Individual works pt. 1 (plus links)

individual works
"The Cask of Amontillado" -- Edgar Allan Poe (published in 1846)
1st person told a long time after the events -- in Italy during the Renaissance -- during Carnival -- in Venice-- Fortunato (the one who was killed) & Montresor (the narrator & the murderer) -- horror story -- Poe was not only a writer but also a critic -- helped shape American literature -- wrote about the impact that a poem or story made -- single effect
https://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/the_cask_of_amontillado.pdf

"The Cigarette" (see handout) -- Marjane Satrapi (published 2004) -- from book-length graphic memoir Persepolis -- story is about the rebellion of the daughter during the Iran/Iraq war in the early 1980s -- cigarette represents rebellion -- narrated by Marjane (the girl once she is an adult) -- takes place in Tehran, the capital of Iran -- graphic literature: graphics give you a guide to the story; story isn't that long, but the pictures are more in-depth -- you can apply techniques to read images to read this story -- panel -- most are the same size, but one about the war is huge (entire page) -- size, drawings, balance between black and white are important -- Persepolis was also a film

"Girl" -- Jamaica Kincaid (1978) -- is it a prose poem or is it flash fiction?  -- plot is pretty hidden -- mother is the narrator giving instructions to her daughter -- story takes place in the Caribbean, perhaps on Antigua where the author was born Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson -- if it's a poem, it's a poem of address -- benna = calypso
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1978/06/26/girl

"The Magic Rabbit" (see handout on Blackboard) -- Catfish McDaris (1990s) -- under 1,000 words -- has a plot/conflict (man vs. self), is in third person, and is about Quick, a poet -- rabbit represents luck or inspiration, compassion, distraction or a weakness -- is Quick a good person, and what does it mean to be a good person?

"A Geronimo Moon" -- Catfish McDaris (early 2000s) -- standard length story (1,031 words) -- a coming of age story -- a horror story-- the narrator (1st person) is going to California with his father--his father is mysteriously killed -- narrator has to decide what to do: go home or go to work -- man vs. self -- asbestos factory
https://literallystories2014.com/2015/06/18/a-geronimo-moon-by-catfish-mcdaris/

"Hammer and Nail" -- Naomi Shihab Nye (1994) -- prose poem -- about friends' visit to the cemetery (probably in another country, another culture) -- they are visiting the grave of one woman's little girl -- language, emotion, experience -- people were buried on top of one another -- prose poems do not have line breaks -- everything flows together, but poems still have language & emotion--they still depict a moment of experience
https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1218&context=prosepoem

"The Canoeing"-- Russell Edson (before 1995) -- prose poem -- Edson was known for surrealistic imagery--like canoeing in a house with salmon leaping up the stairs -- is the speaker on a river?  is he/she in a house?  is he/she in his/her own mind?
http://www.prose-poems.com/edson.html

"[of a girl, in white]" -- Harryette Mullan  (2006) -- prose poem -- free association journeys from "a girl, in white" to a Freudian slip
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51719/of-a-girl-in-white

"Dim Lady"-- Harryette Mullan (2002) prose poem -- a class exercise -- a rewrite of Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 as a prose poem in contemporary language
Link to poem: http://mail.horacemann.org/~adam_casdin/Poems/dimlady.html
Link to poet reading her poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPunxHlPSXU

Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 (published 1609--when was it published in manuscript?!) (performed by Alan Hickman) -- is he insulting her? -- sonnet to the Dark Lady-- we don't know who the dark lady is -- turn at the end where he shows he loves & needs her
link to poem:  https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/my-mistress-eyes-are-nothing-sun-sonnet-130
link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP06F0yynic&t=1s

Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 (performed by David Tenant; performed by Tom Hiddleston)  -- "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day..." -- also sonnet to a young nobleman -- imagery -- turned into a prose poem to handle the poet seeming to talk in riddles because of the sentence structure and word choice
link to poem:  https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45087/sonnet-18-shall-i-compare-thee-to-a-summers-day
link to Tenant's performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD6Of-pwKP4&t=1s
link to Hiddleston's performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6Q_Ioj6AhQ&t=2s

