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Form and Creative Process: Poetry
__________________________________________________________________________ "I rhyme to see myself, to set the darkness echoing.” "Prose,— words in their best order; poetry,— the
best words in their best order.” "I took the lake between my legs.” ______________________________________________________________________________________ The assigned texts offer examples to stimulate your own imaginations, to inspire your efforts, and to guide your inquiries.
___________________________________________________ OTHER WORTHWHILE BOOKS:
1. Readings. Prior to the first class meeting, you should read
the following: Turco, The Book of Forms, Part 1: Elements of
Poetry; Strand & Boland, The Making of a Poem, xiii-xxix;
Dacey & Jauss, Strong Measures, 1-16. As we go along, you
will be assigned readings of individual poems 2. Reading and Writing Journal. You will keep a journal of your impressions of the poems we will read together as well as of your own writing process as you experiment with various forms and strategies. These entries will help you write your final forms paper. 3. Attendance. Do not miss class. Period, end of report. Each absence will mean a significant drop in your grade. Also, do not be late for class—this is rude and disruptive. Further, you must attend the two Wednesday Master classes and the readings. 4. Report. You will complete this assignment prior to our first class meeting. Select one of the below assigned forms and write a one-page, single-spaced report that includes the following: history of the form, any anecdotes or stories about the form's use or appearance, explanation of the form's structure, and explanations of variations or subversions of the form (ex: blues sonnet). Attach a bibliography in MLA format—one that includes cited sources as well as sources for further information on the form. Attach a copy of a wondrous poem that you've found written in that form, one that you can talk about eloquently in class; you will be charged with introducing that form to the class on the day we begin our discussions and experiments with that form. By May 30, contact me via email to sign-up for your form report (jeclark2@csuchico.edu), so we don't have the entire class writing reports on sonnets. 5. Writing Assignments in Form. You will have the following "formal" writing assignments: scansion and metric exercises (prior to the first class meeting-more on this later); Anglo-Saxon prosody, Terza rima; Rondeau, Sonnet, Villanelle, Sestina, and Catalogue Poem. We will also write in a Japanese communal form called Renga. We will begin most of these assignments in class. Always bring enough copies of your assignment to pass out to me and to the other students. Submit each assignment with your name, the name of the form, the due date, and the number of the assignment at the top of the page. On one side of each sheet, single-space the poem draft, and on the other side double-space it—we may want to scan or mark your drafts with copious intertextual comments. 6. Final Paper. Interspersed with these writing assignments will be the originally devised form, from which you will derive your final paper. I'll give you a handout about this assignment at our first class meeting. You will include this report in your final portfolio. This sounds ominous, but I can almost guarantee you will love this assignment and from it you will learn the most! 7. Portfolio: This portfolio will include all your writing assignments in form and your final paper. Given time constraints, you will not have an opportunity to revise these assignments, but you will consider them briefly in your final report.
____________________________________________________________________________________ We will be a community of learners, that is to say that no one—including me—has any kind of supreme authority. Yes, I assign grades to your work, but we'll be working collectively as much as possible. Support and comraderie are available to you. Your own, that of fellow students, and your teacher's. Your participation should reflect good citizenship-respect for others as well as for yourselves. Some people are more shy and quiet than others. This is not a sin. We'll all find our own ways to participate and to help others participate. Some people—and I am often one of these people—dominate a discussion, demonstrating sometimes that they are only interested in advancing their own points of view. In this class, no one gets to travel first class without saving seats for everyone else. We can all remind each other. Let us underscore the idea that we will try to make class the place for you as a writer to flourish; that you will, in fact, learn something and not simply pass the time; that this will be a forum for ideas; that the process will be enjoyable; and that you share in the responsibility for making us live up to this. Sitting down with students and discussing your work is often more helpful than necessarily brief comments on paper. Please feel free to come into the office to discuss your work, where you stand in the class, or any other matter pertaining to your studies. Also, and I take this quite seriously, if you have a disability or need of any kind that you would like me to be aware of, please let me know sometime at the beginning of the semester. I will happily do what I can. Your course grade will be based on your engagement with the assignments—timeliness and thoroughness included, your serious and generous citizenship in the class—including your attendance, and your final portfolio-including the originally devised form.
____________________________________________________________________________________ Scansion. Type-double-spaced-four of your own poems, ones you've already completed. Scan each line for accented and unaccented syllables. Simply put accent marks over the accented syllables. This is fun; don't furrow your eyebrows when you do it. Bring these experiments to class. Meter. Write each of the following lines at the top of a piece of paper—each line should be on its own sheet of paper. Each of these lines is written in a particular meter. I'm not identifying what these are and you shouldn't either. It's more important that you hear and feel what the lines are doing. Try scanning the line after you write it. The next day, write your own lines under each one of the assigned ones; carry on the meter from the previous line as well as meaning, as you can. Now fold the paper back so that only the line you wrote is visible. Keep adding a line this way on each sheet of paper for 14 days—two weeks. When I do assignments like this, I tape the papers up on the walls on my room. Don't worry too much about "getting this right"; simply experiment and perhaps a familiarity with the meter will develop. Maybe not. Type these experiments and bring them to class for our first meeting. Do not, I repeat do not, read deeply and widely on the subject of meter and scansion. Relax, listen, and feel. My lines were lies. And yet he seemed to me The daffodils in April thronged the grass Then came the year of fires Underneath this pretty cover When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me.
Report. See above assignment description.
____________________________________________________________________________________ Be bold. Be confident. Form will become a good house with
windows and "Can you afford not to make the magical study which happiness
is?"
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Webmaster - Kyle McDowell, km44@mail.csuchico.edu This page was last updated on January 1st, 2002. |
