Modern British and American Poetry

8:125 Course Information and Assignments

teacher: Florence Boos, 319 EPB, florence-boos@uiowa.edu, office hour T 4-5 and by appointment; office 335-0434 and home 338-4383 evenings 7-10 with answering machine.

books: The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, second edition, in IMU, plus handouts.

website: twist.lib.uiowa.edu/modpoe, user i. d. modpoe, password xxxxxx.

Assignments:

class attendance and discussion

2 essays, 6 pages typed each, with a one paragraph abstract (you should turn in a bibliography two weeks before the due date, and a draft the preceding week).

first paper due October 29th. This should be a research paper which places a poem or series of poems in context. In addition to any web-based sources, your essay should show evidence of the use of at least 5 non-web sources (books, articles, biographical or historical dictionaries).

second paper due December 17th. This should be a comparison/contrast essay discussing how two poets we have read presented a similar theme.

8 journals to be posted on class discussion site, 2 pages each. Please correct for spelling, punctuation, style and organization. 2 of these must be formal analyses of a poem, evaluating its rhythm, meter, stanza form, visual effects, and internal use of sound (alliteration, assonance, cesurae, balance).

For the other 6, you may choose from the following 10 options, with no more than one duplication:

1. reader response, with citations

2. comparison response, comparing or contrasting two poems

3. art response, relating a poem to a work of art or art form, a painting, sculpture, or dance (most likely one mentioned in a poem, or one from the same period)

4. music response, relating a poem to a form of music (e. g. blues, folksong, jazz, classical music, no rap) or a specific song or musical composition

5. book design response--for this you should visit Special Collections and view some fine printings of modern poems, e. g. by the Windhover Press, and comment on how one or more of these enhances the reading of the poem.

6. manuscript response--find in Special Collections or elsewhere an early draft of a poem, comment on what can be learned from examining the original page, and note the effectiveness of any changes made by the author.

7. biographical context response--consider ways in which an author’s poetry may reflect her/his life.

8. historical context response--place a poem in the context of the events of its period (e. g. the First World War, race “riots”, the rise of feminism)

9. periodical response--for poems which were first published in periodicals, find the newspaper or journal where it was published and consider howthe poem may have been shaped for its original audience, and how readers’ interpretation may have been affected by the surrounding context.

10. critical response--note how 2 earlier critics have interpeted a poem, and indicate the extent to which you agree with their views.

You are responsible for making sure that these are all completed by December 20th. I would suggest that you finish one each week except those weeks when you are working on a longer paper, and that you post the first journal by September 5th.

First reading assignments:

Oscar Wilde, “The Harlot’s House,” selections from “The Ballad of Reading Gaol”

W. B. Yeats “Down by the Salley Gardens,” “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” “Adam’s Curse,” “No Second Troy,” *“The Magi,” *“The Wild Swans at Coole,” *“The Second Coming,” “Leda and the Swan,” *“Sailing to Byzantium,” “Among School Children,” “The Choice,” “Byzantium,” “Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop,” “Under Ben Bulben.”

 

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