3 credit hours
Dr. Dorothy M. Sutton Case Annex 378; (859)
622-3076; dorothy.sutton@eku.edu
Office Hours MWF 2:15-5:30; T/TR 4:30-5:30; after class; and willingly by appointment List name and phone number or e-mail address of fellow student ___________________________________
TEXT: The Norton Ant. of Modern Poetry, 3rd edition (Vol 1 only [Modern Poetry] of 2 vols.), ed. Ramazani
We will study modern British and American Poets and Poetry, including Emily
Dickinson and Walt Whitman who helped set the stage for modern poetry. My main
purpose is to encourage students to understand and appreciate modern poetry and
hence to like it.
Technical knowledge is not a prerequisite but you will want to learn poetic
terms to help you analyze the poems, and as always, the more you know
generally, the quicker you'll be able to pick up allusions. Look up words and
facts you don't know. Emphasis is on both content AND form. Poems are
powerful and effective because they say something complex and profound that
relates to our lives AND because of of how
they are said. We must have terms to describe that process.
Any student in this class in need of academic
accommodations should register with the Office of Services for Students with
Disabilities, third floor Student ServicesBuilding or call 622-2933.
Major Themes:
**How do these poems reflect the values and
culture of the twentieth century?
**Background: Copernicus & Galileo;
Romanticism, realism, naturalism, religion & science; Darwin, Freud,
"death of God."
**World War I and legacy of Darwin as major
influences: wasteland & a Fragmented World
**Creating meaning in an otherwise meaningless
universe: 1) literature as a new "religion" (T.S. Eliot & Hopkins
traditional, W. Stevens and others as non-traditional), 2) meaning from within
ourselves, use of imagination
Unannounced quizzes any time, especially if students haven't read the assignment. Grades will be used for borderline cases. Please memorize E.D.'s "I'm Nobody. Who Are You?" are at least 12-15 lines from Yeats's "A Prayer for My Daughter."
An original, insightful, succinctly-stated, well-argued, one-page objective critical paper is due every other Tuesday beginning 3 February. Closely analyze a poem or part of a poem. Also judged on writing and grammar skills. You cannot turn in a poem we have already explicated in class, nor anyone's thoughts but your own.
Possibilities for test at end: (1) Explicate a poem using tools you learned in
your papers.
(2) Comprehensive essay using specific examples
to illustrate larger themes.
(3) Match up authors with facts, such as
nationality, decade of birth, major contributions and/or subject matter and so
forth. (4) Identify major quotations
Attendance: I will abide by departmental
policy: more than four absences will result in automatic failure. There is no
"excused absence." Grades: Your final grade will be the average of
your papers and test (counts two grades).
See above for borderline grades. NOTE I do not
accept late homework. Any paper not handed in on due date receives an F. If you
must be absent, send it by someone. No e-mails please. I do not post grades or
give out grades early.
===================================================================================
English 334 Spring CALENDAR SYLLABUS Note Major poets in upper case letters; *Poetry explications due on days marked with asterisk
WEEK
1 Syllabus,
introductions, overall view of major themes to watch for during semester (see
above); how to
analyze a poem (see my "Poetry"
sheet at end of this web site); my lecture: Background for Modern
Poetry (see copy below)
2 (1/20,22)
Introduction in text briefly; WALT WHITMAN All the poems, with special
attention to "Song
of Myself" and "Crossing Brooklyn
Ferry." Add "Noiseless Patient Spider" (not in book).
3 (27
and 29 Jan) EMILY DICKINSON, All the poems, with emphasis on 214, 258,
435, 441,
465, 632, 657,
712, 986, 1129, 1732 (You must use first line as title for poem).
4 ( Feb. 3*
and 5) GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS, All poems, emphasis
"God's Grandeur," "Spring," "The Windhover,"
"Carrion Comfort," "No Worst... None,"
"I
Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark," "Thou Art Indeed Just,
Lord."
5 (10 and 12) Finish Hopkins; A.
E. HOUSMAN, All poems, emphasis "Loveliest of Trees," "To an
Athlete," "Terence"
Week 6 ( Feb. 17*, 19)
and Week 7 (Feb. 24 and 26 ) WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS All poems plus short
prose from Autobiography which I bring.