Shakespeare's Sonnet 29 (sung by Rufus Wainwright) -- 14-line poem (rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg) -- "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes...." -- sonnet to a young nobleman --
link to poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45090/sonnet-29-when-in-disgrace-with-fortune-and-mens-eyes
link to Wainwright's performance:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngk4sRQ2C-Y

"Whoso List to Hunt" -- Sir Thomas Wyatt (before 1536, possibly before 1533) -- early English sonnet & translation of a sonnet by Petrarch -- is this sonnet about Anne Boleyn (the second wife of Henry VIII)?  -- Wyatt did land in prison, but he was forgiven -- noli me tangere = do not touch me -- hind = a young, female red deer (three years old or older)
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45593/whoso-list-to-hunt-i-know-where-is-an-hind
link to film about this poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0RikD6iv_0

Petrarch's Sonnet 3 (trans. A.S. Kline -- 2002) (between 1327 and 1368) -- part of Petrarch's poems to Laura (Canzoniere) -- Petrarch and Laura "met" on Good Friday, the darkest day of the Christian religious calendar -- Petrarch knew of Laura; he did not know her -- was Laura a symbol of love and beauty? -- Kline's translations do not rhyme
http://web.archive.org/web/20061021230439/http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/canzoniere.html?poem=3

Petrarch's Sonnet 294 (trans. Thomas Wentworth Higginson (before 1889); trans. A.S. Kline -- 2002)
"She ruled in beauty..."  -- written after Laura's death -- use of anaphora in the last three lines
link to Kline's translation:
http://web.archive.org/web/20050413150700/http://petrarch.petersadlon.com:80/canzoniere.html?poem=294
link to Higginson's translation: http://www.sonnets.org/petrarch.htm#010

Petrarch's Sonnet 312 (trans. A.M. Juster -- 2001; trans. A.S. Kline-- 2002) -- anaphora -- negative -- also after Laura's death
link to Juster's translation: http://www.amjuster.net/blog/2015/9/18/312
link to Kline's translation:
 http://web.archive.org/web/20050411084541/http://petrarch.petersadlon.com:80/canzoniere.html?poem=312

"the rites for Cousin Vit" by Gwendolyn Brooks (1950) -- Italian/Petrarchan sonnet -- according to Marilyn Hacker, this form figures in Brooks' book Annie Allen -- speaker is not the poet -- in memory -- is in memory of a vital woman, a woman perhaps of loose morals, perhaps different from the speaker but maybe not -- this poem imagines the resurrection of Cousin Vit
link to poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51983/the-rites-for-cousin-vit

"My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning -- (1842) (read by James Mason -- he glided through the line breaks) -- rhyming couplets, iambic pentameter, dramatic monologue, Duke of Ferrara shows painting of his late wife to an envoy from the father of the woman he wants to marry -- ironically, this marriage to the second wife seems to have been compatible -- first wife probably died from TB but this poem made people assume that she had been poisoned
link to poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43768/my-last-duchess
link to reading by Mason: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZbNrNE9q8g

"Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas (1951) (read by poet himself; read by Sir Anthony Hopkins) -- villanelle (song-like qualities, repeating lines) -- about poet's father who was dying -- poet was in late 30s when he wrote the poem -- uses repetition & imagery -- later poets said that Thomas didn't always make sense, was more about the sound -- poet was also known for his readings
link to poem: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/do-not-go-gentle-good-night
link to reading by Thomas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mRec3VbH3w
link to reading by Hopkins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIfK809B0Qs&t=2s

"One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop (before 1979) (read by Miranda Otto in a movie about Bishop) -- villanelle -- very different tone from Thomas -- personal poem but Bishop is wary of disclosing personal details -- written about a female partner --written towards the end of her life  -- went through many revisions -- https://helensquared.wordpress.com/2010/05/18/tuesday-poem-one-art-elizabeth-bishop/ -- Bishop was known for her revisions -- wrote very few poems in her life
link to poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47536/one-art
link to Miranda Otto's performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST2mOE4d7Pg

