6 Hughes
7 view Voices and Visions: Sylvia Plath in a Kohlberg classroom, 7:30pm
8 Plath
10 Plath
13 Plath
15 Plath
17 Plath
20 Hayden
22 Hayden
24 Hayden
arrange for WA interview
27 Hayden
29 Hayden
May 1 course conclusion; discussion of final exam.
Tuesday, May 5 4-5pp. paper due on a poem by Hughes, Plath, Hayden, or any earlier poet on whom you've not yet written. No extensions.
Final exam: an open-book, take-home exam. Due at end of course exam period.
VOICES AND VISIONS VIDEO SERIES ON AMERICAN POETS, IN MCCABE'S VIDEO COLLECTION, UNDER 'V' [FOR VOICES AND VISIONS; CALL # IS PS614 .V64 1988]:
TITLE Voices & visions [videorecording] / South Carolina Educational Television.
PUBLISHER New York : New York Center for Visual History, c1988.
DESCRIPT 13 videocassettes (VHS)(780 min.) : sd., col. ; 1/2 in.
CONTENTS [ask for the video under 'part #']:
pt. 1. Robert Frost --
pt. 3. Langston Hughes: the dream keeper --
pt. 4. Walt Whitman --
pt. 7. Emily Dickinson --
pt. 8. Marianne Moore: in her own image -- [note: the Moore video is directed by a Swarthmore graduate]
pt. 10. Wallace Stevens
pt. 13. Sylvia Plath.
Selected WWW Pages for authors on the American Poetry syllabus
WHITMAN
DICKINSON
a good Emily Dickinson page, with biographical material, photos of her & her home and garden, on-line links to poems, her recipe for Black Cake, a time-line of her life, archives of an on-line ED discussion group, etc.
Yahoo's Dickinson sites
FROST
A fine Frost page, with sections such as 'Frost on Poems' [includes transcripts from talks on poetry Frost gave], 'Frost on Theory' [excellent excerpts from published essays, plus a letter], 'Sound Recordings' etc.
Yahoo's other Frost pages.
MOORE
not much on-line---only a few poems and brief biographical info
STEVENS
U Penn English Department Professor Al Filreis's Stevens page
Yahoo's Stevens links
HUGHES
only a few of his poems are on-line: why?
Yahoo lists 4 sites but several appear not to be working
Yahoo's Plath pages, includes biographical information, selected on-line poems, etc.
Katha Politt's review of Ted Hughes' Birthday Letters (1997), his poems about his relationship with Plath
HAYDEN
no pages found
AUTHOR Whitman, Walt.
TITLE Leaves of Grass The Original 1855 Edition.
IMPRINT New York: Penguin.
AUTHOR Dickinson, Emily.
TITLE The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson.
IMPRINT New York : Little, Brown & Company, Jan. 1976.
ISBN 0316184136; Trade Paper.
PRICE $16.95 Retail Price.
STATUS Active Record.
SUBJECT LITERATURE -- POETRY -- GENERAL.
POETRY (POETIC WORKS BY ONE AUTHOR)
ADD.AUTH Johnson, Thomas H. edt.
BIP PROD Paperbound Books in Print.
BIP # 00309005.
COPYRIGHT BOOKS IN PRINT (r), (c) R.R. Bowker, Reed Elsevier Inc.
TITLE Poems by Robert Frost A Boy's Will & North of Boston.
IMPRINT New York : NAL/Dutton, Jan. 1990.
PAGES 160.
ISBN 0451524136; Trade Paper.
PRICE $4.95 Retail Price.
STATUS Active Record.
SUBJECT LITERATURE -- POETRY -- GENERAL.
POETRY (POETIC WORKS BY ONE AUTHOR)
BIP PROD Children's BIP.
Paperbound Books in Print.
BIP # 01248319.
COPYRIGHT BOOKS IN PRINT (r), (c) R.R. Bowker, Reed Elsevier Inc.
AUTHOR Stevens, Wallace.
TITLE The Collected Poems.
IMPRINT New York : Random House, Incorporated, March 1990.
ISBN 0679726691; Trade Paper.
PRICE $16.00 Retail Price.
STATUS Active Record.
SUBJECT POETRY (POETIC WORKS BY ONE AUTHOR)
LITERATURE -- POETRY -- GENERAL.
BIP PROD Paperbound Books in Print.
BIP # 00290437.
COPYRIGHT BOOKS IN PRINT (r), (c) R.R. Bowker, Reed Elsevier Inc.
AUTHOR Moore, Marianne.
TITLE Complete Poems.
IMPRINT New York : Viking Penguin, Nov. 1994.
PAGES 320.
ISBN 0140188517; Trade Paper.
PRICE $13.95 Retail Price.
STATUS Active Record.
SUBJECT POETRY (POETIC WORKS BY ONE AUTHOR)
BIP PROD Paperbound Books in Print.
BIP # 00313813.
COPYRIGHT BOOKS IN PRINT (r), (c) R.R. Bowker, Reed Elsevier Inc.
AUTHOR Hughes, Langston.
TITLE Collected Poems of Langston Hughes.
IMPRINT New York : Random House, Incorporated, Nov. 1995.
ISBN 0679764089; Trade Paper.
PRICE $18.00 Retail Price.
STATUS Active Record.
SUBJECT LITERATURE -- POETRY -- GENERAL.
POETRY (POETIC WORKS BY ONE AUTHOR)
BIP PROD Paperbound Books in Print.
BIP # 01962563.
COPYRIGHT BOOKS IN PRINT (r), (c) R.R. Bowker, Reed Elsevier Inc.
AUTHOR Plath, Sylvia.
TITLE Collected Poems.
IMPRINT New York : HarperCollins Publishers, Incorporated, April 1992.
PAGES 288.
ISBN 0060909005; Trade Paper.
PRICE $17.00 Retail Price.
STATUS Active Record.
SUBJECT LITERATURE -- POETRY -- GENERAL.
POETRY (POETIC WORKS BY ONE AUTHOR)
ADD.AUTH Hughes, Ted aui.
STOCK # CN 900.
LCCN 75-025075.
BIP PROD Paperbound Books in Print.
BIP # 00289438.
AUTHOR Hayden, Robert.
TITLE The Collected Poems of Hayden.
IMPRINT New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation, Feb. 1997.
PAGES 240.
ISBN 0871401592; Trade Paper.
PRICE $15.00 Retail Price.
STATUS Active Record.
SUBJECT LITERATURE -- POETRY -- GENERAL.
POETRY (POETIC WORKS BY ONE AUTHOR)
BIP PROD Paperbound Books in Print.
BIP # 46989545.
COPYRIGHT BOOKS IN PRINT (r), (c) R.R. Bowker, Reed Elsevier Inc.