Draft syllabus – still a work in progress, with requests submitted by Dec 20th now included.
Sorry not to have motivated more of you to make requests.
Over the holidays I'll be revising/adding to this (may switch Auden and the WWI poets).
Next allocation: on Monday 6th of January, I'll add any further requests that I've received.
Signup for presentations will then revert to a first-come first-serve with a list circulated in class and then nailed to my door.

 

About group presentations:

          -groups of 3 (organize yourselves/I’ll put you in based on your preferences)

          -all three of you will do the same poem, but from a different perspective, e.g.

                   -contemporary reactions

                   -biographical/psychological importance

                   -identity politics (Irish, African-American, female, Canadian, etc.)

                   -an image

                   -a mythic pattern

                   -a genre (elegy, etc.)

                   -cultural function of poetry

 

          -if a poem is in bold it is available for presentations

-in the second half of second term, the group can/must select the poem

-you must select and give the copy of the poem to CP 2 weeks before your presentation

-the entire presentation should take about 45 minutes (no more than 10 minutes per person, and about 10 for discussion)

-you’ll be marked on both the oral and your script (hand in 7 days after the presentation or on the day)

 

On Wednesday December 4th, please give CP:

          -three choices of author in order of preference (e.g. Yeats, Atwood, Cohen)

OR

          -three choices of date in order of preference

AND

          -one date on which you refuse to present

 

On Saturday December 7th, check the “chass” website for your assignment

          -I’ll send “group emails” to each group so that you have each other’s contact information

 

 

First half of second term (draft)

         

1.      Jan 6       Yeats “Sailing to Byzantium” (1094), Auden, “In Memory of W.B. Yeats” (1368)

                   Yeats, “Easter 1916” (1069)

 

2. Jan 13       McCrae, “In Flanders Fields” (1119), Sandburg, “Grass” (1147), Rosenberg, “Break of Day in the Trenches” (1262),

Owen, “Dulce et decorum est” (1276), Owen, “Strange meeting” (1279)

                             Eliot, “The Burial of the Dead”, The Waste Land (1236)

 

3. Jan 20       Housman, “On Wenlock Edge the Wood’s in Trouble” (1071), Thomas, “Fern Hill” (1464), Hill, from Mercian Hymns (1722)

          essay #2 due

 

4. Jan 27       Frost, “To Earthward” (1132), “Come In” (1137), Stevens, “The Poems of Our Climate” (1160), Stevens, “Of Mere Being” (1162)

Stevens, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” (1155)

                        Frost, “Directive” (1138)

         

5. Feb 3        Ginsberg, from Howl (1598)

Anne Sexton, “And One For My Dame” (1652),

Sylvia Plath, “Daddy” (1732), “Black Rook in Rainy Weather” (1737)

Presenting on Plath: Clara Blackwood, Devon Laberge, and Adam Nielsen.
Presenting on Ginsberg: Joe Fuda, Peter McCamus, and one other.

 

6. Feb 10       Countee Cullen, “Heritage” (1335)

Derek Walcott “A Far Cry From Africa” (1709)

Audre Lorde “Coal” (1752)

                   test #2 (in class)

         

Reading week

 

Unit on poetry in Canada – we’ll have to go beyond Norton for these (I’ll post copies on WebCT)

            -if no poems are specific for an author then your group may select one

 

7. Feb 24       Poetry for children: Dr Seuss, "Oh, the places you'll go!", Dennis Lee

Presenting on Dr Seuss: Adam Burgetz, Anna Guigauri, and Ryon Levitt. There is space for one more group (of 3) on Dennis Lee.

 

8. Mar 3        George Bowering (our current poet Laureate!)

Phyllis Webb, Al Purdy,

Purdy: Badri Narayan, and 2 others.

                             essay #3 (in class)

 

9. Mar 10       Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Gwendolyn MacEwen

Cohen: Calvin Maclean, Corey Woodley and Joe Perfetto.
Mitchell: Medeine Tribinevicius, Angela Verven, Kimberlee White.

 

10. Mar 17     Margaret Atwood (no more than 2 of these)

“At the Tourist Center in Boston” (1784),

“Flowers” (1786),

“Variation on the Word Sleep” (not in Norton)

“Death of a Young Son by Drowning” (not in Norton) -- or "Spelling"? (not in Norton either)

 

“Letters & Other Worlds” (1814),

“The Cinnamon Peeler” (not in Norton),

“To a Sad Daughter” (not in Norton)

Dionne Brand or Louise Bernice Halfe (not in Norton - suggestions from presenters welcome)

Ondaatje: Norris Weisman and two others.
One of the other poets (Atwood, Brand, Halfe): room for three others

 

12. Mar 31:    Anne Carson (not in Norton)

Michael Crummey (not in Norton)

Anne Michaels (not in Norton)

 

13. April 7:     One contemporary musician (also not in Norton)

                             The group will have to agree on one musician and one lyric!

                   Catch-up