English 5322: Form and Theory of Poetry

Spring 2005

Instructor: Steve Wilson

Office: FH 214

Office Hours: 8:20-9:20 AM and 11:00-11:45 AM TTH, 6:00-6:20 W, and by

appointment

Phone: 245-3717

Email: sw13@txstate.edu

Texts: The American Poetry Wax Museum, by Rasula

Poetry and Society, by Snell

Free Verse: An Essay on Prosody, by Hartman

Supplementary poems and essays (provided by me and you)

Course Description: What is poetry?  Why is poetry?  Where is poetry?  Big questions.  Probably impossible to answer.  So, then, this is the impossible course.  How does one reconcile into one genre works by e.e. cummings and Russell Edson?  What does one say about Adrienne Rich's decision in editing a volume of The Best American Poetry to cut down dramatically the number of poems by white males?  We'll look at how poetry has been discussed, shaped and used in many different eras – but particularly in our own.  We'll explore how the dominant attitudes of the 20th century about form and poetry affected not only the structure of the genre, but how we teach it, read it and understand it.  If it works, the course should be enlightening, challenging and frustrating.

Course format and assignments: Nearly all our class meetings will consist of discussions over our readings and poems used to supplement the ideas found there. These discussions will be facilitated by one-page response essays over a topic raised by the reading. I'll divide the class into two groups, with each group alternating classes at which they'll have essays due.

Later in the term, I'll ask that students, in groups of three, conduct one half a class period over a topic related to an issue we examined during the semester. As this exercise gets closer, we'll go over some possible topics and methods. Final term papers of 10 pages should be generated by these topics, should be scholarly and should be in correct MLA documentation format.

Course Objectives: By the end of the semester, students should be at once more well-versed (sorry for the pun) in poetry and the history of poetry as theory and practice, and also more aware of how little they really know about this indefinable creature that crosses disciplinary and genre boundaries, invokes religious fervor, stubbornly clings to Romantic notions of the Self in a Postmodern world, and sets limits to the “free” in free verse.  Great fun.

Special Needs: Students requiring accommodations for disabilities documented with the Texas State Office of Disability Services should let me know of this as soon as possible.

Grades: Essays -- 40% (10 % each)

Teaching -- 25%

Research paper -- 35%