Texas A&M University-Texarkana Seminar in Poetry: Dickinson, Frost, and Bishop Course Syllabus Fall 20012

Instructor: Doris Davis, Ph.D. Office: 221 Office Hours: Monday: 9:30-11:00 and 1:00-2:00; Tuesday: 1:00-4:00 and 5:30-6:00; Wednesday: 9:30-11:00 and 1:00-2:00; Thursday: 1:00-4:00 Phone: Office: (903) 223-3031 Home: (870) 772-3524 E-mail: [email protected] Course Number English 580 Course Title: Seminar in Poetry: Dickinson, Frost, Stevens, and Bishop

Course This course offers a study of poetic form with an emphasis on the Description: poetry of Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, , and Elizabeth Bishop.

Required Texts: Primary texts of Poetry: The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, Thomas H. Johnson, ed., Little Brown, 1955 OR The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition, R. W. Franklin ,ed.Harvard Univ., 1999. Complete Poems of Robert Frost, Edward Lathem, ed. Henry Holt, 1979. The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens. Knopf, 1989. Elizabeth Bishop: The Complete Poems 1927-1979. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1983.

Secondary texts of Literary Criticism: Emily Dickinson: A Collection of Critical Essays, Judith Farr, ed, 1996. The Cambridge Companion to Robert Frost, Robert Faggen, ed.,2001. Wallace Stevens: Words Chosen Out of Desire, Helen Vendler, 1984. Elizabeth Bishop and Her Art, Lloyd Schwartz and Sybil P. Estess, eds., 1983. Course Objectives: 1. Define and identify the basic properties of poetry, including tone, persona, irony, diction, imagery, figures of speech, alliteration, assonance and consonance, and types of rhyme and rhythm. 2. Understand poetic form (open or closed) in application to the four poets studied. 3. Understand the style and techniques of the four poets studied. 4. Evaluate the best work of each of the four poets studied. 5. Understand the relationship of these four poets to the genre of poetry, including their influences from and on other writers.

Student Learner Outcomes:

Upon completion of the course, students should be able to: 1. Articulate informed written responses to the poetry of these four poets by writing explications and an analytical paper. 2. Understand and articulate the basic properties of poetry by writing explications and an analytical paper. 3. Understand and apply various critical approaches in writing about poetry as measured by explications, summaries, and analytical paper. 4. Achieve an appreciation of the aesthetic principles that inform the work of the four poets studied. 5. Articulate informed responses to poetry as measured by class discussions. 6. Articulate the relationship of these four poets to the genre of poetry, including their influences from and on other poets. 7. Understand and articulate major critical views concerning these four poets by reading and summarizing analytical articles.

Requirements: 1. Reading the texts as listed on the syllabus.

2. Summaries of assigned essays. Each week you will select one essay to read and summarize. The summaries should be double-spaced and two to two-and-a-half typed pages. Due dates: these summaries are due during the class meeting they’re discussed. If you must be absent, be sure to hand in your summaries ahead of time. (Send them to me in an attachment.) Be prepared to share your overview of the essay with class members.

3. Explications of four poems listed on the syllabus, one by each of the four poets studied in this course. Explications should be between 750 and 1000 words. Secondary sources may be used, but are not required. Due dates: Dickinson: September 18; Frost: October 9; Bishop: November 6; Stevens: November 27. If you must be absent, be sure to submit your explication ahead of time. Be prepared to share your explication with class members.

4. One analytical paper of at least 15 typed pages, double spaced, plus the Works Cited page. The paper should include appropriate secondary sources and adhere to MLA style. The topic/thesis for the paper must be approved. You should include both books and articles in your secondary sources. Papers must be submitted to Turnitin.com. The password is eng580 and the course ID is 5385961.. Submitting papers is a course requirement. You will not receive credit for the course unless you do so. Due date: December 4

5. Oral presentation to the class of your paper; due date: December 4.

6. Final exam: December 11.

7. Class attendance and participation. You are expected to attend class each week and to contribute to the class discussions. (Your grade may be lowered one letter grade for each class you miss after the second.)

Final grade: An average of grades as follows: Analytical Paper-30% Explications 10% Final -25% Class participation-10% Summaries-25%

Class Schedule:

August 28 Introduction to class View film “Voices and Visions: Emily Dickinson”

September 4-18 Focus on the poetry of Dickinson with reading assignments from Emily Dickinson: A Collection of Critical Essays.

