|
Course Description: |
|
This course is designed to introduce the student to English poetry in terms of its essential features as a literary genre. By focusing on selected poems of various types with a wide range of subject matter and theme, chosen preferably from various periods, the student should gain not only knowledge of the craft of verse, but also an appreciation of poems as literary pieces. |
|
1. Course Aims and Objectives: |
|
The objective of this course is to equip the student with the necessary techniques to appreciate poetic meanings and how they are created. Poetic devices, such as “personification,” “simile,” “metaphor,” etc…, are used as tools or means to aid and help the student, but not as ends in themselves. By the end of the course, the student is expected to have the desired level and understanding of the selected poems and how the poets manipulate language to achieve poetic effects and poetic meaning. |
|
2. Course Main Subjects: |
|
What is Poetry? Reading the Poem; Denotation and Connotation; Imagery; Figurative Language; Meaning and Idea; Sound and Meaning; Pattern |
|
3. Methods of Assessment: |
|
Two in-term Exams (20 points each); (10 marks) for attendance and participation; Final Exam (50 points) |
|
4. Textbook(s): |
|
Laurence Perrine and Thomas R. Arp. Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry. New York: Harcourt, 1992 (N. B. The textbook has a glossary of literary terms for easy reference) |
|
5. Electronic References: |
|
For general knowledge of English poetry of various types through the ages:
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_poetry and
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry |
|
6. Syllabus: |
|
Week |
Units |
Activities |
|
WEEK 1 |
Introduction: What is Poetry? “The Eagle,” “Winter” |
Prose vs. verse;
What is not poetry |
|
WEEK 2 |
How to Read a Poem? Poems Patterns “Shall I Compare Thee ... ” (Shakespeare); “The Man He Killed” |
Comparisons:
Simile, metaphor |
|
WEEK 3 |
Denotation and Connotation |
Paraphrase
Speaker |
|
WEEK 4 |
Imagery: “Meeting at Night” (Robert Browning); “The Sick Rose” (William Blake)
“Passionate Shepherd …” (Marlowe) |
Visual, audio, & smell imagery
Rhythm; rhyme |
|
WEEK 5 |
Figurative Language I: “I Wandered Lonely,” (Wordsworth); “Loveliest of Trees” (A. E. Housman) |
Romantic Poetry |
|
WEEK 6 |
Figurative Language 2: “The Road Not Taken,” “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time”; |
In-term Exam #1 |
|
WEEK 7 |
Figurative Language 3: “A Red, Red Rose,” “My Heart Leaps Up” |
Simile/ metaphor |
|
WEEK 8 |
Allusion: “On His Blindness” (John Milton) |
Figurative Language |
|
WEEK 9 |
Meaning and Idea: “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” (Robert Frost) |
Repetition and Ambiguity |
|
WEEK 10 |
Tone: “Since there’s no Help,” “Crossing the Bar” |
Tone |
|
WEEK 11 |
Ambiguity: “To Celia” (Ben Jonson) |
Puns and paradoxes |
|
WEEK 12 |
Sound and Meaning: “Anthem for Doomed Youth,” (Wilfred Owen); “Eight O ’clock” (A. E. Housman) |
Sound devices |
|
WEEK 13 |
Musical Devices: “Nothing Gold Can Stay” (Robert Frost) |
In-term Exam #2; |
|
WEEK 14 |
Pattern: “Death, be not proud” (John Donne) |
Personification; conceit |
|
WEEK 15 |
Periods of English poetry: Poetic Schools |
Revision |