Sample Final

Note that this final is from 2014, so the readings were different.  Moreover, as you know, we did not see a film.

EN 190 – (100 pts) – This exam is closed book/closed notebook, but you may not use a computer or smart phone.

Fill in the blank (1 pt. each)  (17 pts.)

 Fill in the name of the reading. 

_______________________________  is about the poet’s relationship with his father .

 _____________________________________   is a tale of horror.

  ___________________________________  is told in the first person.

  _________________________    is told in the third person.

_______________________________  is set in China.

________________________________  is free verse.

Fill in the name of the individual.  (This may be a character or an author or an actor.)

____________________________________ came to speak to our class.

   ______________________________ is a protagonist.

 ____________________________   wrote sonnets.

_____________________________________ directed the 1922 version of Nosferatu.

_______________________________  wrote free verse.

___________________________________ wrote in a language other than English.

Fill in the name of the term.  (The term may refer to film, short stories, or poetry.)

A character may be ____________________________ , according to E.M. Forster.

  ________________________ is a type of poem.

    _______________________  is poetry that does not rhyme.

 In  _________________________, the speaker of the poem is definitely not the poet.

_________________________ are important to “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona.”

Multiple Choice (35 pts – 5 pts. each)

1. Who was disappointed that “We Real Cool” is the poem that everyone expects him/her to read?

1. John Ulrich                            b.   Sherman Alexie                             c.             Gwendolyn Brooks

2. Which of these statements is true about the 1922 version of Nosferatu?

1.  Bram Stoker’s family believed that the film violated their copyright.
2.  Max Schreck, the actor who played Nosferatu, was an actual vampire.
3.  In the end, Hutter becomes a vampire anyway.

3.             Which of these poems was written in the 1800s?
a.             Sonnet 130 by Shakespeare
b.             “My Last Duchess”
c.             “Dangerous Astronomy”

4.             Which of these statements are true about “Saboteur”?
a.             At the end of the story, Mr. Chiu’s wife leaves him.
b.             Fenjin was Mr. Chiu’s favorite student.
c.             Mr. Chiu deliberately spreads hepatitis in Muji City.

5.             Which of these statements are established in “The Paring Knife”?
a.             The narrator is married to the woman he loves.
b.             The narrator refers to the woman he lives with as the woman he loves.
c.             The woman the narrator loves loves him.

6.             Which of these statements are true about Shakespeare’s sonnets?
a.             Some are written to a young man, and others are written to a Dark Lady.

                b.             The Dark Lady was an actress in his theater.
c.             His sonnets have sixteen lines, rather than fourteen.

7.             Which of these statements is true about the bop?
a.             It has a refrain, ideally one that is out of copyright!
b.             It was invented by Gwendolyn Brooks.

                c.             It is performed to Thelonious Monk’s music.

Short Answer (48 pts. – 2 pts. each )

 1             List three differences between poetry and fiction.  For extra credit, explain why you’ve chosen them.

2.             Should we study more older literature?  Support your answer with up to three reasons.

3. Should we study more work in translation in ENGL 190?  Support your answer with up to three reasons.

4.             What are the strengths and weaknesses of rhymed poetry?  For extra credit, explain why.

5.             List three differences between first person narration and third person.  For extra credit, explain why you’ve chosen them.

6.             Does reading fiction and/or poetry encourage one to be show more empathy?    Or not? Support your answer with up to three reasons.

7.             What are the strengths and weaknesses of unrhymed poetry.  For extra credit, explain why you’ve chosen them.

OR      What are three characteristics of poetry.  For extra credit, explain why you’ve chosen them.

OR Argue for or against prose poetry and/or flash fiction.  Support your answer with up to three reasons.  

 Extra Credit --

1.        List up to five things that you’ve learned from readings that we have not discussed in class.  For extra credit, explain why you’ve come up with these things.