8 (March 2* and 4) Finish Yeats; EDWIN
ARLINGTON ROBINSON: "Miniver Cheevy," "Mr. Flood's Party"
ROBERT FROST All poems, special attention to "Mending
Wall," "After Apple Picking," "The Woodpile,"
"The Road Not Taken," "Birches," "Fire and Ice," "Stopping by Woods,"
"Acquainted with the Night," "Two Tramps in Mud Time,"
"Desert Places," "Directive"
9 Spring Break
10 March 16* and 18 Finish
Frost; WALLACE STEVENS Selections, emphasis "Sunday
Morning"
11 (23 and 25 Mar) WILLIAM CARLOS
WILLIAMS "The Red Wheelbarrow," "The Dance,"
"Paterson"; EZRA POUND Selected poems
12 (30 Mar* 1 April) T.S. ELIOT
"Prufrock," "The Waste Land,"
13 6 and 8 April Eliot,
"Little Gidding" "Old Possum's Book of
Cats" (not in book); Archibald MacLeish, "Ars
Poetica"
WILFRED OWEN
"Dulce Et Decorum Est";
EE CUMMINGS (all poems briefly)
W. H. AUDEN "Lullaby," "Musee
des Beaux Arts"
14 (13*, 15 April) Auden "In
Memory of W.B. Yeats, "The Unknown Citizen"; Louis Macneice "The Sunlight in the Garden"
ARCHIBALD MACLEISH "Ars Poetica"
THEODORE ROETHKE "My Papa's Waltz," " The Waking,"
"I Knew a Woman," VOL. 1 (MODERN) ends here.
From Handouts:
15 (20 and 22 April) Elizabeth Bishop "The
Fish"; Randall Jarrell "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner"
DYLAN THOMAS "Fern Hill" and "Do Not Go Gently Into
That Good Night" [also wrote "A Child's Christmas in Wales"]
16 (27 and 29) ) RICHARD WILBER
"Love Calls Us to the Things of This World"(and my response);
Biography ROBERT PENN WARREN; ALLEN GINSBERG "A
Supermarket in California" and from "Howl"
SYLVIA PLATH "Daddy"
MARGE PIERCY "Barbie Doll"
SEAMUS HEANEY Bio., four short poems and excerpt from
"Station Island" from my Heaney folder.
Week 17 (Tue May 4
1:00-2:00) Test ________________________________________
P0ETRY (
1. Read aloud, at least twice
2. Unwrite the
poem (understand the prose sense of each part)
3. Consider the persona or speaker, point
of view; speaker's attitude (tone) (consistent or changing);
occasion; environment
4. Consider the structure (architecture)
of the poem: rhythm & meter (such as trimeter,
tetrameter, pentameter)
and scansion (such as
iambic, dactylic, anapest); free verse or structure [form,
formal]? traditional form?
Why this structure? How does structure
relate to theme?
regular rhythm, regular rhyme and/or slant rhyme?
stanzas;
punctuation; line breaks; transitions
5.
Diction:
level; how suited to speaker; ambiguous?;
word history; connotations and denotation
6. Images:
kind--to what senses do they appeal;
consistency; development (may emerge as symbols in
long poem or series of
poems)
7. Figures of
speech: KIND (only a few
of many)
a. Metaphor-comparison implied, not stated
b. Simile-comparison is expressed
c. Personification
d. Metonymy-use of something closely related
e. Synecdoche-use of part for whole
f. Hyperbole (exaggeration)
g. Understatement
h. Irony, individual and overall
8. Consider the devices of sound in the poem:
assonance, consonance,
rhyme, alliteration; onomatopoeia; how related to
meaning, theme
9. Consider the role of contrast in the
poem
10. Try to state the main theme of the
poem briefly and inclusively. Does the theme, as you state it, account for all
or most of the facets of the poem?
optional:
********************************
11. Consider the relationship of the poem
to other works by the same author
12. Compare the poem to works of the same
literary genre
13. Compare the poem to works of the same
literary historical period
===========================================================================
Dorothy
Sutton's
BRIEF BACKGROUND TO TWENTIETH CENTURY IN LITERATURE
Victorian era had
been quiet, stable. Death of Queen
long ruled as the greatest power on earth, and
Two of the main INFLUENCES on 20th
Century Literature: I. LEGACY OF
I. LEGACY OF DARWIN (INCLUDING LYELL on
geology)
Darwin was influenced by LYELL's
Principles of Geology (1830-33) and which upset a literal interpretation of the
Bible: Exposed rock strata of earth showed it to be much older than
originally thought, not created in seven days, and fossils found there revealed
that some species had become extinct.
Toward the end of the 19th century, the general
public became aware of its implications, and the 20th century is
greatly influenced by it. He recorded the facts
as he saw them, always honest, though he did not like the
implications of what he found. He made no
public pronouncements about God, saying it was a personal matter
for each individual to decide: "People
believe what they must."
EVOLUTION showed CLOSE KINSHIP OF HUMANS WITH
THE OTHER ANIMALS, all evolving together, sharing most of the same basic
instincts, namely (1) to stay alive and (2) to propagate the species. "Natural selection" means NATURE selects, not God;
confusion if God is nature because of what some call "cruel and
vicious" (or worse yet, INDIFFERENT to human suffering) means of achieving
this end.
Universe as on-going PROCESS, not "finished
product": Could humans become extinct like the other animals?
These new discoveries in geology and
biology, together with errors found in new translations of the Bible
forced many to question belief systems based on
the supernatural (contrary to the natural laws of science): loss of Christian
faith and/or a redefinition of the nature of God (including loss of a personal
and caring God).
