Spring 2001 Prof. Peter Schmidt
A survey course studying the lyric poem in English from its origins in Old and Middle English to writing being done close to the year 2000. The primary text will be an anthology, plus several books that focus on how to appreciate prosody—the sound and rhythms of poetryand the ways in which it may function to build communities. Each time this course is taught we also balance the survey approach with the in-depth study of a single poet’s life and work, featuring his or her poems and other writings. This year’s poet will be Langston Hughes. The course is designed can function as both an introductory and advanced course in appreciating poetry.
English majors may arrange with the instructor to have this course counted as either a pre-1830 or a post 1830 course: see Prof. Schmidt for how to arrange this.
IN THE SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BOOKSTORE:
The McGraw-Hill Book of Poetry
Robert DiYanni Kraft Rompf
The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes Arnold Rampersad (Editor) David Roessel (Editor)
June Jordan's Poetry for the People: A Revolutionary Blueprint
Lauren Muller (Editor) Blueprint Collective (Editor) June Jordan (Introduction)
Rhyme's Reason New Enlarged Edition
John Hollander
The Life of Langston Hughes: Volume I: 1902-1941, I, Too, Sing America
Arnold Rampersad
Course Requirements
• Regular attendance: 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
• The course mostly group discussion, though with occasional lecturing as needed. Participation in class discussions and other class activities will be a crucial part of your grade. Students will be expected to lead class discussion from time to time.
• Completion of writing assignments on time. There will be three 3-4pp. papers focusing on a close reading of a particular poem. (For due dates, see the syllabus.) The final paper may be slightly longer, at the student’s discretion. Some students may also be asked to revise a paper either whole or in part; such revision assignments become part of the course requirements. For more details, see the syllabus below and in-class discussion.
Note: you are welcome to use the Writing Center (located in Trotter) for advice on drafts of assigned papers, as well as discussing your papers with me.
There will be a final exam, scheduled by the Registrar. It will be a 3-hour exam covering all the materials in the course, with both short-answer and essay questions.
• Grading: Quality of class participation counts 25%; papers 50%, Final Exam 25%. The final 2 papers will be “count” slightly more than the first two. Poor attendance and class participation and/or late papers will negatively affect your grade.
A note about honesty and coursework: 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 scholars or the Internet. 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 formal footnotes.
When you paraphrase or quote from published material, including readings used in this course, you must acknowledge this with proper footnotes and/or a bibliography at the end of the paper. In most cases, footnotes will not be needed for your papers for this course, only a bibliography. I will explain this further in class.
Regarding footnotes and bibliographies for Humanities classes, see the links to the English Department web page for statements about plagiarism and how to cite primary and secondary sources for English papers.
This material includes many examples of the most common kinds of footnotes and bibliographic citations used in the Humanities.
Syllabus Assignments
Note: all readings are in the McGraw-Hill Book of Poetry Part II unless indicated
Jan. 22 class introduction
24 Part II: early English poetry: Caedmon, Seafarer, Chaucer’s “General Prologue” excerpt (read at least through l. 162 in both Middle English and in the ‘translation’)
26 McGraw-Hill, Part I, pp. 3-26 (on pleasure; poetic speakers; diction); plus Part III, Critical Comments on Poetry, pp. 1144-56 [Aristotle to Yeats]
29 anonymous lyrics and ballads, pp. 148-52; plus Skelton, Wyatt, Howard, Queen Elizabeth I, Raleigh, Marlowe
31 Spenser, Sidney, Tichbourne, Southwell, Drayton
Feb. 2 Hughes Assignment #1 (see Hughes Assignments xerox)
5 Shakespeare, sonnets (165-69)
7 Shakespeare, songs and soliloquies (169-84)
9 Part I, pp. 27-52 (on figurative language, allusion, tone, syntax, sounds); Part III, 1156-75 [Valéry to Ackerman]. Also browse through the first half of Hollander, Rhyme’s Reason.
first paper due, 3-4pp., a close reading of a poem of your choice
12 Campion to Waller (185-219); Suckling, Cowley, Lovelace (250-53)
14 Milton (220- )
16 Hughes Assignment #2
19 Bradstreet; Marvell; Vaughn (251, 253-60)
21 Finch (262-4); Pope, “Essay on Criticism” poem (268-80)
23 Hollander, Rhyme’s Reason, read the second half; plus
Part I, 52-56 (on meter)
26 Gray (308-12); Blake (315-23); Burns; Shelley, “Ozymandias” (357-58)
28 Wordsworth, especially “Lines... [Tintern Abbey]”
March 2 Hughes Assignment #3
5 Keats, especially “Ode on a Grecian Urn” and “To Autumn”
7 Tennyson, especially “Ulysses”; Robert Browning, especially “My Last Duchess”; Brontë
9 Part I, 56-91 (on structure, theme, visual poetry, and poetry about art)
Spring Break
March 19 Whitman, esp. “Song of Myself” excerpts and “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”
21 Dickinson
23 Hughes Assignment #4
second paper due, 3-4pp., on a poem of your choice
26 Lewis Carroll; Hopkins
28 Yeats, 501-12 (through “Prayer for My Daughter”)
30 Part I, 91-109 (poetry and music); Part III: browse through selections of Hebrew poetry, Native American poetry, African poetry, and Greek poetry
April 2 Yeats, 514-24
4 Frost
6 Hughes Assignment #5
9 Stevens to Pound (555-617)
11 H.D. to McKay (625-72)
13 Part III: browse through selections of Chinese; Japanese; Celtic or Scandinavian; Latin; and Russian or Italian poetry
third paper due, 3-4pp., on a poem of your choice
16 MacLeish to Stafford (673-732)
18 Thomas to Kinnell (733-82)
20 Hughes Assignment #6
23 Eisenberg to Carver (782-852)
25 Heaney to Song (853-89)
27 Part III: browse through selections of French, Spanish, and German poetry.
30 Jordan, ch. 10 and Coda. Also, open assignments begin: c. 2 students will pick 1 poem for us to read and discuss
May 2 “
4 “
Final Exam a 3-hour exam scheduled by the Registrar, during the regular exam period.
