Poems are like diamonds and atoms, full of contents under remarkable pressure, often containing astonishing energy in very small spaces. The course will look at short lyric poems that are long on ideas. Our survey of  poets will range from Sappho to Shakespeare, through Spenser and Shelley, to Stevens and Sting (a former English teacher). Genres studied will include the ballad, the sonnet, the song, the sestina, the Romantic ode, even haiku and zen phrase poems. We will study dozens of lyric poems over the course of the semester; several short poems will be discussed during each class period. Students will be expected to read as carefully and as closely as is humanly possible. Students will also present poems for class discussion and will write several short essays as well as a final revised essay portfolio. We will learn careful reading, close reading, and will begin to explore the different ways that poems produce meaning under differing conditions. As one of the poems we will study has it : "Words fail. / Mind fails."

Students will be required to read carefully and come to class prepared to discuss the assigned work. Reading carefully will include reading each short poem several times in order to prepare for class work and discussion. Reading quizzes and in-class writing will contribute to discussion and will be graded. Discussion will form an important part of the evaluation for the course. More than three (3) unexcused absences will be grounds for lowering your grade. Like this attendance policy, the Dickinson College plagiarism policy will be strictly enforced. You must complete all required work in order to pass the course. Grading will be based on the following scale:

The essays (4-5 pages) will ask you to analyze poems with care and attention to details of form and content. The portfolio will ask you to revise one of your essays and two take-home poems, one of your choosing and one of mine. You will find information to help you in the preparation of your essays at:

More details on the essays and portfolio will be provided closer to due dates for those assignments. I am always available during office hours and by appointment to discuss the course, our readings, your writing, or your grade.

Office Hours: Monday 12-1, Wednesday 12-2, and by appointment
Class meetings: 10:30-11:20 a.m. MWF
Classroom: East College 405

January

M 24 Small Poems, Big Ideas: our course syllabus as a text and one small poem with big ideas.

W 26 Write out the title and the author of three (3) short poems from any of our texts (Bring all of our texts to class).

F 28 Shelley ("Oxymandias," Dover 16-17)

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M 31 Raffel (How to Read Chapter 1) plus Zen Forest 33-39

February W 2 Zen Forest   40-61

F 4 Zen Forest 62-82

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M 7 Raffel (Chapter 2) plus Shakespeare (Dover, Great Short Poems 1-2)

W 9 Herrick (Dover 4) and Milton (Dover 5)

F 11 Bradstreet (Dover 6) and Etherege (Dover 7)

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M 14 Raffel (Chapter 3) plus Wordsworth (Dover 12-13)

W 16 Blake ( Dover 10-11) and Byron (Dover 15-16)

F 18 Keats (Dover 17)

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M 21 Raffel (Chapter 4) plus Tennyson (Dover 21-22) and Browning (Dover 23)

W 23 Whitman (Dover 25) and Dickinson ( Dover 27-28)

F 25 Emerson (Dover 19) and Thoreau (Dover 24)

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M 28 Raffel (Chapter 5)  Frost (Dover 44-45) and Thomas (Dover 53-54)

March 2 W Raffel (Chapter 6)

F 4 Zen Forest 62-82

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M 7 Essay #1 due at start of class (Workshop)

W 9 Zen Forest 82-102

F 11 Zen Forest 102-117

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M 14 SPRING BREAK

W 16 SPRING BREAK

F 18 SPRING BREAK

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M 21 Romantic Natural Histories (151-60)

W 23 RNH 160-177

F 25 RNH   220-34

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M 28 RNH   240-52

W 30 RNH   311-313, 324-29

April 1 421-26, see Darwin outline  

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M 4 RNH   355  (A "perfect" poem)

W 6 News of the Universe : epigraph, 1-27

F 8 NoU   30-45

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M 11 NoU 55-59

W 13 NoU 60-61

F 15 NoU 65-66

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M 18 Essay #2 draft due at start of class (Workshop)

W 20 Poets on You Tube

F 22 Poem based on a picture (homework + in class)

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M 25 Essay # 2 due at start of class (Workshop)

W 27 NoU   98-99, 192-93, 236-37

F 29 NoU 280-293

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May 2 M   Pick one poem from NoU and write why it is your favorite (1-2 paragraphs).

W 4 Bring your favorite poem from any one of our texts for discussion.

F 6  Last Class: Portfolio Exam Review plus take-home questions            

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May 12 (Thursday) 12 noon.: Last day and time for take-home final exam (portfolio) to be submitted.
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Accommodations for Disabilities

In compliance with the Dickinson College policy and equal access laws, I am available to discuss appropriate academic accommodations that may be recommended for students with disabilities. Requests for academic accommodations are to be made during the first three weeks of the semester (except for unusual circumstances) so that appropriate arrangements can be made. Students are required to register with Academic Resource Services in the Advising Office located on the first floor of Biddle House (contact ext. 1080 or waybranj@dickinson.edu ) to verify their eligibility for appropriate accommodations.

Academic Honesty

The Dickinson plagiarism policy will be strictly enforced. This class adheres to the college's Community Standards, which clearly state: “Students are expected to do their own work. Work submitted in fulfillment of academic assignments and provided on examinations is expected to be original by the student submitting it.” Please review the Community Standards document for more information. Please do not hesitate to ask me any questions you may have about citation, documentation, or academic honesty.

Useful Terminology and Quotations

TEXT: n.1. main body of matter in a manuscript, book, newspaper, distinguished from notes, appendixes, headings, illustrations. 2. the actual, original words of an author or speaker. 3. any of the various forms in which a writing exists. [ME, ML text(us) wording, L: structure (of an utterance), texture.]

LITERATURE: n. 1. writing regarded as having permanent worth through its intrinsic excellence. 2. The entire body of writings of a specific language, period, people, etc. 3. the writings dealing with a particular subject: the literature of politics.

POEM: n. 1. A verbal composition designed to convey experiences, ideas, or emotions in a vivid and imaginative way, characterized by the use of language chosen for its sound and suggestive power and by the use of literary techniques such as meter, metaphor, and rhyme. 2. A composition in verse rather than in prose. 3. A literary composition written with an intensity or beauty of language more characteristic of poetry than of prose. 4. A creation, object, or experience having beauty suggestive of poetry. [French poème, from Old French, from Latin poema, from Greek poiema, from poiein, to create.]

"Poets are the unacknolwedged legislators of the world." --Percy Bysshe Shelley

“‘The mind is its own place, and of itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.' But poetry [. . .] makes us the inhabitants of a world to which the familiar world is a chaos. It reproduces the common universe of which we are portions and percipients, and it purges from our inward sight the film of familiarity which obscures from us the wonder of our being. It compels us to feel that which we perceive, and to imagine that which we know. It creates anew the universe, after it has been annihilated in our minds by the recurrence of impressions blunted by reiteration. It justifies the bold and true words of Tasso— “Non merita nome di creatore, se non Iddio ed il Poeta.” --Shelley  

“Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting. [. . .] It can never lose its sense of a meaning that once unfolded by surprise as it went.” –R. Frost

Poetry “'Tis to create, and in creating live / A being more intense, that we endow / With form our fancy, gaining as we give / The life we image, even as I do now. —Lord Byron

“A good poem helps to change the shape and significance of the universe, helps to extend everyone's knowledge of himself and the world around him.” —Dylan Thomas

“I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. —Bob Dylan