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POETRY WORKSHOP Monday 4:30-7:10 ~ Robinson A-245 SUSAN TICHY / SPRING 2003
Office: Robinson A-431 |
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Revised Grading Information / Revised Schedule / Outstanding Essays Course Introduction Poems are more fun and more meaningful when you know how they work. The way to find out how they work is to get your hands on them: take poems apart and put poems together. Those are the assumptions behind this course, which is a hybrid experience: part writers’ workshop, part study of the forms, genres, and terminology of poetry. We will take poems apart by analyzing how they work and how they are made. We will put poems together by writing them. During the semester, you should expect to compose and revise original poems, to complete writing exercises, to read and discuss poetry, to take part in workshop critiques, to learn poetic forms and terms from a textbook, and to attend poetry readings. Requirements include three portfolios of original poems and writing exercises, two annotated “personal anthologies” of poems illustrating aspects of poetic form, and probably several quizzes on terms and concepts. We will approach poetry as an art form, not as unmediated ‘self expression,’ so the course will best serve those with a lively interest in poems, a willingness to try different forms and approaches, and a general sense of literary adventure. You will also need a GMU e-mail account and access to a printer from which you can print e-mail. This site is complete through the first nine weeks. Please read the course information below, then follow links at left to find weekly schedules & assignments. REQUIRED BOOKS ~ GOALS ~ GRADING & POLICIES ~ CLASS FORMAT SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE ~ MECHANICS FOR TURNING IN POEMS ~ WORKSHOP BASICS Required Books: The Poet’s Companion by Kim Addonizio &
Dorianne Lux Oxford Anthology of Modern American Poetry
edited by Cary Nelson The Sound of Poetry: A Brief Guide by Robert
Pinsky Other Required Reading will include discussions
& exercises on this web site (including some links to outside sites),
your classmates' poems, and miscellaneous materials handed out in class.
Goals: By the end of the semester you should have a better
understanding of how poems work and how they are made. You should have expanded
your vocabulary for discussing poems and be able to analyze how a poem's
meanings are constructed, not simply conveyed. You should have an increased
understanding of the historical origins and contexts of poetic forms and practices.
Your own poems should be made more beautifully and more efficiently, and
you should have mastered certain editorial techniques to help you revise and
complete your poems. I hope you will enjoy poems even more and have an expanded
appreciation of the range of poems and poetic forms available to us as readers
and writers in the greatest consuming culture in history. Some of may have
identified in yourselves enough talent and desire to continue writing poetry,
perhaps as a lifelong vocation. Grading & Policies: As of March 12: I have dropped one
of the Personal Anthologies and adjusted grade percentages to make up for
it. Portfolio #1: 15% Anthology 25% Participation in workshop & class discussions:
10% Notes on live readings will not be graded, but failure to hand in satisfactory notes will result in a subtraction from your participation grade. Late assignments: Anthologies and the first two portfolios will be accepted up to one week late, with reduction of a full letter grade. No final portfolios will be accepted late, nor will individual poems due to the class, to your small group, or to me. If you do not have your poem the week it is scheduled for discussion, you will not have a poem discussed in that cycle. Absence from class will be excused in case of serious illness, family emergency, auto accident, etc. You must call or e-mail me in advance to explain why you will be absent. Remember that if you miss one class you miss a week of class. GMU does not allow us to grade on attendance per se. However, you can't participate if you are not present, so more than one unexcused absence will result in a subtraction from your participation grade, as will chronic lateness or early departure. "Present" means present for the full duration of the class meeting. Quizes may be unannounced. They cannot be made up unless your absence was excused and you contacted me before class regarding the circumstances. It goes without saying, but they like us to say it: This course is governed by the GMU Honor Code. Plagiarism is a serious offense that will result in failure in this class. Here's a definition of plagiarism.
