"This powerful rhyme": Close Reading the Sonnets

Spring Break - March 11-18

Sidney, Astrophil and Stella, 1-9, 15, 18, 21, 23, 27, 37, 41, 49, 52, 59, 60, 69, 71, 74, 81, 90.
Instructions | Glosses

Drayton, Idea, "To the Reader," 1-3; 6, 47, 49, 51; Barnes, Parthenophil and Parthenophe, 63-65; Davies, "Gulling Sonnets," 1-6; Barnfield, Certain Sonnets, 7, 8, 15, 18, "To His Friend"; Wroth, Pamphilia to Amphilanthus, 14, 15, 22, 23, 35, 46, 48 (Drayton, Barnes and Barnfield sonnets will be hard copy distributed in class, in advance of this day's reading)
Instructions for Wroth sonnets (Davies is a direct link) |

Glosses: Davies | Drayton | Barnes | Wroth

Sonnet/discussion project due; Essay 2 assigned (5 pp.)

Other important dates:

Feb. 6	Last day to add a course
Feb 6,	Last day to drop a course with no tuition liability
Feb. 23	Last day to drop a course (full semester courses only)
Feb. 24 - March 23	Elective withdrawal period

Course policies:

Readings:
The readings for each class are due on the date listed above. Approach each assignment actively by always reading with a pen or pencil in hand. Note words, phrases or sentences that interest you, that seem significant in the context of the work, or that you have questions about. Jot down in the margins any questions or ideas you have about a particular point or the work as a whole. This practice will help you come prepared to discuss the readings for class and get the most out of class discussion; it will also help you become a more skillful reader of literary texts in general.

Online Readings:
A number of readings for this course are available electronically, either from Mason's Electronic Course Reserve (ECR) or on the World Wide Web (online). Go to the online version of this syllabus for the relevant links. PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS MATERIAL ON LINE, HOWEVER. Print the readings and read and annotate those. I also request that you keep a separate folder or (even better) three-ring binder for this material, so that it does not get lost among other papers, the syllabus, reading responses, etc. Bring online material to class just as you would other reading assignments.

Participation and Attendance:
The class will be conducted mainly as a seminar. We will open up the class to discussion, to observations about the ideas presented in a reading, about its style, its uses of language, its puzzling qualities. I am interested in your ideas. Contribution to class discussion will not be formally calculated into grades, but I will take participation into account for grades that are borderline. If you aren't in class, you can't participate in discussion, nor will active class participation wholly excuse excessive absences.

Reading Responses:
The reading responses are meant to help you read carefully, to prepare for class discussion and to aid you in finding starting points for your more formal written work. A reading response should either ask a question about or observe some aspect of the day's reading that is not answerable by a fact. For some examples, an observation about any one of the following would be an appropriate subject for a response: the use of a certain word or metaphor in a sonnet, an ambiguous word/phrase in a sonnet, a comparison of two sonnets, a reaction to a claim in a critical essay. You may also wish to speculate about how your question or observation would matter for other moments in the sonnets, or why it seems an important matter to consider. A reading response of a page will be required for each day's reading, and collected at the end of class (the responses need not be typed). I will sometimes begin class by asking some of you to read out your responses. I will read all your responses and grade them on a credit/no credit basis. They will get credit if they are turned in by you at the end of class and meet the criteria above. Grading will be based on the number of no credits: 0-3=A; 4-5=B; 6-7=C; 8-9=D; 10 or more=F. I will also use reading responses to keep track of who was in class for a particular day, so if you were in class but did not do a response (say it's not so!) let me know you were there.

Sonnet Recitations:
Poetry exploits the sounds of language, and reading aloud helps us to hear these sounds. Decisions about how to read a poem aloud also compel interpretation. Besides, it's a pleasure to hear a poem. Hence each student will recite one sonnet (chosen by the student, with certain restrictions) for the class. The student will also write a one-page essay about the decisions he or she made about how to recite the sonnet. The recitation will be evaluated on the facility with which the student reads the sonnet, the power of the students' verbal interpretation of the sonnet, and the quality of the written explication of the student's decisions about reading.

Sonnet Projects:
#1. Sonnet editions:
For this project you'll examine an edition of Shakespeare's sonnets published between 1900 and 1970 (with some restrictions on your choice, to be detailed in the assignment). You will write two pages about some issue in how the edition frames the sonnets, for example how it describes the relationship between Shakespeare and one of the addressees of the sonnet, or how the appearance of the book shapes responses to the poems. More detail on this project will follow, but the key thing is that you will need to use Interlibrary Loan to get your edition, and this can take as long three weeks, so you will need to plan ahead. Use WorldCat to find the edition that you will examine. If possible, I'd like to scan a couple relevant pages from your edition and also post your essays in order to create a website of sonnet editions from this project.