September 25 - Oct. 9 View film “Voices and Visions: Robert Frost” Begin the study of Frost with reading assignments from his poems and analytical Essays from The Cambridge Companion to Robert Frost.

October 16-Nov. 6 View film “Voices and Visions: Elizabeth Bishop.” Focus on the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop with reading assignments from Elizabeth Bishop and Her Art.

Nov. 13-27 View film “Voices and Visions: Wallace Stevens.” Begin the study of Stevens with reading assignments from his poems and analytical essays from Wallace Stevens: Words Chosen Out of Desire.

December 4 Presentation of papers on Dickinson, Frost, Bishop and Stevens

December 11 Final Exam

Reading List of Works by and about Dickinson (Numbers refer to poem numbers (not page numbers) in Franklin and Johnson text)

September 4 Franklin Text Johnson Text 39 49 112 67 122 130 123 131 124 216 146 148 161 106 194 1072 195 690 202 185 207 214 225 199 236 324 238 187 256 285 259 287 260 288 267 1737 269 249 270 250 278 1212 279 664 292 293 314 254 307 271 320 258 325 322 339 241 340 280

Essays on Dickinson from Emily Dickinson: A Collection of Critical Essays

Read: “Introduction,” by Judith Farr, p. 1

(Read ONE of the following and summarize it.)

“The Wayward Nun beneath the Hill: Emily Dickinson and the Mysteries of Womanhood,” by Sandra M Gilbert, p. 20

“Emily Dickinson’s Books and Reading,” by Richard B. Sewall, p. 40

“Dickinson’s Experimental Grammar: Nouns and Verbs,” by Christanne Miller, p. 173

September 11 347 348 348 505 353 508 355 510 356 511 359 328 365 338 372 341 373 501 378 503 381 326 383 585 409 303 411 528 412 369 413 370 446 448 448 449 456 652 457 314

475 488 477 315 479 712 485 762 519 441 569 371 576 305 588 536 591 465 598 632 600 312 620 435

Essays about Dickinson: (Read ONE of the following and summarize it.)

“Sumptuous Destitution,” by Richard Wilbur, p. 53

“Thirst and Starvation in Emily Dickinson’s Poetry,” by Vivian R. Pollak, p. 62

“Emily Dickinson and the Calvinist Sacramental Tradition,” by Jane Eberwein, p. 89.

“Emily Dickinson’s Volcanic Punctuation,” by Kamilla Denman, p. 187

September 18 623 437 627 593 648 547 656 520 697 462 706 640 750 726 760 650 764 754 781 744 788 709 796 824 817 822 857 732 869 939 895 1068 935 1540 1096 986 1108 1078 1163 1138 1186 1125 1233 1197 1243 1126 1263 1129 1268 1261 1298 1255 1385 1273 1408 1575 1426 1405 1447 1430 1454 1397 1470 1445 1489 1463 1577 1545 1581 1551 1618 1593 1668 1624 1675 1601 1715 1651 1773 1732

Essays about Dickinson. Read ONE of the following and summarize.

“A Musical Aesthetic,” by Judy Jo Small, p. 206

“[Im]pertinent Constructions of Body and Self: Dickinson’s Use of the Romantic Grotesque,” by Cynthia Griffin Wolff, p. 119

“Strangely Abstracted Images,” by David Porter, p. 141

“The Riddles of Emily Dickinson, by Anthony Hecht, p. 149

Reading List for Frost

September 25 poems from A Boy’s Will (1913): “Into My Own,” “To the Thawing Wind,” “Flower-Gathering,” “The Vantage Point,” “Mowing,” “The Tuft of Flowers,” “In Hardwood Groves,” “October,” and “Reluctance.” All poems from North of Boston (1914)

Essays about Frost. Choose ONE to read and summarize. “Frost and the Ancient Muses,” by Helen Bacon, p. 75

“Frost as a New England Poet,” by Lawrence Buell, p. 101

“’Stay Unassuming’: the Lives of Robert Frost,” by Donald G. Sheehy, p. 7

October 2 poems from Mountain Interval (1916): “The Road Not Taken,” “Christmas Trees,” “In the Home Stretch,” “Hyla Brook,” “The Oven Bird,” “Birches,” “Putting in the Seed,” “Range-Finding,” “The Hill Wife,” “’Out, Out—‘” “Snow,” and “The Sound of Trees.”

