Note: more detailed reading assignments will be given out in class for some of these sessions. At least two poets will be visiting Swarthmore this semester to give readings and meet students: Sherman Alexie, the well-known Native American poet, essayist, and novelist; and Fleda Brown, the Poet Laureate of the state of Delaware. Further announcements will be forthcoming.

FOR EACH READING ASSIGNMENT AND EACH POET, THE ANTHOLOGY OF MODERN AMERICAN POETRY WEBSITE HAS SPECIFIC LINKS, ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY BY THE POET’S LAST NAME OR THE TOPIC NAME. COURSE READING ASSIGNMENTS WILL FREQUENTLY USE MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE, SO PLEASE BOOKMARK ON YOUR BROWSER THE WEBSITE ADDRESS: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps


for other general info regarding English 53, including Prof. Schmidt's office hours, see below.

ASSIGNMENTS BY DAY:

Jan. 21 course introduction. Whitman: introductory lecture/discussion. Compare an excerpt from William Cullen Bryant’s “Thanatopsis,” one of the most popular 19th-century American poems, with section 6 of Whitman’s “Song of Myself” (via xerox).
23 Whitman, One’s-Self I Sing, I Hear America Singing, As Adam Early in the Morning, and For You O Democracy [an Anthology] PLUS “Song of Myself,” sections 1-6. The entire poem is available on the Whitman site on the Anthology website (see above). Also, read portions of the long biographical essay on Whitman on the website, especially the following sections: 1) Whitman’s Trip to New Orleans; 2) Racial Politics and the Origins of Leaves of Grass; 3) The American I; and 4) on the 1855 and 1856 editions of Leaves of Grass.

Jan. 25 “Song of Myself,” sections 7 and 52. Also read: Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues, Ballad of Roosevelt, and Let America Be America Again, in the Anthology
Whitman journal entry due in class. 1-2pp. single-spaced.

Jan 28 Dickinson, poems 258, 280, 303 341, 465, 508. See accompanying material on the website keyed to individual poems. See also the short essay “About Dickinson’s Use of the Dash.”
30 Dickinson, 585, 601, 613, 657, 712, 754, 1072, 1129, 1705. See also “About Dickinson’s Fascicles.”
Feb. 1 Marianne Moore (pp. 250- ), Sojourn in the Whale, The Paper Nautilus; Lorine Niedecker (pp. 536- ), Poet’s Work and Paean to Place


Feb 4 Gertrude Stein, “Patriarchal Poetry,” especially the last 4 pages; William Carlos Williams, Spring and All; To Elsie; and “The Descent of Winter” [poems and prose journal.] Exchange journal entry on Dickinson, Moore, or Niedecker.
6 Stein and Williams, continued.
8 student-led discussion: Poems carved on the walls at Angel Island. See the extensive background materials on the website.


Feb 11 first longer paper (4pp. double-spaced) due in class, on any poem or poems we’ve read so far. No extensions.
T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Journey of the Magi. Optional: read also Burnt Norton from Four Quartets
13 Eliot, continued.
15 student-led discussion introducing post-World War II poetry: read and select poems from pp. 729-81, Stafford to Brooks.


Feb 18 third journal entry due, on any poet since your last journal
Edna St. Vincent Millay, sonnets, especially: I Being Born a Woman, Love is Not Blind, the Sonnets From an Ungrafted Tree sequence, Well I Have Lost You, and Love is Not All.
20 post-World War II poetry: read selected poems from pp. 782-825, Bronk to Blackburn
22 student-led discussion of post-World War II poetry: read and select poems from pp. 827-905, O’Hara to Ashbery


Feb 25 Langston Hughes, remaining poems in anthology selection not read the first week
27 play and discuss Langston Hughes/Charlie Mingus CD, Weary Blues
March 1 student-led discussion: other contemporaries of Hughes before and during the Harlem Renaissance: James Weldon Johnson, Grimké, Spencer, McKay, Sterling Brown

March 4 second longer paper due in class, 4pp. No extensions.
Frost, Mending Wall, Home Burial, After Apple-Picking, Road Not Taken
6 Stevens, Sea Surface Full of Clouds, Idea of Order at Key West, The Snow Man. Focus: Stevens as an environmental poet.
8 H.D., Sea Rose, Eurydice, sections 1 and 6 from The Walls Do Not Fall

SPRING BREAK

March 18 Muriel Rukeyser, The Book of the Dead sequence. Read all but focus on pp. 656-674 [end of The Cornfield]
20 Rukeyser, Book of the Dead, continued; also, To Be a Jew in the 20th Century
22 student-led discussion: other poets from the 1930s: Taggard, Freeman, Fearing, Beecher, Kalar, R. Wright, Rolfe, Funaroff, Tillie Olsen