"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden (before 1966) -- (read by poet himself -- watched video of the poem) -- free verse -- 14-lines -- relationship with his dad -- imagery -- know that his father was a working man -- repetition
link to poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46461/those-winter-sundays
link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiZnt5ZL4Xk

"Crusoe in England" by Elizabeth Bishop (before 1979) (dramatic monologue/persona poem) (read by Elizabeth Bishop) -- Crusoe was stuck on an island for 29 years -- he is fictional, based on Alexander Selkirk -- Crusoe is a character in Daniel Defoe's famous novel -- depressed tone -- a lot of repetition -- Bishop is a woman writing in a man's voice/from a man's perspective -- free verse -- focus on his emotional response (wouldn't get in a short story)
link to poem and reading by poet: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48287/crusoe-in-england

"M. Degas Teaches Art and Science, Durfee Intermediate School, Detroit 1942" by Philip Levine (1989) (read by Philip Levine, the poet himself) -- places French artist in working-class Detroit middle school -- speaker is a kid who is in M. Degas' class -- teacher draws a line on the blackboard and asks class what he is doing -- students guess (Freddie, Gertrude Bimmler, Louis Warshowsky) what he's doing -- "separate the dark from the dark" -- free verse -- slice of life
link to poem and reading by poet: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:RFbPQjdG6nIJ:https://www.ibiblio.org/ipa/poems/levine/m._degas_teaches_art_and_science_at_durfee_intermediate_school--detroit1942.php+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=safari

Finishing Up the First Part of Poetry

Today we went over a dramatic monologue/persona poem, Elizabeth Bishop's "Crusoe in England," as well as Philip Levine's "M. Degas Teaches Art and Science..."  While Levine's poem is not a persona poem and his speaker *could* be the poet himself as a middle school student, like "Crusoe in England," it captures an interesting cultural figure and puts him into a different context.  Edgar Degas lived from 1834 to 1917, so he couldn't have been in that Detroit classroom.

Wednesday we will go over our next assignments: the paper on poetry and the presentations.  Friday we will work on the study guide for the final.  It's likely that we won't discuss any new poetry this week, but just in case I am assigning a few readings here.   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  I'd like to assign "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," but it is a fairly long poem.  It will have to wait until Monday.

Here are a few more questions for you.  First, I'll focus on "Crusoe" and "M. Degas."

-- Today we listened to the poets' reading their poems.  Which style of reading do you prefer: Bishop's or Levine's?  Why?  Which poem did you prefer?  Why?

-- Consider the definition of poetry from the Encyclopedia Britannica: "Poetry evokes a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience or a specific emotional response through language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound, and rhythm."  How does "Crusoe" fulfill that definition?  How does "M. Degas" fulfill it?  Choose another poem such as "My Last Duchess," Shakespeare's sonnets, "Those Winter Sundays," or "the rites for Cousin Vit."  How does that poem fulfill the encylopedia's definition?  Which poem seems to fulfill it more?  Why?

-- Compare one of today's poems to one of the prose poems that we read ("Hammer and Nail," perhaps "Girl," "The Canoeing," [Of a girl, in white], or "Dim Lady").  What does each piece have in common?  How is each different from the other?

-- Compare one of today's poems to one flash fiction that we read ("Love in LA," "Hills Like White Elephants," "Girl," "The Magic Rabbit," and "A Geronimo Moon").  What does each piece have in common?  How is each different from the other?  What is poetic about the flash fiction?  What is prosy about the poems?

-- What do we learn about Robinson Crusoe from Elizabeth Bishop's poem?

-- Is her Crusoe masculine, feminine, or androgynous?  Why?

-- What do we learn about Crusoe's island from the poem?

