Tuedsday, December 13, Final Examination in our usual classroom, 2:15-4:15 pm.
For Thursday, December 8: Quiz over the final two chapters of Habegger's biography of Dickinson and the final chapter of Reynolds's biography of Whitman; this will be your final quiz, and I'll tally your scores from the second-half quizzes and give you grades at the final exam. The final exam is next Tuesday, December 13, from 2:15 to 4:15 p.m. in our regular classroom. Read through the sample pairings of Whitman and Dickinson poems that I gave you in class on Tuesday. We'll discuss the final exam today and practice talking through a comparison of a Whitman poem and a Dickinson poem. Memorizations are due by Friday, December 9; sign up for a time today in class if you haven't already.
For Tuesday, December 6: Read the final two chapters of Habegger's biography of Dickinson. Bring your Whitman Poetry and Prose volume; we'll finish discussing "When Lilacs," looking again at the final two sections. And we'll begin discussing the final exam by pairing some Whitman and Dickinson poems. Read Dickinson's #443, 502, 512, 531, 675, 1651, 1677. Don't forget that you need to come to one of the following half-hour sessions at the University of Iowa Museum of Art so that I can take you through the Whitman Exhibit there: come either tonight Thursday (Dec. 1) at 7:30 pm or tomorrow Friday (Dec. 2) at 3:30 pm.
For Thursday, December 1: We will continue discussion on "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd." Re-read the whole poem, thinking about the issues we raised in class on Tuesday. Pay special attention to the final three sections (14, 15, 16). Bring the Whitman book with you to class. Read Chapter 16 (the final chapter) in Reynolds's biography of Whitman. Don't forget that memorizations will be due next week. I will hand out a schedule for final memorizations, which must be done by Friday, December 9. Also, don't forget that you need to come to one of the following half-hour sessions at the University of Iowa Museum of Art so that I can take you through the Whitman Exhibit there: come either this Thursday (Dec. 1) at 7:30 pm or this Friday (Dec. 2) at 3:30 pm. When you arrive at the museum, just ask the guard where the Whitman exhibit is (it's in the gallery toward the back of the museum). If you cannot make either of these sessions, you will need to go to the exhibit on your own (the Museum is open from noon to 5:00 Wednesday through Sunday and until 9:00 on Thursday and Friday), and you'll need to write a one-page response to the exhibit, focusing on two or three books you were particularly struck by (this paper will be due on Tuesday, December 6, but you only need to do this if you CANNOT come to one of the sessions listed above). Meanwhile, you should be reading all the Dickinson poems that Habegger discusses, and you should be reading around in both your Dickinson and Whitman collections--the more you read, the better prepared you'll be for the final exam, which we'll talk about next week (the final is scheduled for Tuesday, December 13, from 2:15-4:15).
For Tuesday, November 29: Spend some time over Thanksgiving Break working on your final memorization (28 lines for Dickinson, 15 full lines for Whitman--don't count his broken lines as two separate lines), and be sure to go over your first memorization to make sure you still have it firmly in your head. Read Chapter 20 ("1870-1878: Wisdom That Won't Go on Sale") in Habegger's biography of Dickinson, and Chapter 15 ("The Burden of Atlas") in Reynolds's biography of Whitman. Quiz on these two chapters. Also, carefully re-read Whitman's elegy on the death of Abraham Lincoln, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd," an elegy that summarizes Whitman's ideas and feelings about the Civil War (on pp. 459-467 of the Whitman Poetry and Prose volume). Bring the Whitman book to class with you. We'll start discussing this poem.
For Thursday, November 17: Essays due today in class (assignment and instructions available here). We will discuss more of Dickinson's Civil War poems, including a close look at #444 ("It feels a shame to be Alive--"), the poem we began discussing on Tuesday. We will also look at some Whitman Civil War poems, so bring your Whitman Poetry and Prose book (I'll have overhead images of the Dickinson poems we'll be talking about, so you don't need to bring the Dickinson book). Re-read the section of Specimen Days called "The Million Dead, Too, Summ'd Up" (pp. 800-802), and the late little poem called "A Twilight Song" (p. 647).