#2.Write your own sonnet and discuss it:
For this project you'll write a sonnet of your own, and then a one-page essay about what you learned about the form or what poetic techniques you tried to exploit in writing your sonnet (we will become familiar with these techniques through our reading of Shakespeare's and other Renaissance sonnets). Don't worry if you don't consider yourself a poet! Your sonnet and essay need just demonstrate that you understand some of the possibilities of the sonnet form and sonnet convention; and after reading so many sonnets, I promise, you'll be primed to write your own. I'm assigning this project four weeks in advance of its due date; make sure to start early so that you have plenty of time to fiddle with your sonnet. (If we have time and students are willing, it'd be fun to read some of these to the class.)

Paper Deadlines:
The papers will be due twice: the first time in class at the paper workshop scheduled one week after each paper is assigned, and the second time one week following that. During the workshop you'll have a chance to trade papers with fellow students and raise questions or give each other suggestions for revision. You'll have the second week to revise your paper, based on this input and on your own rethinking and rewriting. The second week after the paper is assigned both the revised and original version of the paper will be handed in to me. I hope that this system will build revision, so necessary to good writing, into the structure of the course.

Late papers: You need to have your first paper done on time so that you can work on it in the paper workshop. I also expect that the final versions will be handed in on time. Late final versions will be graded down a half grade for each day late. On late first versions, see below under "paper standards."

I have also scheduled an exchange for your own sonnets a week and a half after that project is assigned. Please bring a sonnet either drafted or at least one quatrain finished and a plan for the rest. This is an interim due date.

Paper Standards (final and first versions):
Each paper should be typed with standard margins, spacing and type size. It should be stapled or clipped, and the pages numbered. It should be carefully proofread and neatly presented. The paper topics will relate to issues we have discussed in class, and you are encouraged to bring to bear class discussion in your writing. You are also encouraged to expand on these discussions and credit will be given for new ideas.

I'll grade the paper on basis of the revised version only, but I will expect the original version to be your best initial attempt at the topic. Original versions not done, not typed or obviously incomplete will result in a half letter grade reduction in the evaluation of the final paper. It would not be fair for other students to have to read work that is not your best; additionally, it is in your interest to write as good an original version as possible, so that your second version is even better. Remember that because everyone has two tries at the paper, I will accordingly have higher expectations for the final version.

Paper Helps:
During the scheduled workshops, you'll have a chance to give and get advice on your papers. Additionally, I encourage you to come see me at my office hours or to make an appointment to see me. When we meet, try to have a draft of the paper you are working on. This will give us something more concrete to talk about. There is also available a Writing Center at Robinson A114 that can provide you with further individual attention to your writing. I encourage you to take advantage of this excellent facility.

I would also suggest that you give yourself plenty of time to work. Writing a paper at one sitting is, for most people, unpleasant, and the results are not likely to be satisfactory. Start early!

Plagiarism:
Since this class emphasizes the development of your own close reading and interpretive skills, you are not encouraged to consult secondary sources, other than those assigned for the course. If you do choose to look at such work, however, you must cite, using a standard citation format, all the articles, books or other sources that your own writing draws on, either directly or indirectly. Such sources include (but are not limited to) introductions to editions of the texts we're reading, online material, and any kind of study aid.

Also note that uncited sources will constitute plagiarism even if they ended up in your work without your conscious knowledge (e.g. you forgot you read the material; you confused your own notes with notes on a source), since part of the scholarly responsibility that comes with using secondary sources is keeping track of which words or ideas were yours and which came from a source. If you do not wish to take on this responsibility then you should not consult secondary sources.

I will take all suspected cases of plagiarism to the Honor Committee.

Final:
The final will be a take-home essay that will require you to recall and relate ideas from the semester as a whole.

Grading:
The final grade will be derived as follows:

Reading Responses	11 %
Presentation of sonnet	7 %
First paper	16 %
Second paper	22 %
Project 1 - analysis of sonnet edition	12 %
Project 2 - sonnet and discussion	12 %
Final	20 %

Students with Disabilities:
If you are a student with a disability and you need academic accommodations, please see me and contact the Disability Resource Center (DRC) at 703.993.2474. All academic accommodations must be arranged through that office.

A Specific, complex and/or striking thesis, thesis developed without digression through the course of the paper, consistently precise, sensitive and/or striking interpretations of the text, crafted prose, no major mechanical problems

B Specific thesis, thesis generally developed through the course of the paper, consistently good interpretation of text, competent prose, minor mechanical problems

C Has a thesis, but one that needs greater specificity or complexity, thesis developed with some digression or repetition, some good interpretation, some mechanical problems

D Very general thesis, thesis development digressive or repetitive, plot summary or thoughts/speculations not based on textual evidence, major mechanical problems

F No thesis or thesis development