-- Look up another of Bishop's poems: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/filling-station  or https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/moose  Compare how she evokes place in "The Filling Station" or "The Moose" and "Crusoe in England."  What does each poem have in common in this respect?  How is each poem different?  What does the other poem tell you about her voice and her concerns as a poet?

-- Look at one of Bishop's poems set in Brazil: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57361/arrival-at-santos How does this poem shed light on "Crusoe in England"?  How does "Crusoe in England" shed light on this poem?  Consider how the poet evokes place.

-- How would "M. Degas" be different if it were in the voice of the teacher? Or in another student's voice?

-- Why is this poem in this student's voice?

-- How does Levine draw on emotion in his poem?

-- How does Levine draw on language in his poem?  Which words and phrases jump out at you?  Why?

-- How did the picture by Degas that we looked at help you understand Levine's poem a little more?

I'll finish with a few questions on our next set of readings.

-- Look up Walt Whitman, Sherman Alexie, and Allen Ginsberg.  Why does Alexie depict Whitman on a basketball court?  Why does Ginsberg depict Whitman in a 1950s or 1960s supermarket?  What does this tell you about Whitman and his appeal?

-- How would you describe Alexie's Whitman?  Why?  Does Alexie seem to respect him?  Or does he make fun of him?  Why?

-- How would you describe Ginsberg's Whitman?  Why?  Does Ginsberg seem to respect him?  Or does he make fun of him?

-- Why does Whitman draw your attention to the spider in his poem? 

-- What is Whitman telling us about the soul?

-- Discuss the impact of Whitman's line length, his word choices (diction), or his use of repetition.

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

Study Guide for Final, overview

Today I'd like to start the study guides for the final.  We'll be adding to it in class next week (week of 4/9).

The format of the test will be as follows:

17 fill-in-the-blanks covering the works; authors, actors, & characters; and literary terms
7 multiple choice covering the works, genre, literary terms, and context
several short answer questions covering the works, genre, literary terms, and context
10 pts. extra credit drawing on your memory for detail and your opinion.  (There may be a question in extra credit about the readings we did not discuss in class.)

genres and subgenres
fiction
short story -- under 7,500 words (although some allow for under 10,000 words)
flash fiction -- under 1,000 words
graphic fiction -- the story is told through images and texts

poetry
sonnet -- 14 lines, iambic pentameter (10 syllables per line), rhyme scheme, Shakespearean (English) and Petrarchan (Italian) -- some translations are free verse (A.S. Kline) -- usually about love -- Shakespeare, Petrarch, Gwendolyn Brooks, A.M. Juster, Sir Thomas Wyatt, Grace Cavalieri ("Anna Nicole's Dream")

villanelle -- song (French origin) -- refrain -- first line ends second and fourth stanzas -- third line ends first, third, fifth, and sixth stanzas -- all but the last stanza has three lines -- last stanza has four lines -- the refrain lines rhyme -- became popular in the mid-1900s -- Bishop & Thomas

dramatic monologue -- -- someone else's voice -- "My Last Duchess" & "Crusoe in England"

poems about famous people in strange situations -- "A Supermarket in California," "M. Degas," "A Dream of Robert Hayden," and "Defending Walt Whitman" as well as "Anna Nicole's Dream"

prose poetry-- like a story but also poem -- "Hammer and Nail," "The Canoeing," "Girl," [of a girl, in line], and "Dim Lady" -- no line breaks -- may have rhyme and other poetic devices

free verse -- doesn't rhyme, doesn't have regular meter -- line breaks --"Those Winter Sundays," "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," and "M. Degas" as well as "Crusoe in England" -- often has enjambment

concrete/visual poetry -- poetry in the shape of its subject -- "Forsythia," "Lilac," "Swan and Shadow," and "Easter Wings" -- note that "Easter Wings" is from the 1600s.