For Tuesday, November 15: If you haven't already looked at this website on Whitman, Dickinson, and the Civil War, please do so now: http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/fdw/volume2/folsom/. Check out especially the photographs under the "Whitman, Dickinson, and Mathew Brady's Photographs" link to see in detail the photo we talked about in class on Thursday. This site also has other information that could be useful to you as you write your essay. Keep working on the essay assignment, available here. Essays are due Thursday (November 17) in class. Bring your Dickinson Complete Poems to class: we will be talking about her Civil War poems, so please review again poems 67, 286, 409, 639, 658, 690, 724, 1188, and 1227. I will hold extra office hours to discuss paper ideas on Monday from 1:30 to 3:00 and on Tuesday during my regular hours (10:45 to noon) and also from 2:00 to 3:00.
For Thursday, November 10: Keep working on the essay assignment, available here. Essays are due next Thursday (November 17) in class. Bring your Dickinson Complete Poems to class: we will be talking about her Civil War poems, so please review poems 67, 286, 409, 639, 658, 690, 724, 1188, and 1227. Read in Habegger's biography Chapter 19 ("1866-1870: Repose"). There will be a brief quiz on this chapter and on Reynolds's Chapter 14.
For Tuesday, November 8: Continue to think about your next essay assignment, available here. We will be discussing in class ways to read the Drum-Taps poems, so class attendance the next couple of sessions will be crucial for preparing to write your essay. Choose the poem you want to work on, and read it again and again, looking up words, tracing patterns of words, figuring out structure, and searching for associations with other Whitman poems and with Whitman's life (as you've been reading about in Reynolds's biography and in Specimen Days). Read Reynolds, Chapter 14 ("Reconstructing a Nation, Reconstructing a Poet"). Keep re-reading the "Calamus," "Children of Adam," "Drum-Taps," and "Memories of President Lincoln" poems. As you think through the "Calamus" poems, click here to examine the original manuscripts of the twelve-poem cycle Whitman called "Live Oak, with Moss," poems that later became the center of "Calamus." Note how the manuscript cycle is a much more intimate group of love poems than the more political and larger "Calamus" cluster. Please note: Alan Trachtenberg, one of the great readers of Whitman's poetry, will be here to give a lecture tonight (Tuesday) at 7:30 pm in the Gerber Lounge, 304 EPB. He will be talking about Whitman's "The Sleepers," which you have read and thought about. This is an extraordinary opportunity to hear how a great American Studies scholar approaches Whitman. If you attend this lecture, I will count it as a significant positive boost to the class participation segment of your grade for the course.
For Thursday, November 3: Bring your Whitman Poetry and Prose volume to class. We really will get to "Calamus" and "Drum-Taps" today, so please review these poems, along with the Dickinson Civil War poems. Begin to think about your next essay assignment, available here. It will be due Thursday, November 17, in class.
For Thursday, October 27, and Tuesday, November 2: I have to give a lecture in Utah on Thursday, so I will not be in class. The room, however, will be here, and I encourage you to come and take advantage of the opportunity to talk about Dickinson's marriage and master poems with each other. I'd like you to really try talking through #754 ("My Life has stood") and #1737 ("Rearrange a Wife's Affection"). Break into small groups and continue talking about these amazing poems. The more you talk out loud about them, the better you will come to understand their complexities, their patterns, and their meanings. Next Tuesday, November 2, bring your Whitman Poetry and Prose volume to class. We will begin discussing "Calamus" and "Drum-Taps" today, so please review these poems. Read Chapter 18 of Habegger's biography of Dickinson ("1862-1865: The Fighting Years"). There will be a brief quiz over Chapter 13 of Reynolds and Chapter 18 of Habegger. I'd like you to focus on Emily Dickinson's great outpouring of poetry during the Civil War years: by some counts, nearly a thousand of her 1775 poems were written during the war. Look through her poems of this period and think about them in relation to the war. Focus on the following: 67 (a pre-war poem), 286, 409, 639, 658, 690, 724, 1188, 1227 (a post-war poem). Go back to #754 ("My Life had stood") and read it as a Civil War poem. Look closely at #872, a poem written at the time of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation; can this poem be read as a comment on emancipation? Take a look at the following websites as you think about Dickinson and the Civil War: this one and this one and this one too. We will also discuss your next essay assignment.
