21L.004 | Fall 2001 | Undergraduate

Major Poets

Pages

Writing Assignments

Assignment 1 (PDF)

Assignment 2 (PDF)

Assignment 3 (PDF)

Final Assignment (PDF)

Lec # Topics Key Dates
1

Introduction

Discussion of: Plath, Sylvia. Metaphors.

Discussion of: MacLeish, Archibald. Ars Poetica.

Discussion of: Merwin, W. S. Asian Figures.

 
2

Discussion of: Wyatt, Thomas. Who List to Hunt, They Flee From Me.

Discussion of: Spenser, Edmund*. Sonnets. 10, 15, 22, 67, 68, 75*.

Discussion of: Shakespeare, William. Sonnets.

 
3 William Shakespeare (cont.)  
4 William Shakespeare (cont.)  
5

William Shakespeare (cont.)

Discussion of John Donne Selections

 
6 John Donne (cont.)  
7-8

Discussion of: Campion, Thomas. My Sweetest Lesbia.

Discussion of: Johnson, Ben. To Penshurst, Two Songs to Celia, Inviting a Friend to Supper, Still to be Neat.

Discussion of: Herrick, Robert. Delight in Disorder, Corinna’s Going A-Maying, To the Virgins, A Night Piece to Julia, Julia’s Clothes, The White Island.

Discussion of: Herbert, George. The Collar, The Pulley, The Forerunners.

Discussion of: Carew, Thomas. A Song.

Discussion of: Waller, Edmund. Go Lovely Rose.

Discussion of: Larkin, Philip. Vers de Societé.

 
9 Discussion of: Milton, John. Lycidas, L’Allegro, Il Penseroso, How Soon Hath Time, On his Blindness, Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint. First paper due
10 John Milton (cont.)  
11

John Milton (Discussion Concluded)

Discussion of: Marvell, Andrew. The Coronet, Bermudas, Body and Soul.

 
12 Discussion of: Marvell, Andrew. Coy Mistress, The Gallery, Definition of Love, The Mower Against Gardens, The Garden.  
13 Discussion of: Marvell, Andrew. On Appleton House.  
14

Discussion of: Wordsworth, William. Tintern Abbey.

Discussion of: Taylor Coleridge, Samuel. Frost at Midnight.

Second paper due
15 Discussion of: Wordsworth, William. She dwelt among untrodden ways, A Slumber did my Spirit Seal, Three Years she grew, The Solitary Reaper, selected sonnets, Ode on Intimations of Immortality.  
16

William Wordsworth (Discussion Concluded)

Taylor Coleridge, Samuel. Khubla Khan.

 
17 Discussion of: Keats, John. The Grasshopper and the Cricket, In Drear-Nighted December, What the Thrush Said, When I Have Fears, La Belle Dame sans Merci, Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on Melancholy, Ode on a Grecian Urn, to Autumn, Bright Star.  
18 John Keats (Discussion Concluded)  
19 Discussion of: Butler Yeats, William. Adam’s Curse, Wild Swans at Coole, Easter 1916, The Second Coming, A Prayer for my Daughter, Sailing to Byzantium, Leda and the Swan, The Choice, For Anne Gregory, Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop, Among School Children, John Kinsella’s Lament for Mrs. Mary Moore, Politics.  
20

William Butler Yeats (Discussion Concluded)

Discussion of: Wilbur, Richard. Love Calls Us to Things of this World.

Third paper due
21

Discussion of: Arnold, Matthew. Dover Beach.

Discussion of: Stevens, Wallace. Death of a Soldier, The Snow Man, The Emperor of Ice-Cream, Tea at the Palaz of Hoon, On the Manner of Addressing Clouds, Sunday Morning, Anecdote of the Jar, Peter Quince at the Clavier, The Idea of Order at Key West.

 
22 Discussion of: Frost, Robert. The Oven Bird, Birches, Stopping by Woods, Acquainted with the Night, Neither Far Out nor In Deep, Design, The Silken Tent, Come In, Never Again Would Birdsong be the Same, The Most of It, Directive.  
23 Discussion of: Eliot, T. S. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Waste Land.  
24 Discussion of: Auden, W. H. As I Walked Out One Evening, Funeral Blues, Lullaby, Musée des Beaux Arts, In Memory of W. B. Yeats.  
25 Discussion of: Larkin, Philip. Church Going, An Arundel Tomb, Talking in Bed, Aubade, Essential Beauty, High Windows, The Whitsun Weddings.  
26 Review Final paper due one day after Lec #26

Many of the readings for this course are available online. When available, a link to a version of the poem is provided. Several of the poems feature footnotes from Prof. Kibel.

Lec # Topics Readings
1

Introduction

Discussion of: Plath, Sylvia. Metaphors.

Discussion of: MacLeish, Archibald. Ars Poetica.

Discussion of: Merwin, W. S. Asian Figures.

Plath, Sylvia. Metaphors.

MacLeish, Archibald. Ars Poetica.

Merwin, W. S. Asian Figures.