haiku -- from the Japanese -- concise poetry written in present tense -- generally three lines (five syllables -- seven syllables -- five syllables) with a break in the middle -- about nature -- however, the format of haiku may vary

fiction terms (including definitions)
plot -- also foreshadowing and flashback, epiphany
character -- round or flat, antagonist, protagonist
narration -- 1st person (reliable or unreliable), 3rd person (limited omniscience, omniscient)
setting
theme

poetry terms (including definitions) --
stanza -- unit of poetry, like a paragraph
line breaks -- end with punctuation (end-stopped); end in the middle of a phrase (enjambment)
theme
speaker -- poet is not necessarily the speaker
rhyme
off rhyme or slant rhyme
alliteration -- from Merriam-Webster:  the repetition of usually initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables (such as wild and woolly, threatening throngs) — called also head rhyme, initial rhyme.  (Note that in literature alliteration can go on for several words.)
assonance -- repetition of vowel sounds

individual works
"The Cask of Amontillado"
"The Cigarette"
"Girl"
"The Magic Rabbit"
"A Geronimo Moon"

"Hammer and Nail"
"The Canoeing"
"[of a girl, in white]"
"Dim Lady"

Shakespeare's Sonnet 130
Shakespeare's Sonnet 18
Shakespeare's Sonnet 29 (sung by Rufus Wainwright)
"Whoso List to Hunt"
Petrarch's Sonnet 3 (trans. A.S. Kline)
Petrarch's Sonnet 294 (trans. Thomas Wentworth Higginson; trans. A.S. Kline)
Petrarch's Sonnet 312 (trans. A.M. Juster; trans. A.S. Kline)
"the rites for Cousin Vit"

"My Last Duchess"
"Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night"
"One Art"
"Those Winter Sundays"

"Crusoe in England"
"M. Degas Teaches Art and Science, Durfee Intermediate School, Detroit 1942"

"Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"
"Defending Walt Whitman"
"A Supermarket in California"

"My Life had stood--a loaded Gun"
"Because I could not stop for Death"
"Nature the kindest mother"

"On Meeting Robert Hayden in a Dream"

"I, Too, Sing America"
"I Hear America Singing"
"The Negro Sings of Rivers"
"Madam and Her Madam"

"Oread"
"Forsythia"
"Lilac"
"In a Station of the Metro"
"The Red Wheelbarrow"
"In Kyoto"
"Easter Wings"
"Swan and Shadow"
"Anna Nicole's Dream"
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Readings and Questions for Monday 4/9

Above is a picture of another scene from Reaching for the Moon.  It appears that Elizabeth Bishop is in Brazil in this scene.

Today we went over the following poems: Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night," Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art," and Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays."  We watched the following videos:

Dylan Thomas' own reading of his poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2cgcx-GJTQ&t=2s

Miranda Otto's performance of Elizabeth Bishop reading her poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST2mOE4d7Pg&t=1s

Elizabeth Bishop reads her own poems here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERfx52Qfyrc&t=284s

Robert Hayden may be reading "Those Winter Sundays" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiZnt5ZL4Xk

We are moving onto free verse.  We'll start with Bishop's "Crusoe in England": https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48287/crusoe-in-england  We'll also look at Philip Levine's "M. Degas...": https://www.ibiblio.org/ipa/poems/levine/m._degas_teaches_art_and_science_at_durfee_intermediate_school--detroit1942.php  Then I will show you the first study guide for the final.

Here are a few questions for you.  Feel free to go back to the questions from last time: http://en202.blogspot.com/2018/04/old-and-newer-poetry-rhymes-and-free.html

What do you like best about the villanelle?  Why?

What makes the villanelle difficult for you?  Why?

How did the video clip from the movie about Elizabeth Bishop help you understand her poem better?

How did it get in your way?

Do you prefer that the poet him or herself read the poem?  Or is it better for a trained actor to read it?  Why?  Why not?

We also looked over this blog entry on Bishop's revisions to "One Art": https://helensquared.wordpress.com/2010/05/18/tuesday-poem-one-art-elizabeth-bishop/
How does looking at Bishop's revisions help you understand poetry better?  How does it help you understand this poem?