For Thursday, October 28: In the Whitman Poetry and Prose volume, read Whitman's Civil War poems, "Drum-Taps" and "Memories of President Lincoln" (pp. 416-468). Read Chapter 13 ("My Book and the War Are One") in Reynolds's biography of Whitman. Bring your Whitman book to class. We'll discuss Whitman's "Calamus" and "Children of Adam" poems in relation to Dickinson's poems on gender and sexuality. Review the "Calamus" poems particularly.
For Tuesday, October 25: In the Whitman Poetry and Prose volume, read Whitman's Specimen Days, pp. 713-803. Specimen Days is Whitman's prose autobiography, made up of lots of small fragments. The first few pages are about his childhood and early years, then, beginning on p. 729, he begins to talk about his experiences during the Civil War. The Civil War section goes through p. 803. Read these pages carefully: they constitute some of the best writing about the Civil War by any American author. Also read Whitman's "Children of Adam" poems on pp. 248-267: these are the poems about sexuality that led to Leaves of Grass being declared obscene in Boston in 1881. Think of them in relation to the "Calamus" poems, and think about how Whitman, in these poems, critiques sexual behavior in America. There will be a brief quiz on Reynolds Chapter 12 and on the reading in Specimen Days. Bring your Dickinson Complete Poems to class; we'll continue to talk about her "wife" poems, and we'll focus especially on #1737 (read it and read it and read it) and her "master" poems, like #754 ("My Life had stood") and #492 ("Civilization--spurns--the Leopard!"). Read over again #732, #1072, and #1737.
For Thursday, October 20: Bring your Dickinson Complete Poems. We will discuss the "I'm 'Wife'" poem (#199) and look at some of her other wife and marriage poems. Read in Reynolds's biography of Whitman Chapter 12 ("Brotherly Love, National War"). Add to the wife and marriage poems all the poems that Habegger discusses in Chapter 17 of his biography of Dickinson.
For Tuesday, October 18: Read Habegger's biography of Dickinson, chapters 16 and 17. Read Whitman's "I Sing the Body Electric" (pp. 250-258); you've already read the 1855 version of this poem (pp. 118-124). Look over both versions and note the differences. This is a poem about a slave auction, something that Whitman witnessed when he lived for a few months in New Orleans. How does this poem relate to the "Lucifer" section of "The Sleepers" and the slave sections of "Song of Myself"? Read Whitman's "Calamus" poems (pp. 268-287); these are his poems of male-male love, and they have become very controversial as perhaps the first articulation of gay affection. Why do you think the poems caused almost no controversy in the nineteenth century? Compare these to Dickinson's poems on marriage: #199, #732, #1072, #1737. What is Dickinson's commentary on marriage and the role of wife? Also read over again Dickinson's #13, on sleep, and compare it to Whitman's "The Sleepers." There will be a brief quiz on the biographical reading (Habegger, chapters 16 and 17; Reyolds, Chapter 11). Bring your Whitman Poetry and Prose to class: we will divide into groups to discuss "The Sleepers" and "I Sing the Body." You can find the discussion questions for "The Sleepers" here.
