Contemporary Lit.

T 11/03 William Carlos Williams Film and/or Discussion. Be ready to do either/both.

Homework: Read Marianne Moore's bio. and all poems here:
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/96 (poems in links to the right).

H 11/05 Williams & Moore discussion.
Homework: (Hefty reading, plan for it and be prepared. A quiz is always possible.)
Bio and all Dickinson poems. (Most are short, all read through very fluidly.)
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/155
Robert Frost: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/192
Plus the poems: Design, Stopping By Woods, The Road Not Taken, After Apple-Picking, For Once, Then Something.

T 11/10 Discussion Frost & Dickinson.
H 11/12 Discussion continues.

Homework: Write an imitation of one of the poems or poets that we've read (Pound, Williams, Stevens, Eliot, Moore, Frost, Dickinson etc.) Bring in enough copies for everyone in class on Tuesday and we'll "workshop" the poems. Make sure your copies are typed-up, cleanly edited and revised. Some examples of how one goes about imitating will be discussed in class. Consider the parody.
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~richie/poetry/html/poem191.html

Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15625
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16424

Note to the worriers: This assignment is meant to be a fun way to get numbers in the gradebook. It will not be graded as if it were a creative writing class, so be original, and have fun with it. I'll give more ideas and examples in class and we'll just have a good time with our final pre-Thanksgiving written assignment.

T 11/17 Handing out of poems to everyone and workshopping.
HOmework: Workshop notes for poems distributed. Reading: Beat Poet,
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5646
Alan Ginsberg. (yes, I know that we've studied him during presentations but I'd like for you to see the text and to review.)
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/ginsberg_a.htmlAmerica: http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/america.html
Howl: https://notes.utk.edu/bio/greenberg.nsf/0/6f7dd8b9270db5c585256d0d001e0a93?OpenDocument

H 11/19 Likely a continuation of workshop and/or The Beat Movement.

T 11/24 Catching up what remains. Homework:
Read a brief overview of the New York School: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5668
Kenneth Koch (brief bio) and this poem:
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15592
Frank O'Hara (bio on the left and these three short poems)
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20394
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20392
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20422

and Confessionalists. Reading:
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/14 (all poems and the bio.) Also, these:
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/music-swims-back-to-me/
http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/show/32652-Anne-Sexton-Ringing-the-Bells
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfvS_fgbuDI

Sylvia Plath: TBA (keep checking for these readings)

Robert Lowell: TBA

and final assignment: A response to the poets we have read subsequent to the Modernists. Consider the Beats, the Confessionalists or an author of your choosing, as long as you discuss it with me prior to beginning. Your response will be ekphrastic in the broadest sense. You might write a poem, story, essay or song in response to a writer or entire movement. You might respond in other art: illustration, painting, animation, sculpture. In addition to the assignment, I want to see a grammatically-polished, edited and typed "artist statement" for your piece, 250 word minimum. If your response is a written piece (say a series of poems based on Ginsberg or a story written with Robert Lowell in mind,) you will still discuss how you employed some of the same conventions as the piece that inspired. You can also discuss what you left-out or opposed in your piece. We can discuss all of this further in class. Feel free to ask any questions you have about the assignment. (Not due until 12/08)

H 11/26 Happy Thanksgiving!

T 12/01 Confessionalists

H 12/03 Continued

T 12/08 Final Assignments Due for Presentations.

H 12/10 Cupcakes and final words
Fall Semester Ends