Compare "Do Not Go..." and "One Art" as poems and villanelles.  Note that "Do Not Go..." is a poem by a (relatively) young man whose father is still alive and that "One Art" is a reflective poem by an older woman in the last few years of her own life.

Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays" is about the same length as a sonnet, but it does not rhyme, and it is not in iambic pentameter.  Compare this free verse poem to one of the sonnets we read.  What do these poems have in common?  How do they differ?

How does Hayden handle content in his poem?  Does his lack of rhyme help him?  Or hinder him?

How does Hayden handle language?

How does Hayden evoke emotion?

Here are a few questions about our upcoming poems.

Is Elizabeth Bishop writing about herself in "Crusoe in England"?  Why?  Why not?

How does she handle content in her free verse poem?

How does she handle language?  Which word or phrase do you like best?  Why?

How does she evoke emotion?

Is Philip Levine writing about himself in his poem?  Why?  Why not?

How does he depict life in a classroom?

Look up M. Degas.  Why does Levine depict him as a middle school teacher in the city of Detroit?  What is he trying to do here?

Discuss the speaker in this poem.  How does he shape your understanding of the events?

The picture above is of an abandoned book depository in Detroit.

Old and New(er) Poetry, Rhymes and Free Verse

Above is a beautiful picture of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas' boathouse.  Below is the painting that may have inspired Browning to write "My Last Duchess."

We spent most of today going over "My Last Duchess," listening to James Mason's reading of this poem and another reading by an unknown man--and, of course, discussing the poem.  We also listened to Sir Anthony Hopkins' reading of "Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night," a villanelle. 

Here are links to these poems and readings.   I'll start with Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess": https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43768/my-last-duchess  It may help to listen to actor James Mason read this poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZbNrNE9q8g&t=2s
I am also adding a villanelle for us, Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night."  https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/do-not-go-gentle-good-night  Sir Anthony Hopkins reads the poem here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6Se1QpY5CM

Wednesday we will continue discussing Dylan Thomas' villanelle, move on to Elizabeth Bishop's villanelle "One Art": https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47536/one-art , and conclude with some free verse: Bishop's "Crusoe in   England" https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48287/crusoe-in-england  and Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays": https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46461/those-winter-sundays

Actor Miranda Otto (playing Elizabeth Bishop in a film) reads "One Art" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST2mOE4d7Pg

Robert Hayden himself reads "Those Winter Sundays": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmJYs6PQKVc

I'll finish with Dylan Thomas' reading of "Do Not Go...": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2cgcx-GJTQ&t=1s

Here is a little bit of information about Crusoe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_Crusoe

Here are some questions for you:

-- Which do you prefer: free verse or rhyme?  Why?

-- Which do you prefer: poems that follow a specific form or poems that do not?  Why?

-- How did the background information (including portraits) help you understand "My Last Duchess" better?  Why?

-- Is "My Last Duchess" poetry?  Why?

-- Is "Crusoe in England" poetry?  Why?

-- Which emotions do you find in "My Last Duchess"?

-- Which language do you find in "Those Winter Sundays"?  (Note that this poem is about 14 lines long, the length of a sonnet.)

-- Compare older poetry (Petrarch, Shakespeare, Wyatt, translation by Higginson, and Browning) with 20th century poetry (Brooks, Bishop, Hayden, Juster, Thomas).  How are they similar?  How are they different?  How has poetry evolved?

-- Comparing older and newer poetry, what role does form play in each type of poem?  Feel free to compare Shakespeare's sonnets with Juster's translation or with Brooks' original.  Or compare Bishop's dramatic monologue ("Crusoe in England") with Browning's "My Last Duchess."

-- Compare "My Last Duchess" with "The Cask of Amontillado."  Which narrator/speaker is creepier?  Which piece conveys horror more directly?  Which piece do you prefer?  Why?

-- Compare "persona" poems such as "My Last Duchess" and "Crusoe in England" with more personal poems such as "Those Winter Sundays," "One Art," "Whoso List to Hunt," "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night," or Petrarch's sonnets.  Where would Shakespeare's sonnets fit into this comparison?  Where would "the rites for Cousin Vit" fit?