2.        List up to five things that you’ve learned from lecture or class discussion.  For extra credit, explain how they have helped you understand literature better.           

A Few Questions

This afternoon I'd like to add a few questions about Langston Hughes' poetry and the poetry we went over today.

-- Compare how Hughes depicts nature ("The Negro Speaks of Rivers") with the way that Whitman or Dickinson depicts nature.  What do these poems tell us about nature?  about changes in the American landscape from the 1800s to the 1900s?

-- As an African-American, how does Hughes relate to nature?

-- Discuss "Madam and her Madam" and "The Necklace" or "My Last Duchess" as poems by a male poet who assumes a woman's voice.

-- Discuss "Madam and her Madam" and "Crusoe in England" or "A narrow Fellow in the Grass" as poems by poets who assume the voice of the other gender.

-- Compare and contrast shorter poems like "I, Too," "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," "In Kyoto," "In a Station in the Metro," Emily Dickinson's poems, "Oread," and "The Red Wheelbarrow."  What are their strengths?  What are their weaknesses?  Are some poems really not that short?

-- Compare and contrast "In Kyoto" and "In a Station in the Metro."  How do both poems attract your attention?  How do they handle imagery?  How do they handle language?  How do they evoke emotion?  Do you think that Pound's poem is a kind of haiku?  Why?  Why not?

-- Many children study haiku and concrete poems in elementary school.  How does this affect the way that they view poetry?  Or these types of poems? 

--  Discuss Mary Ellen Solt as a female poet or woman writer.  (You may also bring in Jamaica Kincaid, Elizabeth Bishop, H.D., Gwendolyn Brooks, or Emily Dickinson.)  What does Solt add to women's writing?  How does she fall into gender stereotypes?

-- What does it mean to end our study of poetry with Mary Ellen Solt?  Why?  Consider how the unit would have ended with Langston Hughes, Jamaica Kincaid, or, our youngest poet, Abdul Ali.

Last Days of Poetry (with links)

This afternoon I'd like to post the links to the last of the poems we looked at.

"Oread" -- H.D. (1914)
imagist poem (focus on one image, precise sensory detail, brevity, everyday language, free verse, open topic) -- oread is a nymph ("a minor female nature deity typically associated with a particular location or landform" (Wikipedia)) -- H.D. was the pen name of Hilda Doolittle, associate and former fiancee of Ezra Pound
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48186/oread

"Forsythia" -- Mary Ellen Solt (before 1966)
concrete/visual poem -- poem in the shape of its subject -- concrete/visual poetry popular in 1960s & earlier in Europe & Brazil -- Solt was not a protege of William Carlos Williams, but she wrote about his poetry -- "Forsythia -- Out -- Race -- Springs -- Telegram -- Hope -- Insists -- Action" -- also Morse code in her poem
http://writing.upenn.edu/library/Solt-Mary-Ellen_Forsythia.html

"Lilac" -- Mary Ellen Solt (1963)
concrete/visual poem -- note color of type in her poem
http://www.ubu.com/historical/solt/flowers/pdf/Solt-Lilac_1963.pdf

"In a Station of the Metro" -- Ezra Pound (1913)
imagist poem -- Pound founded Imagism -- In a 1916 interview, Pound drew connections between this poem and painting as well as between the poem and haiku (or as he stated hokku) -- Pound knew Japanese but not Chinese -- note that the two lines of this poem rhyme -- not standard haiku format -- poem set in Paris -- according to Kenner, this poem took three versions and a year and a half to find its final form
with reading of poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/12675/in-a-station-of-the-metro

"The Red Wheelbarrow"  -- William Carlos Williams (1923)
imagist poem -- WCW "sought to invent an entirely fresh—and singularly American—poetic, whose subject matter was centered on the everyday circumstances of life and the lives of common people" (Poets.org) -- WCW was a physician who made house calls -- "no ideas but in things" -- enjambment -- two-line stanzas
link to poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45502/the-red-wheelbarrow
link to reading by poet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMHxQNaoFSM

"In Kyoto" -- Basho -- translated by Jane Hirschfield (original between 1664 and 1694; translation -- after 2017)  Basho, a Japanese poet, was noted for his haiku --
haiku is generally made up of three lines of unrhymed poetry (five syllables -- seven syllables -- five syllables) -- However, especially in English, these guidelines are not always hard and fast.  According to William J. Higginson, haiku in English tend to be shorter. Also haiku has a break in meaning and tends to be about nature (cycle of nature) -- written in present tense
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48708/in-kyoto-

"Easter Wings" -- George Herbert (1633)
concrete poem -- however, words have meaning -- not just typography - this link has a picture of how Herbert's poem was originally published in 1633: https://www.ccel.org/h/herbert/temple/Easterwings.html  I think it makes better sense -- poem rhymes -- lines irregular -- Herbert was an Anglican minister whose work was not published until after his death
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44361/easter-wings

"Swan and Shadow" -- John Hollander (1966)
concrete poem -- swan above and below water -- words have meaning -- not just typography -- Hollander was a formal poet during the height of free verse and confessional poetry
https://www.naic.edu/~gibson/poems/hollander1.html

"Anna Nicole's Dream" -- Grace Cavalieri (2015)
sonnet with off rhymes/near rhymes -- Grace Cavalieri wrote a book of poems and a play about Ms. Smith
http://www.beltwaypoetry.com/anna-nicoles-dream/

Individual works, pt. 2 (plus links)

"Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" -- Walt Whitman (1856)
free verse poem in several parts -- part of Leaves of Grass -- written at a time before Brooklyn Bridge had been built and *before* Brooklyn was part of NYC -- speaker addresses both people and inanimate objects (i.e., flood tide) -- long lines -- anaphora -- speaker refers to past, present, and future
link to poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45470/crossing-brooklyn-ferry
link to video with pretty pictures: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXJKYOvzGTw&t=6s
link to video with Will Geer's reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBm65n7azwc&t=32s

"Defending Walt Whitman" -- Sherman Alexie (1995)
free verse -- Walt Whitman plays basketball on an Indian reservation -- refrain ("Every body is brown!") -- how does the poet represent Whitman?
link to poem: https://web.archive.org/web/20060615052432/http://home.earthlink.net/~jandsgordon/Poems/whitman.htm
link to performance by Tim Murray: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpsF6S0ue3k

"A Supermarket in California" -- Allen Ginsberg (1956)
free verse -- was intended to be written as a tribute to Whitman on the 100th anniversary of Leaves of Grass' first publication -- Ginsberg is a pioneering poet/Beat poet/gay poet speaking to a poetic ancestor -- supermarket/California is a very 1950s setting -- Beats in opposition to conventional life
link to poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47660/a-supermarket-in-california
link to poet reading his poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhTh01CO60Y&t=19s

"My Life had stood -- a loaded Gun" -- Emily Dickinson (written before 1886)
poem with rhythm and rhyme -- capitalization & dashes -- relationship between men and women
link to poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52737/my-life-had-stood-a-loaded-gun-764
link to slam reading of poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2yXlA_A34g

"Because I could not stop for Death" -- Emily Dickinson (written before 1886)
off-rhyme -- 1800s relationship to death -- ED often writes about death
link to poem with reading by Robert Pinsky: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47652/because-i-could-not-stop-for-death-479

"Nature the gentlest mother" -- Emily Dickinson (written before 1886)
presentation is more standardized -- ED often writes about nature
link to poem: http://www.bartleby.com/113/2001.html
link to setting by Aaron Copland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfa6Kc8nmkw

"On Meeting Robert Hayden in a Dream" -- Abdul Ali (2015)
free verse -- three-line stanzas -- no punctuations but spaces
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/meeting-robert-hayden-dream