Poems from New Hampshire (1923): “The Census-Taker,” “The Star- Splitter,” “Two Witches,” “Fire and Ice,” “Dust of Snow,” “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” “Blue-Butterfly Day,” “Two Look at Two,” “Not to Keep, “ “A Boundless Moment,” “Misgiving,” “A Hillside Thaw,” and “The Need of Being Versed in Country Things.”

poems from West-Running Brook (1928): “Spring Pools,” “Fireflies in the Garden,” “The Cocoon,” “Once by the Pacific,” “Acceptance,” “The Flood,” “Acquainted with the Night,” “West-Running Brook,” “Canis Major,” “Hannibal,” “The Last Mowing,” “The Birthplace,” and “The Bear.”

Essays about Frost: Choose ONE to read and summarize.

“Frost and the Questions of Pastoral,” by Robert Faggen, p. 49

“‘Across Spaces of the Footed Line’: the Meter and Versification of Robert Frost,” by Timothy Steele, p. 123

“Frost’s Poetry of Metaphor,” by Judith Oster, p. 155

Oct. 9 Poems from A Further Range (1936):”A Lone Striker,” “Two Tramps in Mud Time,” “Departmental,” “The Figure in the Doorway,” “Desert Places,” “Leaves Compared with Flowers,” “On Taking from the Top to Broaden the Base,” “Moon Compasses,” “Neither out Far nor in Deep,” ”Design,” “On a Bird Singing in its Sleep,” “Unharvested,” “There are Roughly Zones,” “Provide, Provide,” and “The Bearer of Evil Tidings,”

Poems from A Witness Tree (1942): “The Silken Tent,” “Happiness Makes up in Height for What it Lacks in Length,” “Never Again Would Bird’s Song Be the Same,” “The Quest of the Purple-Fringed,” “The Gift Outright,” “To a Young Wretch,” “To a Moth Seen in Winter,” “A Considerable Speck,” “November,” “A Question,” “The Secret Sits,” and “An Equalizer.”

, Poems from Steeple Bush : “A Young Birch,” “Directive,” “A Mood Apart,” “The Fear of God,” “The Courage to be New,” “Astrometaphysical,” “Haec Fabula Docet,” “Why Wait for Science,” “The Planners,” and “The Broken Drought.”

Poems from In the Clearing (1962): “Pod of the Milkweed,” “One More Brevity,” “Peril of Hope,” and “[In Winter in the Woods . . .]”

Essays about Frost. Choose ONE to read and summarize. “Frost and the Meditative Lyric,” by Blanford Parker, p. 179

“Frost’s Poetics of Control,” by Mark Richardson, p. 197

“Human Presence in Frost’s Universe,” by John Cunningham, p. 261.

Reading Schedule for Works by and about Elizabeth Bishop

Oct. 16 Film on Bishop

Poems: North & South (pp. 3-52)

Essays about Bishop. Choose one to read and summarize. “Elizabeth Bishop: Questions of Memory, Questions of Travel” by David Kalstone, p. 3

“Domestication, Domesticity, and the Otherworldly” by Helen Vendler, p. 32

“The Idiom of a Self: Elizabeth Bishop and Wordsworth” by Robert Pinsky, p. 49

Oct. 23

Poems: A Cold Spring (pp. 55-84) and Questions of Travel, Brazil (pp. 89-118)

Essays about Bishop. Choose one to read and summarize. “’In Prison’: A Paradox Regained” by David Lehman, p. 61

“’Old Correspondences’: Prosodic Transformations in Elizabeth Bishop,” p. 75

Oct. 30 Poems: Questions of Travel, Elsewhere (pp. 121-135) and Geography III (pp. 159-181

Essays about Bishop. Choose one to read and summarize.