-- Is "One Art" really a personal poem?  Consider Elizabeth Bishop's stance towards confessional poetry: https://www.poetryarchive.org/poet/elizabeth-bishop  Elsewhere an author mentions how the poet ruthlessly took out any specific descriptions of her lover in a poem.  (Note that Bishop was a lesbian at a very heteronormative time.)

-- In the past, what role did poetry serve?  What role does it serve today?

Sonnets, pt. 2

Today we focused on Petrarch's sonnets (in translation of course) and Gwendolyn Brooks' "the rites for Cousin Vit," a modern sonnet that follows Petrarch's format.  Among the translations were Wyatt's "Whoso List to Hunt": https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45593/whoso-list-to-hunt-i-know-where-is-an-hind  We also examined a recent translation by AM Juster: https://web.archive.org/web/20170815005437/http://www.amjuster.net:80/blog/2015/9/18/312

Then we looked at 19th century editor and poet Thomas Wentworth Higginson's translation "Soleasi Nel Mio Cor" http://www.sonnets.org/petrarch.htm#010  Another is more recent and is by A.S. Kline: http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/canzoniere.html?poem=3  Here is Kline's translation of the sonnet that Juster translated: http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/canzoniere.html?poem=312  .  Here Kline translates the same sonnet that Higginson translated: http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/canzoniere.html?poem=294

Gwendolyn Brooks' sonnet is at this site: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51983/the-rites-for-cousin-vit

On Sunday the fiction/folklore paper is due.  Monday we will be focusing on Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess": https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43768/my-last-duchess  It may help to listen to actor James Mason read this poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZbNrNE9q8g&t=2s
I am also adding a villanelle for us, Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night."  https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/do-not-go-gentle-good-night  Sir Anthony Hopkins reads the poem here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6Se1QpY5CM

Let's finish up with some questions about sonnets.

-- Could the speaker in "the rites for Cousin Vit" be a man or a woman?  Describe the speaker's relationship to Cousin Vit.  Justify your answer by referring to the poem.

-- Compare the modern sonnets (Juster and Kline's translations and Brooks' original) to the Early Modern sonnets (Shakespeare, Donne, and Wyatt's translation of Petrarch) or to the Victorian Higginson's translation.  What are their strengths?  What are their weaknesses?  How do they handle language?  How do they handle emotion?  How do they handle imagery?

-- Take a look at these scenes from The Tudors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxF4FaJnye8  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ4ArpxymWQ  How does watching these scenes help you understand "Whoso List to Hunt" more?

-- Take a look at this biography of Anne Boleyn: https://www.biography.com/people/anne-boleyn-9218155  How does reading it help you understand "Whoso List to Hunt" more?  (As it turns out, Henry VIII did *not* execute Sir Thomas Wyatt.  Although he did spend a month in the Tower of London, Wyatt later reconciled with the King and became one of his diplomats.)

-- Compare the various translations of Petrarch.  What do they tell you about Petrarch's love for Laura?  Do you believe that he loves her?  Or do you believe that she simply represents Love and Beauty?  Why?  Why not?

-- Which translation is your favorite?  Why?

-- Whose sonnets do you prefer?  Shakespeare's or Petrarch's?  Why?

-- What makes a good translation?  What makes a poor translation?  Why?

-- What do you make of the unrhymed translations?  Why?

-- Why is translation necessary?

-- What would ENGL 190 be without works in translation?  Consider that for some students all of our readings are works in a second language.

-- Should we read more works in translation?  Why?  Why not?

Here are a few questions about Browning and Thomas' poems.

-- We've moved on from the sonnet, but we are still examining rhymed poetry.  What are your impressions of rhymed poetry?  Why?

-- What are your impressions of rhymed poems that are not sonnets?  What is it like for you to read a rhymed poem that is not a sonnet?

-- How does form help you understand a poem more?

-- How does form get in your way?