For Thursday, October 13: Read chapter 11 ("'The Murderous Delays': In Search of an Audience") in Reynolds's biography of Whitman. Go back to the 1855 edition of Leaves and read carefully the poem on pp. 107-117 in the Poetry and Prose volume; this poem later became entitled "The Sleepers." After reading the 1855 version, read the final version (542-551). Notice the changes that Whitman has made, including the deletion of the "Lucifer" section. Go to the Web resource called The Classroom Electric, where there is a site I created about "The Sleepers." Read through this site, including the various critical views of the poem. We will discuss the poem in small groups (same groups as last time; available below, under the September 13 assignment). You should pick up from the "The Sleepers" site some of the key issues having to do with Whitman's revision of this poem. Bring the Whitman Poetry and Prose volume to class. Your essays are due today; assignment available here. Your first memorizations must be completed by today.
For Tuesday, October 11: We will continue discussion of Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry." Carefully read the poem again, and pay particularly close attention to Section 2 and to Whitman's shifting use of verb tenses throughout the poem. Try to figure out what Whitman is saying about the nature of identity. Where does his "I" come closest to your "you"? Bring your Whitman Poetry and Prose books to class. Your first essays are due in class on Thursday; the assignment is available here, along with an explanation of how to quote poetry in your essay. Memorizations must be completed by Thursday; if you have not yet signed up for a time, you must do so in class today.
For Thursday, October 6: You may also write about poem #762 ("The Whole of it came not at once--") for your first essay, due Thursday, October 13, in class. Choose either #970 or #762 as the focus of your essay. Click here for details of the essay assignment. Read chapter 10 of Reynolds's biography of Whitman (the chapter is about the first edition of Leaves of Grass). Brief quiz on the biographical reading (chapter 10 of Reynolds, chapters 14 and 15 of Habegger). Bring your Whitman Poetry and Prose volume to class. Really read "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" closely (pp. 307-313), and read "Song of the Open Road" (297-307), the poem that precedes "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry." Your poetry memorization (on either Dickinson or Whitman) must be done next week; be sure to sign up for a time on the sign-up sheet in class today.
For Tuesday, October 4: Read Habegger's biography of Dickinson, chapters 14 and 15. Turn your attention back to Whitman for your reading of poems. Take another close look at "This Compost" (pp. 495-497), and examine some of the key words carefully (like "compost" and "chemistry"). Also carefully read "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" (pp. 307-313) in the Poetry and Prose volume; this is an 1856 poem in which Whitman performs a kind of magic interaction with the reader. You first essay will be due Thursday, October 13 , in class. You will write a 3-4 page essay on Dickinson's poem #970 ("Color--Caste--Denomination"). Look up words in a good dictionary and use our discussions in class to begin to form some ideas about the poem. Details of the essay assignment can be found here.
For Thursday, September 29: Read in Reynolds's biography of Whitman chapter chapter 9, about the visual arts. There will be a brief quiz on the biographical reading for this week (Habegger, chapters 12 and 13, and Reynolds, chapter 9). We will discuss #408 ("Unit, like Death") and look together at a couple of other death poems you've already read. Be sure to look up key words in this poem and try to work out a reading of it: what is Dickinson suggesting about death here? Is it similar to or different from her suggestions in "Safe in their alabaster chambers"? Go back to the Whitman book and read "This Compost" again, one of Whitman's great poems on death (pp. 495-497), and think of it in relation to the Dickinson death poems. Bring your Dickinson book to class. Be sure you have begun memorizing your passages from either Whitman or Dickinson: you will need to recite the memorized passage during the week of October 10.
For Tuesday, September 27, Choose one of the Dickinson poems on death and compare it with Whitman's attitudes toward death in "Song of Myself," especially the passage beginning at the bottom of p. 85 ("And as to you death, and you bitter hug of mortality") and continuing on p. 86, or the very end of the poem (from "The last scud of day holds back for me" on p. 87 through to the end on p. 88). Think through the ways that Dickinson and Whitman imagine death and write a paragraph (to be turned in) specifically comparing one passage of Whitman with one poem of Dickinson. Bring your Dickinson Complete Poems to class. And, for Tuesday, read in Habegger's biography of Dickinson chapters 12 ("1850-1852: Somebody's Rev-e-ries") and 13 ("1852-1854: A Sheltered Life").