"I, Too, Sing America" -- Langston Hughes (1926)
free verse -- American voice but traveled throughout the world -- influenced by Walt Whitman -- Hughes would later change "I" to "we" towards the end of the poem -- Hughes participated in the Harlem Renaissance & lived until the Civil Rights movement -- Hughes was the first African-American writer to "live by his pen"
link to poem: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/i-too
link to reading by poet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rti7vmujaL4

"I Hear America Singing" -- Walt Whitman (1860)
free verse -- part of Leaves of Grass -- anaphora -- repetition -- poem about Americans who weren't typically in poems or taken seriously -- sense that Whitman is apart from them but is one of them -- according to David Reynolds, this poem "reflected a pre-mass-media culture in which Americans often entertained themselves and each other. Whitman’s spouting Shakespeare atop omnibuses, declaiming Homer and Ossian at the seashore, and humming arias on the street typified these performances in everyday life."
link to poem: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/i-hear-america-singing
link to reading of poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eNQqCmXLxA

"The Negro Speaks of Rivers" -- Langston Hughes (1920)
like Whitman -- free verse, more spiritual, listing, anaphora -- written when he was very young & on his way to his father in Mexico -- wanted his poetry to be accessible -- speaker is more of a communal voice
link to poem: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/negro-speaks-rivers
link to reading of poem by poet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cKDOGhghMU

"Madam and Her Madam" -- Langston Hughes
comic verse with rhyme and meter -- song like -- is it a ballad -- it's part of a series -- short lines -- persona poem -- speaker is not the poet
link to poem: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/madam-and-her-madam

Focusing on Langston Hughes

Today we turned our attention to the poetry of Langston Hughes.  I'm pleased to see how everyone responded to him.  He is a remarkable writer, and he was not only a poet but also a playwright, a writer of memoirs, and a short story writer.  His stories about Jess B. Simple are also fun to read.  A number of playwrights have dramatized them for the contemporary stage.

We have two more days of new poetry.  Wednesday we will go over some modern poetry, namely poems by Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, Mary Ellen Solt, and H.D.

"Oread" is our poem from H.D.:  https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48186/oread

"Forsythia" is our poem from Mary Ellen Solt: http://writing.upenn.edu/library/Solt-Mary-Ellen_Forsythia.html

You may also want to look at her "Lilac":  http://www.ubu.com/historical/solt/flowers/pdf/Solt-Lilac_1963.pdf

William Carlos Williams is known for "The Red Wheelbarrow" https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45502/the-red-wheelbarrow  and "This is Just to Say" https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/just-say

Ezra Pound, however, was the force behind modernism: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/12675/in-a-station-of-the-metro

He was also known for his poems inspired by Chinese poetry: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47692/the-river-merchants-wife-a-letter-56d22853677f9

Here are a few questions for you about Langston Hughes and his poetry.

-- We compared Hughes' poems to Whitman's.  Let's also compare one of his poems to Gwendolyn Brooks' "the rites for Cousin Vit": https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51983/the-rites-for-cousin-vit

-- Or to one of Emily Dickinson's poems. http://en202.blogspot.com/2018/04/preparinhg-for-emily-dickinson-langston.html

-- Should we read more comic verse like "Madam and Her Madam"?  Why?  Why not?

-- Should we read more satire like "Madam and Her Madam"?  Why?  Why not?

-- How does "Madam and Her Madam" fit with Hughes' other poems?  Why?

-- How does Langston Hughes use language in his poems?

-- Which emotions does he evoke?

-- Compare a poem by Hughes with a poem by Williams.  Both poets write concise poetry.  Do they share other similarities?  How are they different?

-- How short should a poem be?  Why?

-- In your opinion, which poet portrays America more accurately?  Whitman in "I hear America Singing" or Hughes in "I, Too, Sing America"?

-- William Carlos Williams maintained "no ideas but in things."  How does this philosophy affect his poetry?