2

Discussion of: Wyatt, Thomas. Who List to Hunt, They Flee From Me.

Discussion of: Spenser, Edmund. Sonnets. 10, 15, 22, 67, 68, 75.

Discussion of: Shakespeare, William. Sonnets.

Wyatt, Thomas. Who List to Hunt, They Flee From Me.

Spenser, Edmund. Sonnets 10, 15, 22, 67, 68, 75, My Love is Like To Ice.

Shakespeare, William. Sonnets I, III, XII, XVIII, XX, XXIX, XXX, XXXIII, LI, LIII, LIV, LV, LXV, LXXI, LXXIII, LCIV, CVI, CVII, CXVI, CXXIX, CXXX, CXXXVIII, CXLIV, CXLVI. (PDF)

3 William Shakespeare (cont.)  
4 William Shakespeare (cont.) Donne, John. Elegy XIX. To His Mistress Going to Bed, The Flea, The Good Morrow, Song (a), The Sun Rising, The Canonization, Song (b), A Valediction of Weeping, Love’s Alchemy, A Valediction Forbidding Mourning, A Nocturnal Upon St. Lucy’s Day, Being the Shortest Day, The Ecstasy, Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward, from Holy Sonnets, Hymn to God, My God, In My Sickness. (PDF)
5

William Shakespeare (cont.)

Discussion of John Donne Selections

 
6 John Donne (cont.)  
7-8

Discussion of: Campion, Thomas. My Sweetest Lesbia.

Discussion of: Johnson, Ben. To Penshurst, Two Songs to Celia, Inviting a Friend to Supper, Still to be Neat.

Discussion of: Herrick, Robert. Delight in Disorder, Corinna’s Going A-Maying, To the Virgins, A Night Piece to Julia, Julia’s Clothes, The White Island.

Discussion of: Herbert, George. The Collar, The Pulley, The Forerunners.

Discussion of: Carew, Thomas. A Song.

Discussion of: Waller, Edmund. Go Lovely Rose.

Discussion of: Larkin, Philip. Vers de Societé.

Campion, Thomas. My Sweetest Lesbia.

Johnson, Ben. To Penshurst, Two Songs to Celia, Inviting a Friend to Supper, Still to be Neat.

Herrick, Robert. Delight in Disorder, Corinna’s Going A-Maying, To the Virgins, A Night Piece to Julia, Julia’s Clothes, The White Island.

Herbert, George. The Collar, The Pulley, The Forerunners.

Carew, Thomas. A Song.

Waller, Edmund. Go Lovely Rose. (PDF)

Larkin, Philip. Vers de Societé.

9 Discussion of: Milton, John. Lycidas, L’Allegro, Il Penseroso, How Soon Hath Time, On his Blindness, Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint. Milton, John. Lycidas, L’Allegro, Il Penseroso, How Soon Hath Time, On his Blindness, Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint. (PDF)
10 John Milton (cont.)  
11

John Milton (Discussion Concluded)

Discussion of: Marvell, Andrew. The Coronet, Bermudas, Body and Soul.

Marvell, Andrew. The Coronet, Bermudas, Body and Soul. (PDF)
12 Discussion of: Marvell, Andrew. Coy Mistress, The Gallery, Definition of Love, The Mower Against Gardens, The Garden. Marvell, Andrew. Coy Mistress, The Gallery, Definition of Love, The Mower Against Gardens, The Garden. (PDF)
13 Discussion of: Marvell, Andrew. On Appleton House. Marvell, Andrew. On Appleton House (PDF)
14

Discussion of: Wordsworth, William. Tintern Abbey.

Discussion of: Taylor Coleridge, Samuel. Frost at Midnight.

Wordsworth, William. Tintern Abbey. 

Taylor Coleridge, Samuel. Frost at Midnight. (PDF)

15 Discussion of: Wordsworth, William. She dwelt among untrodden ways, A Slumber did my Spirit Seal, Three Years she grew, The Solitary Reaper, selected sonnets, Ode on Intimations of Immortality. Wordsworth, William. She dwelt among untrodden ways, A Slumber did my Spirit Seal, Three Years she grew, The Solitary Reaper, selected sonnets, Ode on Intimations of Immortality. (PDF)
16

William Wordsworth (Discussion Concluded)

Taylor Coleridge, Samuel. Khubla Khan.

Taylor Coleridge, Samuel. Khubla Khan. (PDF)
17 Discussion of: Keats, John. The Grasshopper and the Cricket, In Drear-Nighted December, What the Thrush Said, When I Have Fears, La Belle Dame sans Merci, Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on Melancholy, Ode on a Grecian Urn, to Autumn, Bright Star. Keats, John. The Grasshopper and the Cricket, In Drear-Nighted December, What the Thrush Said, When I Have Fears, La Belle Dame sans Merci, Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on Melancholy, Ode on a Grecian Urn, to Autumn, Bright Star. (PDF)
18 John Keats (Discussion Concluded)  
19 Discussion of: Butler Yeats, William. Adam’s Curse, Wild Swans at Coole, Easter 1916, The Second Coming, A Prayer for my Daughter, Sailing to Byzantium, Leda and the Swan, The Choice, For Anne Gregory, Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop, Among School Children, John Kinsella’s Lament for Mrs. Mary Moore, Politics. Butler Yeats, William. Adam’s Curse, Wild Swans at Coole, Easter 1916, The Second Coming, A Prayer for my Daughter, Sailing to Byzantium, Leda and the Swan, The Choice, For Anne Gregory, Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop, Among School Children, John Kinsella’s Lament for Mrs. Mary Moore, Politics.
20

William Butler Yeats (Discussion Concluded)

Discussion of: Wilbur, Richard. Love Calls Us to Things of this World.