-- Is the speaker in "My Last Duchess" reliable?  Why?  Why not?

-- How does the speaker seem to feel about his former wife?

-- Why does the speaker confide in his audience about his former wife?

-- What do you think that the audience does afterwards?

-- What do you think about poems where the speaker is definitely not the poet?  Why?  How do these poems fit into your idea of poetry?

-- How do the videos help you understand our readings for Monday?

Sonnets pt. 1

Above is a painting that imagines Petrarch's first glimpse of Laura, the subject of his sonnets.  By the way, Petrarch, a monk, knew who Laura was but never actually met her.

Today we began our examination of sonnets with poet Linda Gregorson's history of the sonnet:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsA5xZ4V7dQ  We also did a very close examination of Sonnet 18, turning it into a prose poem and replacing its semicolons with periods.  We also listened to two different readings of the poem, one by David Tenant and the other by Tom Hiddleston:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD6Of-pwKP4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6Q_Ioj6AhQ

For Friday, we will continue with sonnets by poets other than Shakespeare: Sir Thomas Wyatt's "Whoso List to Hunt" (which predates Shakespeare and may be about Anne Boleyn--Linda Gregorson mentioned it in her talk), John Donne's Holy Sonnet 14, and two modern sonnets.  One is Gwendolyn Brooks' "the rites for cousin vit": https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51983/the-rites-for-cousin-vit.  The other is A.M. Juster's "Moscow Zoo": http://web.archive.org/web/20120419102406/http://theformalist.evansville.edu/NemerovWinners/1995.htm  This is one of his translations of Petrarch: https://web.archive.org/web/20170815005437/http://www.amjuster.net:80/blog/2015/9/18/312

I want to add a couple other translations of Petrarch.  One is from the 1800s.  "Soleasi Nel Mio Cor" http://www.sonnets.org/petrarch.htm#010  Another is more recent and is by A.S. Kline: http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/canzoniere.html?poem=3

On to the questions on Sonnet 18.

How did today's exercise help you understand Sonnet 18 a little more?

How did listening to the two readings of Sonnet 18 help you understand it a little more?

How does the poem's form (its relative brevity, meter, rhyme scheme) shape the poem?

Choose your favorite imagery from this poem.  How does it affect the poem?

Choose your favorite language from this poem.  How does it affect the poem?

Which emotions does Sonnet 18 evoke in you?  Why?

Compare/contrast Sonnet 18 with another of Shakespeare's sonnets (#20, #29, #130).  How are they similar?  How are they different?  How do they build on each other?

If Sonnet 18 is the archetypal sonnet, what does this tell us about this poetic form?

Compare/contrast Sonnet 18 to another love poem (not a sonnet).

What does Sonnet 18 tell us about the speaker?  his beloved?  their relationship?  their milieu?  Why?

How does looking at a poem's grammar help you understand it better?

Try turning another sonnet into a prose poem with more conventional punctuation.  What do you see?

Let's add a few more questions about our readings.

Compare/contrast Sonnet 18 to another sonnet by a poet other than Shakespeare.  If it is an earlier sonnet (Petrarch or Wyatt), how does Shakespeare's sonnet differ from the earlier sonnet?  how does it build on it?  If it is a later sonnet (everyone else), how does the later sonnet differ from Shakespeare's?  How does the later sonnet build on Shakespeare?

Why do you think that A.M. Juster chose to make "Moscow Zoo" a sonnet?  It's not a love poem.

In your opinion, are Petrarch's sonnets about a real woman?  Or are they about Love?  Why?

What do Petrarch's sonnets tell you about the speaker?  about Laura?  about their relationship?  about their milieu?  Why?

What does John Donne's sonnet tell you about the speaker?  about God?  about their relationship?  about their milieu?  Why?

What does Gwendolyn Brooks' sonnet tell you about the speaker?  about her cousin?  about their relationship?  about their milieu?  Why?

Have you written a sonnet before?  If so, what was it like?  Why?

Would you want to write a sonnet?  Why?  Why not?