2066 9:30a-10:45a TR (25) 3 cr 


COAS INTENSIVE WRITING SECTION 


One of the premises of a poem is that the words on the page represent
a speaking
voice--usually human, but not always.  At the same time, however, the
voice of a poem tends
to differ from what you would normally hear in a train station, a
crowded hallway, or a
checkout line because of the artistry used to construct it.  Poets
employ formal elements
(the sounds of words, meter, images, metaphors, line lengths, etc.) to
convey ideas,
impressions, and attitudes to their readers/listeners, often to
produce specific kinds of
reactions.  This course will examine the qualities of poetic voices
and the artistry they
conceal.  Its purpose is to help you gain a better understanding and
appreciation of poetry
as a human endeavor, not simply as an object for dispassionate
study.


For the first half of the semester, we will work out of The Norton
Introduction to
Poetry (7th ed.).  Then we will spend several weeks studying love
poetry:  selected love
poems from the Renaissance, John Donne's Songs and Sonnets,
Elizabeth Barrett
Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese, Anne Sexton's Love
Poems, and Pablo
Neruda's The Captain's Verses.  In our final unit, we will
discuss the place of
poetry in American society today, with emphasis on the biennial
Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry
Festival, the poetry slam phenomenon, and Deborah Garrison's recent
collection, A Working
Girl Can't Win. 


Course participants will be required to write four papers, take two
exams, memorize two
poems of their choice, and pass a scansion quiz.