Poetry Syllabus 4/19-5/7
Poetry Writing Workshop
Jane Belton
Syllabus April – May 2010
Monday 4/19
In Class: Finish workshopping. Focused Freewrite # 3 due. Begin discussing “Sestina,” “Nani” and “Sestina for the Q Train”. Discuss the form of the sestina.
Assignment: 1) Complete Exercise 4: Write a sestina based on a specific memory of a place or moment that is significant or meaningful to you. Before you begin writing, spend time selecting and honing the six end words you’ll be using. 2) Bring in a poem to read aloud in the “Poem in Your Pocket” assembly (preferably from your outside poetry book). Practice reading it aloud for assembly tomorrow.
Tuesday 4/20
In Class: Exercise 4 due. Continue discussion of the poems and how the poets use the sestina form: shifts/movement/progression in the poem, creative use of end words, enjambment. Focused revision workshop on sestinas.
Assignment: Work on revising your sestinas, according to the focused revision prompts.
Wednesday 4/21
In Class: View Anis Mojgani’s video and Tim Seibles’ “The Ballad of Sadie LaBabe”; poetry as an experience of sound/music.
Assignment: For Monday 4/26: Revise your sestinas, using the revision workshop/prompts. You will turn in both your first and second drafts of your sestina, as well as your “process/revision work” on Monday 4/26. Read and annotate Gwendolyn Brook’s “we real cool”, Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”, e.e. cummings’ “in Just-”, and Paul Celan’s “Deathfugue”. Think about how each poet uses rhythm and musicality in their poems.
Thursday 4/22 – No Class
Friday 4/23 – College Trip, No Class
Monday 4/26
In Class: Sestinas (first and revised drafts) due, along with “process/revision work”. Discuss poems: choices in rhythm, sound, line breaks. How musicality and content can work together.
Assignment: Complete Exercise 5: Take a passage of prose that you like (from any source—the encyclopedia, a novel, article, textbook, even your own writing) and alter it through the use of line breaks (ie. turn it into a poem through the use of line breaks). Experiment with where the line breaks occur, and how you might use line breaks and the space of the poem in interesting or thoughtful ways. You must try several versions, saving each version. Then, read your work aloud. How does altering the line breaks change the way you read the piece, the emphasis, moments you’re most pulled into, or even the meaning? Respond to these questions in focused freewrite # 4. Bring in your multiple versions of Exercise 5 and FFW 4 to class on Tuesday.
Tuesday 4/27
In Class: Exercise 5 and focused Freewrite 4 due. Share/talk about experience, how line breaks are used, musicality, sound, form and meaning. Share some versions.
Assignment: Read and annotate “Emperor of Ice-cream,” “The Word Plum”, and “Coal”. Complete Exercise 6: Select three words whose sounds you love. Use any or all of these words in a poem. The subject matter is up to you; the word could be the subject of the poem itself (as in “The Word Plum”) or simply one word found in the poem). For an optional challenge, choose a word that’s a bit more esoteric, ie. not commonly used in every day speech or interactions. You can also feel free to approach this exercise as a “found poem” exercise. In other words, go for a walk and make note of interesting words and phrases you see along your way (on street signs, newspapers, trucks, tee-shirts, store windows, etc.). Incorporate three of those interesting words/phrases into your poem. Bring to class 8 copies of the poem you would like to workshop next. Bring in exercise 6 to turn in to me.
Wednesday 4/28
In Class: Collect/discuss Exercise 6. Workshop Round 2 — Day 1.
Assignment: Continue revising your writing for the portfolio, due Wednesday 5/5. Read the remaining poems to be workshopped for Friday.
Thursday 4/29 – No Class
Friday 4/30
In Class: Discuss checklist for Portfolio I. Workshop Round 2 — Day II.
Assignment: Continue revising your writing for the portfolio, due Wednesday 5/5
Monday 5/3
In Class: Workshop Round 2 – Day III. Begin Focused Freewrite 5: What have you heard during workshops of your peers’ poems that can help you with your own work?
Assignment: Finish focused freewrite 5: What have you heard during workshops of your peers’ poems that can help you with your own work? Continue revising your writing for the portfolio.
Tuesday 5/4
In Class: Work period in class with laptops. Conferencing.
Assignment: Continue revising your writing for Portfolio I. Complete process piece for Portfolio I (see checklist for details). Portfolio I is due at the beginning of class tomorrow, Wednesday 5/5.
Wednesday 5/5
In Class: Portfolio I Due. Discuss the idea of litany poems- we are using the term “litany” to refer to poems that use repetition of a specific line, or form of a line, in a powerful and central way. Read “O Best of All Nights, Return and Return Again” (James Laughlin), “Save Us From” (Roo Borson), “Answers” (Mark Strand), and “Waiting for Icarus” (Muriel Rukeyser). How do these poems use repetition to establish rhythm? What do they do to become more than “just” a list? Is there a progression and if so, what is the nature of that progression?
Assignment: Finish reading assigned poems. Complete Exercise 7: Write a litany poem, using a repetitive phrase or line, perhaps inspired by an image, line, or idea that strikes you most in one of the published poems. Think about how strongly/frequently you want to use the line/refrain (ie. every line, just at the beginning of stanzas, or irregularly (as in “Deathfugue”), etc?
Thursday 5/6 – No Class
Friday 5/7 – No Class