Class Format: Most weeks you will read 10-15 poems (from the anthology and/or on line) plus a couple of chapters from the text books. You should be prepared to discuss this reading in class and to ask questions about it. You will be expected to understand terms used in the reading, and we will have unannounced quizes on terms and concepts. In most class sessions we will discuss part of the reading, or I will present a mini-lecture covering the same material in more depth. Some weeks we may write in class. All this will take up to half the class time, with the rest devoted to workshop discussion of your poems. In the weeks before Spring Break we'll have full-class workshop, in which each of you will have one poem discussed by the full group. This will allow us to get acquainted and to model and observe the workshop process. I will also provide written feedback on one of your poems approximately every other week. After Spring Break, workshop will be in small groups of 4 to 5 and you will probably have at least four poems discussed. Again, you will receive writte feedback on a poem from me about every other week. After the first couple of weeks, you will be expected to send your poems for discussion via e-mail to the class list and to receive your classmates' poems the same way. You will need to print your classmates' poems, read them, write comments, and come to class prepared to discuss them. If you don't do this prep work at home there will be two consequences: bad workshops, followed by more policing from me. Let's not come to that. During the semester you will also be required to
attend two live poetry readings. Readings on campus will be announced. Others
may be found in the Washington Post or by checking the web sites of the
Folger Shakespeare Library, Georgetown University, George Washington University,
the University of Maryland, The D.C. Arts Center, or other venues. One
of the live readings may be a slam or performance. Turn in notes on each
reading you attend. Guidelines
Schedule at a Glance: Revised March 12. Please see
revised schedule pages for Weeks 7-9 & Weeks 10-12. Week 7: March 10: Spring Break Week 8: March 17: Meter & Scansion / Full Class
workshop Week 15: May 5: Readings &
Party / Portfolio #3 due today Guidelines Mechanics for Turning in Poems: For each poem or exercise you turn in, please indicate at the top of the page: your name, the course number & name, the date it was turned in,and what poem or exercise it represents. If the poem has been revised since it was first turned in, make a second header below or beside the first one, with the lavel "Revision #1" (or "Revision #2" etc.). Even if you have revised it six times, if this is the first revision I've seen, label it #1. These mechanics are designed to minimize confusion & maximize my time when reading your poems. As you probably know, writing classes tend to dissolve in a deluge of paper whose precise origins no one can quite account for. For the same reason, you may find it easier to stay organized if you have two folders for this course, one for your own work and the feedback you've received, a second for your classmates' work and your feeedback for them. When e-mailing poems, type or paste them into the body of your message. Do not send attachments. I will not open them.
Workshop Basics: Some of you may have experience in writing workshops; for others this will be a first. Here are a few thoughts on how it works. 1) Poetry workshop is a form of peer-teaching. Its success depends on each of you committing to an open, respectful process of both giving and receiving feedback. Workshopping a poem can be a stressful, sometimes highly emotional experience for the poet. It is important to remember that we are discussing the poem before us, not the character of the poet, the personal experience that may be referenced in the poem, or the general moral standing of the poem's subject. In other words, bad poems can be written on worthy subjects, and good ones can be written on subjects the reader doesn't much understand. Our interests as private readers will vary enormously; our interest as a workshop of poets must lie in the making of poems -- in craft, and in the ways craft constructs or gives access to experience. 2) Workshop is not a service station, to which you bring a poem to be fixed. It's a community to which you must contribute in order to receive. Learning takes place in workshop from all corners of the room: from listening to the rest of us discuss your poem, from listening to the rest of us discuss someone else's poem, and (perhaps most of all) from the process you go through as you read, appreciate, analyze and discuss your classmates' poems. From all these actions you develop your critical faculties, your internal editor, and your composing/revising skills. 3) The workshop will not and need not always reach consensus. It's frustrating when one reader praises the exact part of your poem someone else has just demolished, or vice versa, but it's part of the process. Audiences vary, readers vary, and part of your growth as a writer is deciding whom you are writing for. You may aim for clarity and a comfortable reader, or you may aim for complexity and a challenged reader. Whatever your aims, your ideal reader is someone who pushes you to improve, yet understands your intentions and your sensibility. A reader who is stringent, but wants you to be some other kind of writer won't help you as much but may prod you to try new things. A reader who only praises won't help you improve, but may give you the confidence to keep expanding your work. Even within the limited audience world of a writing class, you will probably find good readers for your work. You may also find some whose opinions are of no use to you. Be patient please: a student whose ideas are less developed than yours may be furthering his or her own education in the process of discussing your poem. 4) If you find yourself one of the less developed poets or critics in the room, take heart. You may, in fact, learn more this semester than those near the top of the achievement scale. Pay attention even to poems you don't understand, and always feel free to ask questions. Chances are that if you don't understand something, someone else is in the same position: do them a favor and be the one who asks. 5) Before class, it will be your responsibility to print the poems you have received by e-mail, read them, and make written notes on them for discussion. Be sure to print each poem on a separate page, or half page, so you can give your comments to the poets. For each poem, make marginal notes and then write a short paragraph of response and commentary. Be sure your notes are legible, comprehensible, and signed. You do not need to give me your notes. However, if it seems that you individually or the class in general may be dropping the ball on this process, I will start policing. Here are some guidelines:
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