March 25 fourth journal entry due in class
Roethke, I Knew a Woman and the first 3 poems in his North American Sequence
27 Roethke, final 3 poems in North American Sequence: The Long Waters, The Far Field, and The Rose
29 student-led discussion of post-World War II poetry: read and select poems from pp. 906-59, Kinnell to Snyder

April 1 Rexroth, Love Poems of Marichiko
3 Japanese American Concentration Camp Haiku. See background material on the website.
5 student-led discussion of post-World War II poetry: read and select poems from pp. 960-1008, Corso to Strand


April 8 third longer paper due in class, 4pp. No extensions.
Robert Hayden, Middle Passage
10 Hayden, Runagate, and Night, Death, Mississippi
12 student-led discussion of post-World War II poetry: read and select poems from pp. 1009-1057, Lorde to Inada

April 15 Ginsberg, Howl and Wichita Vortex Sutra
17 Dylan, Blonde on Blonde CD. For lyrics of individual songs, go to the Dylan website, bobdylan.com
19 student-led discussion of post-World War II poetry: read and select poems from pp. 1058-1124, Pinsky to Silliman


April 22 fifth journal entry due in class
Plath, bee poems (from The Bee Meeting to Wintering)
24 student-led discussion of Plath poems: Black Rook, Colossus, Tulips, Ariel, Lady Lazarus
26 Plath, Daddy; Holocaust poems by Jarrell, Reznikoff, Hecht, Pinsky

April 29 Rich, 21 Love Poems
May 1 post-World War II poetry: read and select poems from pp. 1125-82, Louis to Castillo
3 post-World War II poetry: read and select poems from pp. 1183-1217, Doty to Alexie. Course conclusion.

FINAL EXAM: date to be announced

GENERAL INFORMATION FOR ENGLISH 53 / MODERN AMERICAN POETRY

English 53 Spring 2002: American Poetry
Peter Schmidt
class: MWF 10:30-11:20pm, LPAC 201
e-mail: pschmid1
English 53 Web page address: x http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/pschmid1/engl53/engl53.2002.html
office hours: LPAC 206, MF 1pm-3pm and by appointment

Course Overview
An introductory survey of the full range of twentieth-century American poetry. The emphasis will be on particular poets and poems, but a recurrent theme will be poetry’s role in a democracy: is poetry really an esoteric art for the “educated” few, as some imply, or has poetry in the twentieth century played a crucial role in shaping both democratic citizens and a sense of democratic culture?

A second special emphasis for the course will be long poems or poetic sequences—some famous and influential, such as Eliot’s The Waste Land, and others that ought to be better known, such as Gertrude Stein’s “Patriarchal Poetry,” Muriel Rukeyser’s “The Book of the Dead,” and Robert Hayden’s “The Middle Passage.” We will also consider clusters of protest poems written by Chinese interred on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay and Japanese in concentration camps during World War II. I would also like to have us consider that some of the best twentieth-century poetry has been written to be performed with music: we will consider both an experimental record by Langston Hughes recorded with the great jazz orchestra of Charlie Mingus and one of Bob Dylan’s greatest albums as part of this important “alternative” poetic tradition.
The book that will be central for the course is Cary Nelson’s Anthology of Modern American Poetry, from Oxford (including the accompanying website material), available in the College bookstore. 2 CDs will also be featured; you may order these on your own: Langston Hughes’ collaboration with Charlie Mingus, Weary Blues (1959), and Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde (1968).

Course Requirements
• Regular attendance: This class meets 3 days a week, not 2. More than 3 unexcused absences over the course of the semester will hurt your grade.
• 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 include some informal lectures but the majority of classes will be taught via discussion. It is thus crucial to come to class having done the reading and prepared to participate in discussion.
• Each student will join with other class members twice during the semester to lead discussion; often this will occur on Fridays (see syllabus). Students will need to meet ahead of time to prepare reading assignments and discussion questions for the class.
• There will be at least two poetry readings by visiting poets this semester. You be required to attend at least one of these, though both are recommended. For more information, see in-class announcements.
• Completion of writing assignments on time. Written assignments for the course:
1) There will be a number of very short journal-entry assignments that that ask you to respond to particular poems. You will receive feedback on all of these, some from the professor and some from your fellow students.
2) There will also be a few longer papers required more in-depth analysis of a poem or 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.
3) Final exam

• Grading: The journals and long papers will count 60% of your final grade; Quality of class participation, 20%; Final Exam 20%. Poor attendance, poor class participation, and/or late papers will negatively affect your grade. The Final Exam will be scheduled by the Registrar, date and time to be announced.

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 or materials on the Internet, you must acknowledge this in a bibliography at the end of your paper.

The course will not emphasize extensive use of secondary sources. I will give specific instructions in class for how to cite and quote lines of poetry, both in the body of a paragraph and in indented format in a paper.