Intermediate Composition (205-0-21)
Instructors
Matthew Davis
Meeting Info
University Hall 318: Mon, Wed 11:00AM - 12:20PM
Overview of class
In this course students will read and discuss poems while also developing their ability to write about poetry. We will study selected poems by five poets. Last time around the five were Robert Frost, Thomas Hardy, Emily Dickinson, Samuel Johnson, and Sir Phillip Sidney. One or more of those names may change in the next iteration of the course. The poets will be tackled in reverse chronological order, so the level of linguistic difficulty and "otherness" will be low initially but will increase as the quarter goes on. The poems will be sonnets and short lyric poems, mostly 40 lines or shorter. Students will learn how to look things up in the online Oxford English Dictionary. They will learn about poetic genres, forms, and terms by reading an introductory book, The Poetry Toolkit. They will learn about the metrical (i.e., rhythmic) aspects of poetry by completing "scansion" exercises on the For Better for Verse website. Early in the quarter, each student will select a short poem to memorize and discuss with the instructor during office hours. That discussion will then serve as a launching pad for writing papers on other short poems. Students will write two essays on poems we have read, and each of these essays will be drafted, workshopped, and rewritten.
Class Materials (Required)
R. Williams, The Poetry Toolkit, ISBN: 978-1350032200