219 and 220 home page		 COURSE GOALS

While there is no standard syllabus for 219, the staff should work towards common goals:
1. to introduce the process of interpretation, using poetry as the primary example  
  a. to show how texts produce and resist meanings
b. to highlight our critical apparatus
2. to introduce the particular questions we ask about poetry  
  a. to discuss the aspects that distinguish and define a poem
b. to show students various ways of reading poetry
3. to teach our students how to write about poetry  

 

RECOMMENDED COURSE STRUCTURE

1. an extended unit (approximately nine to ten weeks) setting up the ways and means of close reading, covering:  
  a. aspects of poetry, such as figurative language, voice, versification, genre, and poetic conventions
b. a range of poetry, from different historical moments and contexts
2. one or two concentrated units (approximately two weeks each) that look at poems in terms of larger literary or critical contexts and cover:  
  a. a unified selection of poetry (e.g., from a particular tradition, of a particular genre, or by a single author)
b. a long poem (such as Paradise Lost) or poetic drama


READING
How many poems (along, if you wish, with other kinds of texts) you assign for each class is up to you. If you assign more poems than you can cover in class (and most 219ers usually do), do anything you can -via handouts, questions, journals, memorization, or other exercises-to guide students through the extras.


WRITING
Writing is a major component of this course, and you should give substantial class time and energy for discussing writing. Many (though not all) of your students will have come recently from Expository Writing and will already be familiar with writing workshops, not a bad thing for our purposes.

Each section should require approximately 20 pages of writing. Generally, we ask for four five-page papers, some of which may be revisions or augmentations of previous assignments (as they commonly are in Expository Writing). You may, of course, supplement the papers with other written work-journals, exercises on using the OED, creative writing of various sorts. Please note that instructors are not required to administer a final exam.

 

BOOKS
The following books have been ordered for each section of 219. These materials should provide readings for the extended unit on close reading, and are listed as required for all students enrolled in the course.

The Norton Anthology of Poetry (shorter edition)
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
M.H. Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms

Desk copies will be available in Carol Hartman's office. Norton refuses to ship desk copies of the Anthology in bulk, so we are asking each instructor to order a desk copy (or an examination copy) of the Anthology individually (this can be done on-line at http://www.wwnorton.com/college/exam_policy.htm). If you have or can obtain an extra copy, the department would gladly accept a donation to replenish our depleted departmental stock.

Book Information: Norton Anthology of Poetry
Shorter 4th Edition
Editor Margaret Ferguson, et al
ISBN # 0-393-9924-X

In the past, we have ordered a fourth book, Tom Furniss and Michael Bath's Reading Poetry: An Introduction, as an optional text for each class (you will see that this text appears on a few of the sample syllabi posted on this site). This book is no longer in print, but there are several copies of it in Carol Hartman's office. Some instructors like to copy chapters to distribute to their students, while others use it as a resource of ideas for their own teaching.

You will need to supplement these orders with:

  1. books for the concentrated units (book order forms are in Leandra Cain's office, and teachers should be aware of order deadlines)
  and/or
  2. xeroxes of additional poems in the many places where The Norton Anthology falls short

Teachers assigned summer sections should order books by the end of March. Teachers assigned Fall sections should order books by April. Teachers assigned Spring sections should order books by October.

ENROLLMENT
The stop-point for each section is (sadly) thirty students.