For Thursday, September 22: Read in Habegger's biography of Dickinson chapters 10 ("Mount Holyoke Female Seminary") and 11 ("First Drunkenness"). There will be a brief quiz on the biographical reading for this week (covering Reynolds, chs. 7 and 8, and Habegger, chs. 10 and 11). I will be in New Jersey speaking on Whitman, but my assistant Josh Matthews will be here to show you a video biography of Dickinson today in class and to give you the quiz; there is no need to bring books.
For Tuesday, September 20: Read in Reynolds's biography of Whitman chapters 7 ("Sex Is the Root of It All") and 8 ("Earth, Body, Soul: Science and Religion"). Bring the Whitman Poetry and Prose book to class. Read carefully the following Dickinson poems dealing with death:#216 (both versions), #241, #255, #258, #280, #281, #301,#389, #408, #411, #432, #465, #531, #724, #829, #822, #860, #970, #1046, #1445. Read all of these carefully, look up words, make notes; focus particularly on #216, #408, #465, which we'll discuss in class on Thursday.
For Thursday, September 15: Read chapter 9 ("Death and Friendship") in Habegger's biography of Dickinson, and read chapter 6 ("American Performances: Theater, Oratory, Music") in Reynolds's biography of Whitman. There will be a brief quiz on this week's biographical reading. Bring your Whitman Poetry and Prose book to class; we will continue the discussions we began on Tuesday, both in small groups and as a whole class. Now that you are beginning discussion of the questions on "Song of Myself," keep reading the poem and seeking answers on your own so that you can bring fresh insights to your discussion group and to the class as a whole. Do go over the discussion questions again and jot down some ideas and some passages from the poem to help you in the group discussions.
For Tuesday, September 13: Read chapters 7 and 8 (pp. 123-166) in Habegger's biography of Dickinson. Re-read the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass in the Whitman Poetry and Prose volume (pp. 1-145), focusing especially on the first long poem (later called "Song of Myself"), starting on p. 27. Bring the Whitman volume to class.
We will break into small groups on Tuesday to discuss parts of the first long poem ("Song of Myself") in the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass. Here are the discussion groups; the person randomly chosen as moderator will be responsible for guiding the discussion through the topics listed right after the groups:
Group One: |
Group Four: |
|
Group Two: |
Group Five: |
Group Three: |
Topics for discussion:
1. On p. 31, a child asks the narrator "What is the grass?" The answer goes on for the rest of that page and most of the next page. Discuss the nature of the answer the poet gives the child. How does the poet go about answering the childish question? Why does the answer end in a discussion of death? What does the poet mean on p. 32 when he says that "to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier?"
2. On p. 36, there is a kind of narrative within the poem, about a twenty-eight-year-old woman watching 28 young men bathe naked. Discuss this scene. Why does Whitman include it in the poem? What is the point? Where is the poet while this scene goes on? Who is the twenty-ninth bather? Just what is happening in this scene?
3. Just before the scene with the 28 young men, starting on p. 35, there is a scene about a runaway slave. What does this scene tell you about the poet? Why is the scene included in the poem? Is there a reason it comes just before the scene about the 28 young men? Look at the scene just before the runaway slave episode, also on p. 35, about the marriage of the trapper to an American Indian girl. Does this scene relate to the two that follow after it?