-- Could you apply his philosophy to other poets?  Where does it not apply?

-- How do poets evoke the senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch)?

-- Are Mary Ellen Solt's poems poems?  Why?  Why not?

-- How should a poet portray a culture that he is not part of?

-- Compare Ezra Pound's response to Chinese literature to Chinese poetry that you are familiar with.

-- Langston Hughes was about 18 when he wrote "The Negro Speaks of Rivers."  How is this poem a young person's poem?

-- If you have ever been to the rivers Hughes mentions or to other impressive rivers like the Nile or the Amazon, how did you experience help you read his poem?

-- Why do rivers speak to Langston Hughes?

Preparing for Our Next Study Day

Today we focused on Emily Dickinson's poetry, looking at it, listening to it, discussing her place in literature, and gossiping about her a little.  We listened to Aaron Copland's setting of her poem "Nature the gentlest mother": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcZayQ1pZTo  If you would like to see the words of that poem, here it is:  http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/115/the-poems-of-emily-dickinson-series-two/4422/nature-poem-1-mother-nature/  We also listened to poet Robert Pinsky read "Because I could not stop for Death": https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47652/because-i-could-not-stop-for-death-479  as well as the slam poets reading "My Life had stood--a loaded Gun": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2yXlA_A34g

Here is our prose version of "Because I could not stop for Death":

Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me. The carriage held but just ourselves And immortality.  We slowly drove. He knew no haste, and I had put away my labor and my leisure too for his civility . We passed the school, where children strove at recess in the ring .  We passed the fields of gazing grain.  We passed the setting sun, or rather  he passed us. The dews drew quivering and chill. For only gossamer, my gown, my tippet, only tulle. We paused before a house that seemed a swelling of the ground.  The roof was scarcely visible, the cornice in the ground. Since then 'tis centuries, and yet feels shorter than the day I first surmised the horses' heads were toward eternity.

Try doing this with any of the other poems we looked at!  What did you learn about the poem?  What did you discover when you went back to look at the original version of the poem?  

Choose a poem and read it aloud.  What did you learn about it?  Why?  How is the oral version different from the reading version?  How is it similar?

Here are a few more questions about Dickinson and her poetry.  Below is a picture of an envelope poem.  Not every poem was written down in this manner, but many were:

Here is an article about these envelope poems: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/articles/70065/studies-in-scale

What does this article add to your understanding of Emily Dickinson's poetry?  of poetry and literature in general?  Consider the conditions of writing as well as a woman's life in the 1800s.

How does information about Emily Dickinson's life help you to read her poetry?  How does it get in your way?  (Here is the Poetry Foundation's biography: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/emily-dickinson  I reviewed two recent biographies of the poet here: http://en202.blogspot.com/2010/06/white-heat-friendship-of-emily.html
http://en202.blogspot.com/2010/06/lives-like-loaded-guns.html)

Discuss the relationship between gun and master in "My Life had stood--a loaded Gun."

Discuss the relationship between woman and man in "My Life..."

Why is Emily Dickinson still worth reading in 2018?  Which insights does she have for us today?

Do some research on the 1800s.  How does Emily Dickinson's poetry reflect the world that she lived in?

Why might a poet want to make the everyday strange?

How should a poet communicate with his/her readers?

Compare two of Emily Dickinson's poems.  How does reading each alongside the other help you to understand them more?

Compare one of Emily Dickinson's poems to a poem by Shakespeare, Bishop, Whitman, or Hughes.  What does the comparison tell you about the poems?  What does it tell you about poetry in general?