II. WORLD WAR I [originally called
"The Great War" ] 1914-1918 true date for
ending of old world
cultures and values. Began
Aug. 4, 1914. In 1916, 1/10 of young men of
that the world had known: First use of CHEMICAL
WARFARE, AIRPLANES, and first WIDESPREAD
USE OF MACHINE GUNS (used Spanish/American War)
but worst of all was new way of waging war: from
some formalized set of rules to "no holds
barred." Earlier: generally tried to fight in day, stop at night; fight in
summer, go home or "hole up" in the
winter.
THREE
PEOPLE IN EARLY 20TH CENTURY WHO INFLUENCED LITERATURE
1899- FREUD published
Interpretation of Dreams, in some ways his fundamental work. Father of
psychoanalysis [association]. Introduced idea
of subconscious, which led to stream of consciousness in writing.
Instead of external details and description [as realism/naturalism period] and
characters speaking dialogue aloud, we read thoughts as they flow through a
character's mind. (Freud against repression as harmful to psyche)
Examples: Joyce's Portrait of Artist, Eliot's "Prufrock" and
1905- EINSTEIN published his ideas about
Theory of Relativity. Loss of Absolute can lead to "situation
ethics" (started with Romantics--as
individualism, each person a law, religion unto him/her self)
HENRY FORD with his mass production
assembly line, division of labor, a hero/villain of this new
world which started with Industrial Revolution
in 19th century. Technological society, people as machines.
Charlie Chaplin "Modern Times" movie
of man caught in wheels of industry. (Kafka's Metamorphosis a
good
example of a person dehumanized by technology).
Background for literature, rest of
modern period:
1920's disillusionment caused by WW I. Stock
market crash '29 and worldwide Great Depression in the 30's;
World War II 1939-45. [
SIX
CHARACTERISTICS OF 20TH CENTURY LITERATURE
1. Redefining RELIGION:
Loss of TRADITIONAL religion: Legacy
of Darwin [See above]. Science finding more explanations for
religion's earlier mysteries. Search for a substitute for a
supernatural that no longer seemed viable [Nietzsche's "God is Dead"
meant old concepts of God were dead]. Attempt to establish a sense of values,
meaning in a world with no absolutes. Humanism [shifted emphasis from
supernatural to humans & their relationships].
2. Modern writer's DESIRE TO STARTLE,
SHOCK THE READERS. Why? To wake them out of their
lethargy, to force them to recognize their involvement.
[Example: Kafka's Metamorphosis]
3. SUBJECT MATTER OF LITERATURE ENLARGED EVEN MORE, beyond what realists and naturalists had done, became MORE HONEST & ACCURATE [to real life], EXPLICIT, MORE INCLUSIVE: abortion, homosexuality in The Waste Land, Yeats's "Crazy Jane" poems (sex and excrement).
4. CONTINUED SHIFT FROM RURAL TO URBAN
ENVIRONMENT (had begun with Industrial
Revolution). Urban now in
majority for first time in history. Problems of
technology. Example: The
5. STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS LITERARY
TECHNIQUE: record of a person's thoughts as they
"flow" through the mind. Joyce's A
Portrait of the Artist; Eliot's "Prufrock" and The
6. FRAGMENTED, INCOHERENT POETRY AND
PROSE (because the writers saw a fragmented,
incoherent world) and USE OF FREE VERSE instead
of traditional meters and forms (freedom from the old
boundaries, restraints, rules). Joyce's A
Portrait of the Artist; Eliot's "Prufrock" and The
* * * * * * *
FEMINISM: Towards the end of the century FEMINISM is ADDED AS A CRITICAL APPROACH: new
awareness of women: an attempt to see the world
and literature from female point of view (Example:
"Shakespeare's Sister" section of
Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own). Please keep this approach in mind as
you read ALL the material.
EXISTENTIALISM, Simplified: (1) an important philosophy in modern literature.
(2) reaction against Naturalism (which says
there are no choices)
Existentialism says it's obvious we are victims
of heredity and environment to a certain extent BUT people are what they make
themselves to a certain extent also. We do have some choices. Especially
important: PEOPLE CAN CREATE THEIR OWN MEANING IN what might be an OTHERWISE
MEANINGLESS UNIVERSE. Most 20th Century literature champions the human spirit,
and many characters show ways to make life meaningful.
Neo-Classicism had said there are choices
but others make many of them for us.
Naturalism said life is predestined, pre-determined. Existentialism says that
people do have some freedoms and choices, and that people are what they make of
themselves. For example, all people choose their own values to live
by. Constant choices must be made (life is made up of "decisive
moments"--EVERY moment a "moment of truth.") Examples:
Henley's "Invictus," Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock" (a negative example. He could have acted, but refuses to).
The past does not completely determine the present or the future. By our
small everyday choices, as well as by our momentous ones, (such as choosing a
philosophy of life to live by, life work or life mate) we BUILD CHARACTER and
by every act we REVEAL CHARACTER.
WE MUST ASSUME THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THOSE CHOICES--OUR
CHOICES.