For Thursday, September 8: Read chapters 5 and 6 in Habegger's biography of Dickinson (pp. 73-120). Finish reading the first edition of Leaves of Grass in the Whitman Poetry and Prose book (pp. 1-145). Bring the Whitman Poetry and Prose volume to class: we will focus our discussion on the beginnings of the long poem that becomes "Song of Myself" (pp. 27-88). There will be a brief quiz on the reading in Habegger (chapters 5 and 6) and Reynolds (chapters 4 and 5). As you read through "Song of Myself" a couple of times, don't forget to choose a passage that you want to memorize. It's best to begin these memorizations now, read the passage you choose (at least fifteen lines) aloud each day, and before you know it, you will have begun to memorize it.
For Tuesday, September 6: Read chapters 4 and 5 in Reynolds's biography of Whitman; this will take you up through the publication of the first edition of Leaves of Grass. Also read in the Whitman Poetry and Prose volume the first long poem of the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass (pp. 27-88). This is the poem that he would later entitle "Song of Myself," and it is one of the great literary texts ever written. Bring your Whitman Poetry and Prose volume to class. We'll begin our discussion of Leaves of Grass. You should have also read by now Whitman's Preface to the 1855 edition (pp. 5-26).
For Thursday, September 1: Read chapters 3 and 4 in Habegger's biography of Dickinson, and read chapters 2 and 3 in Reynolds's biography of Whitman. Another short quiz. Read Emily Dickinson's first fifteen poems (#1 - #15) to get an idea of where her poetry begins. Do you see biographical associations in these poems? What do her main concerns seems to be at this point in her life (1850s)? In the Whitman Poetry and Prose volume, read Whitman's Preface to the 1855 Edition of Leaves of Grass. Just go with it: it's Whitman's free-flowing description of what he believes the new American poet will have to do. Don't forget to write a paragraph or two (no more than a page)about what the brain is like for each poet. Support your ideas with at least one key image or line from each poet. I'll collect these responses in class.
For Tuesday, August 30: Read Chapters 1 and 2 of Habegger's biography of Dickinson, and read Chapter 1 of Reynolds's biography of Whitman. There will be a brief quiz over this reading. Also read Whitman's poem "This Compost" (in the Whitman Poetry and Prose volume, p. 495-497). Today, we will talk about how Dickinson and Whitman imagine the brain, the inside of the skull. Both of them offer tours of the brain. Read Whitman's very early manuscript poem called "Pictures" (click here), where he takes you on a tour of the inside of the skull. Then read the following Dickinson poems about the brain: 280, 315, 410, 419, 556, 613, 632, 634, 670, 937, 945, 967, 1046, 1727. Write a paragraph or two about what the brain is like for each poet. Support your ideas with at least one key image or line from each poet. I will collect these Thursday (Sept. 1) in class.
For Thursday, August 25: Browse around in both the Whitman and Dickinson poetry books; read the editors' introductions, and get a good sense of how the poems are arranged. Check the indexes.
We will be focusing on some key questions that each poet asks and that each answers in remarkably different ways:
·Who am I? What is "I"?
·What and who is the reader, and how is he/she a character in the poems?
·Who or what is "God" for Whitman and Dickinson, and is "God" at home anymore? How are their views of "God" different?
·What are "words" and how do they work differently for each poet?
·What is "death" for each poet? How do we die and what happens after death? How do we deal with death on a massive scale?
·Is science replacing religion for Whitman and/or Dickinson?
·How do Dickinson and Whitman think that children learn? What do children know?
We will be working to articulate what the poets' views are and how the two poets differ in their responses to the question. In today's class, we are going to look at some spider poems by Whitman and Dickinson: read "A Noiseless Patient Spider" on p. 564 of the Whitman Poetry and Prose book, and read poem #1138, poem #605, and poem #1275 in Dickinson's Complete Poems.
To Begin: Memorize these dates:
·Walt Whitman:1819-1892
·Emily Dickinson:1830-1886.
Copyright © Ed Folsom, The University of Iowa. All rights reserved. Homepage: http://www.english.uiowa.edu/faculty/folsom
Updated December 8, 2005