On to our next study day!  We will discuss poems by Langston Hughes on Monday.  I will also add this bop poem for you: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/rambling

To learn more about the bop poem, see this link: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/bop-poetic-form

Preparing for Emily Dickinson & Langston Hughes

Today we looked at Walt Whitman and two poems about him (Sherman Alexie's "Defending Walt Whitman" and Allen Ginsberg's "A Supermarket in California").  We also watched parts of two readings of Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry."  The pictures are lovely here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXJKYOvzGTw  I prefer Will Geer's reading here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBm65n7azwc

Tim Murray performs "Defending Walt Whitman": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpsF6S0ue3k
Here Sherman Alexie discusses his love for basketball: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJdXX0BXWmI

Here is a recording of Ginsberg as a youngish man reading "A Supermarket in California": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcTI7em_w2E
The sound on this video of him as an older man is better here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhTh01CO60Y

Let's  move on to Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes.
This is Emily Dickinson's "My Life had stood -- a Loaded Gun": https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52737/my-life-had-stood-a-loaded-gun-764

Here is her "Because I could not stop for Death -- ":  https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47652/because-i-could-not-stop-for-death-479

We'll finish with her "A narrow Fellow in the Grass":  https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49909/a-narrow-fellow-in-the-grass-1096

Langston Hughes' "I, Too" works well with Whitman's poems: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/i-too

As does "The Negro Speaks of Rivers": https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/negro-speaks-rivers

We'll finish with "Madam and Her Madam": https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/madam-and-her-madam

Here are some questions if you choose to write your paper on a poem by Whitman, Alexie, or Ginsberg.

-- How did the recordings of "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" help you with the poem?

-- Have you ever been to New York City (especially Brooklyn or Manhattan)?  How did that experience help you with "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"?

-- With the gentrification of Manhattan and Brooklyn, I imagine that Whitman might be more at home in Queens, the Bronx, perhaps even Staten Island or New Jersey.  What do you think?

-- One of Whitman's techniques is to list items.  How does that help his poems be more inclusive?

-- How does Whitman make "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" more inclusive?

-- Whitman relies on anaphora (repetition of beginnings of lines).  How does that affect his poetry?

-- What role does the self play in "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"?

-- How does Whitman speak to us in 2018?

-- In Section 5, Whitman writes:

"I too had receiv’d identity by my body, 

That I was I knew was of my body, and what I should be I knew I should be of my body. "

How does this poem reflect that statement?

-- How does Whitman depict nature in the city?

-- Compare and contrast Alexie's "Defending Walt Whitman" and Louise Erdrich's "The Red Convertible" as writing by Native American authors or writing set on a Native American reservation.  

-- Compare and contrast the speaker of "Defending Walt Whitman" with Lyman, the narrator of "The Red Convertible."

-- Apply the lines from "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" to "Defending Walt Whitman," "A Supermarket in California," poems by Emily Dickinson, or poems by Langston Hughes.  In particular, what do they have to say to or about poetry by writers with a less mainstream identity (Dickinson or Bishop as women, Hughes as an African-American, Alexie as a Native American, or Ginsberg as a gay, Jewish man)?

-- Watch the video of Allen Ginsberg as an older man reading "A Supermarket in California":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhTh01CO60Y  As an older man reading this poem that he wrote as a younger man, what does he add to it?

-- How do you feel that the speaker of "A Supermarket in California" feels toward Walt Whitman?  Why?

-- Which living or dead author would you like to meet?  Why?  Where would you imagine meeting them?  Why?

Here are a few questions on our readings for Wednesday:

-- What does it mean for one's life to be a loaded gun?  Why?  What is the gun a metaphor of?

-- How does Emily Dickinson imagine Death?  Compare/contrast it with your thoughts on this topic.

-- Why does the speaker of "A narrow Fellow" fear the snake?  Consider that he loves other parts of Nature.

-- Compare Dickinson's descriptions of nature with Whitman's.

-- Compare Dickinson's world with Whitman's.

-- What can a male reader or poet learn from Dickinson?

-- What can a female reader or poet learn from Dickinson?

-- What is Langston Hughes' perspective on America?  

-- Compare and contrast his perspective on America with Walt Whitman's.