Wilbur, Richard. Love Calls Us to Things of this World.
21

Discussion of: Arnold, Matthew. Dover Beach.

Discussion of: Stevens, Wallace. Death of a Soldier, The Snow Man, The Emperor of Ice-Cream, Tea at the Palaz of Hoon, On the Manner of Addressing Clouds, Sunday Morning, Anecdote of the Jar, Peter Quince at the Clavier, The Idea of Order at Key West.

Arnold, Matthew. Dover Beach.

Stevens, Wallace. Death of a Soldier, The Snow Man, The Emperor of Ice-Cream, Tea at the Palaz of Hoon, On the Manner of Addressing Clouds, Sunday Morning, Anecdote of the Jar, Peter Quince at the Clavier, The Idea of Order at Key West.

22 Discussion of: Frost, Robert. The Oven Bird, Birches, Stopping by Woods, Acquainted with the Night, Neither Far Out nor In Deep, Design, The Silken Tent, Come In, Never Again Would Birdsong be the Same, The Most of It, Directive. Frost, Robert. The Oven Bird, Birches, Stopping by Woods, Acquainted with the Night, Neither Out Far nor In Deep, Design, The Silken Tent, Come In, Never Again Would Birdsong be the Same, The Most of It, Directive.
23 Discussion of: Eliot, T. S. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Waste Land. Eliot, T. S. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock , The Waste Land .
24 Discussion of: Auden, W. H. As I Walked Out One Evening, Funeral Blues, Lullaby, Musée des Beaux Arts, In Memory of W. B. Yeats. Auden, W. H. As I Walked Out One Evening, Funeral Blues, Lullaby, Musée des Beaux Arts, In Memory of W. B. Yeats.
25 Discussion of: Larkin, Philip. Church Going, An Arundel Tomb, Talking in Bed, Aubade, Essential Beauty, High Windows, The Whitsun Weddings. Larkin, Philip. Church Going, An Arundel Tomb, Talking in Bed, Aubade, Essential Beauty, High Windows, The Whitsun Weddings.
26 Review  

Topics for Discussion

Materials to Aid Study and Discussion (PDF)

Topic 1 (PDF)

Topic 2 (PDF)

Topic 3 (PDF)

Topic 4 (PDF)

Topic 5 (PDF)

Topic 6 (PDF)

Topic 7 (PDF)

Topic 8 (PDF)

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

Course Description

This subject follows a course of readings in lyric poetry in the English language, tracing the main lines of descent through literary periods from the Renaissance to the modern period and concentrating mostly on English rather than American examples. The subject starts with Shakespeare’s sonnets, discussing such things as the constraints of stanza-form, the use of figurative language (metaphor and metonymy), and the controlled effects of ambiguity, showing how recessive meanings unite disparate parts of a poem and contribute to its overall unity. Attention will also be paid to constraints of meter, accent and duration, and a number of critical terms will be introduced - apostrophe, assonance, enjambment, chiasmus, hyperbole, litotes, and the like - which constitute the standard repertoire of rhetorical analysis since the eighteenth century. The subject will move from Shakespeare to Donne and the so-called “metaphysical” poets, through Milton, Pope, and others of the classical period, to Wordsworth and Keats by way of considering the nature of the romantic period, and concluding with some modern poets, such as Yeats, Eliot and Philip Larkin. The calendar section provides more specific information.

Course Format

This subject requires 20 pages in writing, divided into four assignments. The two of these assignments will be submitted to a tutor to begin with and rewritten at the tutor’s direction, then submitted to the instructor, who will assign a grade. The student will have a two-week window to complete the assignment from the time of its distribution until the date upon which it is due to the instructor. The third assignment will work the pattern in reverse: the paper will be graded first by the instructor, and then submitted to the tutor for revision, with a possible upgrade upon its re-submission to the instructor. The fourth or final paper will go straight to the instructor for grading and will not engage tutorial work unless the student chooses to consult the tutor before submitting the paper.

The subject will offer students substantial opportunity for oral expression by reason of (a) its discussion format and (b) an assigned presentation, in which pairs of students will each make two ten-minute presentations of materials conducive to the discussion of a poem assigned for a given class.

There will be no final examination.

Course Info

Instructor
Departments
As Taught In
Fall 2001
Learning Resource Types
Written Assignments
Activity Assignments