“A Cold Spring: The Poet of Feeling” by Alan Williamson, p. 96

“The Impersonal and the Interrogative in the Poetry of Elizabeth Bishop” by Bonnie Costello, p. 109

Nov. 6 Poems: Uncollected Work (pp. 139-154)

“One Art: The Poetry of Elizabeth Bishop, 1971-1976” by Lloyd Schwartz, p. 133

“Elizabeth Bishop’s ‘Natural Heroism’” by Willard Spiegelman, p. 154

Reading List for Works by and about Wallace Stevens

Nov. 13 Film on Stevens

Poems from Harmonium: “The Paltry Nude Starts on a Spring Voyage,” “,” “The Snow Man,” “,” “Ploughing on Sunday,” “The Doctor of Geneva,” “The Worms at Heaven’s Gate,” “The Apostrophe to Vincentine,” “Floral Decorations for Bananas,” “Of Heaven Considered as a Tomb,” “A High-Toned Old Christian Woman,” “The Emperor of Ice-Cream,” “ at the Palaz of Hoon,” “Disillusionment of Ten O’clock,” “,” “Peter Quince at the Clavier,” “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” “The Mano Whose Pharynx Was Bad,” and “.”

Read and summarize “Introduction” and Chapter I from Words Chosen Out of Desire.

Nov. 20 Poems from Ideas of Order: “Farewell to Florida,” “The Idea of Order at Key West,” “The American Sublime,” “Mozart, 1935,” “Snow and Stars,” “The Sun This March,” “Academic Discourse at Havana,” “Anglais Mort a Florence,” and “A Postcard from the Volcano.”

Poems from Parts of a World: “Poetry Is a Destructive Force,” “The Poems of Our Climate,” “Study of Two Pears,” “The Man on the Dump,” “The Bagatelles the Madrigals,” “The Blue Buildings in the Summer Air,” “The Sense of the Sleight-of- hand Man,” “Of Modern Poetry,” “The Well Dressed Man with a Beard,” and “Asides on the Oboe,”

Read and summarize Chapters 2 and 3 from Words Chosen Out of Desire.

Nov. 27 Poems from Transport to Summer: “The Motive for metaphor,” “No Possum, No Sop, No Taters,” “Esthetique du Mal,” “Wild Ducks, People and Distances,” “Men Made Out of Words,” “Chaos in Motion and Not in Motion,” “The House Was Quiet and the World Was Calm,” “Burghers of Petty Death,” “Credences of Summer,”

Poem from The Auroras of Autumn: “The Auroras of Autumn”

Poems from The Rock: “The Plain Sense of Things,” “Prologues to What Is Possible,” “The World as Meditation,” “Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour,” “The Rock”—read only “Seventy Years Later”—“The Planet on the Table,” “The River of Rivers in Connecticut,” and “Not Ideas about the Thing but the Thing Itself.”

Read and summarize Chapter 4 from Words Chosen Out of Desire.

December 4 Analytical Paper due; In class: Presentations of Papers

December 11 Final

Other Information: Disability Accommodations: Students with disabilities may request reasonable accommodations through the A&M-Texarkana Disability Services Office by calling 903- 223-3062.

Academic Integrity: Academic honesty is expected of students enrolled in this course. Cheating on examinations, unauthorized collaboration, falsification of research data, plagiarism, and undocumented use of materials from any source constitute academic dishonesty and may be grounds for a grade of ‘F’ in the course and/or disciplinary actions. For additional information, see the university catalog.

A&M-Texarkana Email Address: Upon application to Texas A&M University-Texarkana an individual will be assigned an A&M-Texarkana email account. This email account will be used to deliver official university correspondence. Each individual is responsible for information sent and received via the university email account and is expected to check the official A&M-Texarkana email account on a frequent and consistent basis. Faculty and students are required to utilize the university email account when communicating about coursework.

Drop Policy: To drop this course after the census date (see semester calendar), a student must complete the Drop/Withdrawal Request Form, located on the University website http://tamut.edu/Registrar/droppingwithdrawing-from-classes.html) or obtained in the Registrar’s Office. The student must submit the signed and completed form to the instructor of each course indicated on the form to be dropped for his/her signature. The signature is not an “approval” to drop, but rather confirmation that the student has discussed the drop/withdrawal with the faculty member. The form must be submitted to the Registrar’s office for processing in person, email [email protected], mail (7101 University Ave., Texarkana, TX 75503) or fax (903-223-3140). Drop/withdraw forms missing any of the required information will not be accepted by the Registrar’s Office for processing. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that the form is completed properly before submission. If a student stops participating in class (attending and submitting assignments) but does not complete and submit the drop/withdrawal form, a final grade based on work completed as outlined in the syllabus will be assigned.