-- How does Langston Hughes speak to us today in 2018?

-- How does Langston Hughes depict the African-American experience in the mid-1900s?

-- What can an African-American reader or poet learn from Hughes?

-- What can a reader or poet from another race learn from Hughes?

Preparing for Walt Whitman

For the past few days, we've taken a break from new readings.  Wednesday we went over the new assignment and the structure of the final.  (Note: the structure of the final will be the same as the structure of the midterm.  The content, of course, is different.)  Today (Friday) we began putting together our study guide.  See this link: http://en202.blogspot.com/2018/04/individual-works-pt-1.html 

Next Friday we will return to the study guide, but for Monday we will look at some new readings.  Two are inspired by Walt Whitman, the "father" of modern American poetry.  (At any rate, he is a key figure.)  Three are by Whitman himself and were in his book Leaves of Grass.

I can't resist assigning Sherman Alexie's "Defending Walt Whitman": https://web.archive.org/web/20060615052432/http://home.earthlink.net/~jandsgordon/Poems/whitman.htm   Or Allen Ginsberg's "A Supermarket in California," perhaps one of his least typical poems: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47660/a-supermarket-in-california  I have to include some Whitman: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/noiseless-patient-spider    Since this is the weekend, I am assigning "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry": https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45470/crossing-brooklyn-ferry  But I want to include Whitman's elegy to Abraham Lincoln: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45474/o-captain-my-captain

Here are a few questions that will help with the paper on poetry:

-- Which question will you respond to for this paper?  Why?

-- Which poem is the most poetic to you?  Why?

-- Which poem is the least?  Why?

-- How will research help you write this paper?


These questions will help you study for the exam on May 7:

-- Choose one of the poems we haven't written up study guides for.  (See this link for ideas: http://en202.blogspot.com/2018/04/individual-works-pt-1.html)  Why is this poem significant?  What could I ask about this poem on the final?

-- Choose one of the poems we have written up study guides for.  What would you add to this study guide?

-- What have you learned so far about the sonnet?

-- What have you learned so far about free verse?

-- What have you learned so far about persona poems or poems written in another person's voice?

-- What have you learned so far about a poem's speaker?

-- What have you learned so far about a dramatic monologue?

-- How would you define poetry?  Why?

Now I'll finish with questions that pertain to individual poems, the ones by Shakespeare, Bishop, Levine, Whitman, Ginsberg, and Alexie.

-- What can a female poet or female reader learn from Whitman?  Why?

-- What can a male poet or male reader learn from Whitman?  Why?

-- What challenges you when you read free verse (Whitman, Bishop, Levine, Ginsberg, and Alexie)? Why?

-- What challenges you when you read more traditional verse (Whitman, Shakespeare)?  Why?

-- Discuss the impact of line length on free verse (Whitman, Bishop, Levine, Ginsberg, and Alexie -- choose two).

-- Does free verse encourage  poets to focus on language?  Why?  Why not?

-- Does free verse encourage poets to focus on emotion?  Why?  Why not?

-- Do any of our poems for Monday have a plot?  If so, why?  How does that affect your reading of it?

-- Do any not seem to have a plot?  If so, why?  Discuss the impact of the lack of plot.

-- Compare Whitman's free verse to his more traditional poem "O Captain!  My Captain!"

-- What do you know about Abraham Lincoln and his assassination?  What role did he play in the United States?

-- Compare Bishop's "Crusoe in England" (free verse) to "One Art" (villanelle).

-- Sherman Alexie also wrote a villanelle: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/dangerous-astronomy  Compare/contrast it and his free verse poem "Defending Walt Whitman."

-- "A Supermarket in California" is probably Allen Ginsberg's most conventional poem.  "America" is probably more typical: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49305/america-56d22b41f119f  Compare/contrast the two poems.

-- How might Whitman have influenced Allen Ginsberg's "America"?

I'm looking forward to seeing what you have to say!