Professor Wayne Stengel, Introduction to Poetry

Professor Wayne Stengel, Introduction to Poetry

Spring 2017, English 2380, CRN 28201; MWF 1:00-1:50, Irby 312

Office Hours: MWF 11:00-1:00, TTH. 4:00-5:00; Phone: 450-5101 or

Course Description: This course will examine in some detail five or six relatively brief poems per week from all historical periods and forms of British and American verse.The goal of the course is simple: to identify what a poem is and what is poetry in a few of its many manifestations.Then to ask how and why the intensity and music of poetry continues to excite and fascinate people around the world. How do we read a poem and how should we hear its music? In others words, why poetry, and how dothese small, selected examples of poetry work so effectively?

Course Objectives and Requirements: Therefore, the object of the course is to learn how to understand poetry better, to no longer fear it, and to appreciate how poetry and poetic form have been the source of communication, inspiration, awe, beauty, and meaning for people around the world long before written communication. In other words, how does poetry express ideas, images, and feelings that neither prose, essays, fiction, or drama can. This is also a FYS seminar course, designed to have the class sometimes work in small groups as collaborative units, or on group projects. I thrive onthis idea and will quickly divide you into four groups of five so that we can quickly begin to think and act in terms of these collaborative partnerships. After careful reading, reciting, and the effort to unpack potential meaning in the two or three poems we will examine on Mondays and Wednesdays, we will make Fridays the most important day of the week inthis class by electing, by popular vote, a playlist of our favorite poems of the week and doing a variety of more formal presentations on these two poems on Fridays. These activities could take the form of a student generated quiz on the two poems of our choice, a brief writing response, designed by me,on one of the poems, or a much more organized and planned presentation using the technology in this classroom that might effectively compare or translate the poems in question to musical compositions, films, anime, u-tube videos, brieftheatrical productions,or any other art forms, or technologically enhanced art forms, that this class wishes to imagine and utilize. Sometimes the entire team of five will be utilized for these productions. On other occasions, I’ll split you up into smaller units. As a FYS seminar, we need tounderstand and value how this class fits into the Core Curriculum but is different from many of the other classes you will be takingat UCA. Poetry has longbeen a contrarian art form promoting a certain social dissonance, individuality, and resistance to the repressions of social norms. In fact, in certain societies the recitation of poetry to the strings of the lyre, or other musical instruments, was regarded as dangerous, hysterical, excessively feminine, Dionysian, or fomenting public discord. Therefore, the study of poetry—how it works and what it attempts to convey--is perfect for an analysis of diversity, responsible living, critical thinking, and writing against the grain or expectations of almost any society. We shall examine the role of poetry in formulating difference, responsible civil dissent, and in its concerns with space, time, compression and a variety of metrical forms on the page, the freedom of the imagination.

Text: The Norton Anthology of Poetry, Fifth Edition

Major Assignments and Examinations: We will have a mid-semester exam, three announced in class written responses to the individual poems, three announced student-generated quizzes, and three group projects in the course of the semester. A final, and most important, group project will take place during finals week and will constitute the final exam.

Grading Policies:

10%--Class participation grade

40%--Group Projects, announced quizzes and written responses to poems

25%-- Mid-semester examination

25%--Final Group Project as Final Exam

Attendance and Drop Policies: REGULAR CLASS ATTENDANCE IS VERY IMPORTANT TO THIS INSTRUCTOR. MISS THIS CLASS AT YOUR OWN RISK. I TAKE THE ROLL REGULARLY, RELIGIOUSLY. MISSING MORE THAN FIVE (5) CLASSES IN THIS SEMESTER—A LUDICROULSY LARGE NUMBER OF CLASSES TO BE MISSING—WILL RESULT IN MY DROPPING YOU FROM THE ROSTER AND YOUR RECEIVING AN F IN 2380. YOU HAVE BEEN ADVISED.

The following Academic Integrity statement:

The University of Central Arkansas affirms its commitment to academic integrity and expects all members of the university community to accept shared responsibility for maintaining academic integrity. Students in this course are subject to the provisions of the university’s Academic Integrity Policy, approved by the Board of Trustees as Board Policy No. 709 on February 10, 2010, and published in the Student Handbook. Penalties for academic misconduct in this course may include a failing grade on an assignment, a failing grade in the course, or any other course-related sanction the instructor determines to be appropriate. Continued enrollment in this course affirms a student’s acceptance of this university policy.

The following Americans with Disabilities Act statement:

The University of Central Arkansas adheres to the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. If you need an accommodation under this Act due to a disability, please contact the UCA Disability Resource Center, 450-3613.

The following Building Emergency Plan statement (to be discussed in class/lab during the first week of the semester):

An Emergency Procedures Summary (EPS) for the building in which this class is held will be discussed during the first week of this course. EPS documents for most buildings on campus are available at Every student should be familiar with emergency procedures for any campus building in which he/she spends time for classes or other purposes.

The following Title IX disclosure:

If a student discloses an act of sexual harassment, discrimination, assault, or other sexual misconduct to a faculty member (as it relates to “student-on-student” or “employee-on-student”), the faculty member cannot maintain complete confidentiality and is required to report the act and may be required to reveal the names of the parties involved. Any allegations made by a student may or may not trigger an investigation. Each situation differs, and the obligation to conduct an investigation will depend on the specific set of circumstances. The determination to conduct an investigation will be made by the Title IX Coordinator. For further information, please visit: *Disclosure of sexual misconduct by a third party who is not a student and/or employee is also required if the misconduct occurs when the third party is a participant in a university-sponsored program, event, or activity.

Directstudentstofamiliarizethemselveswithall policiesincludedintheStudentHandbook,particularlythefollowing:

SexualHarassmentPolicy

AcademicPolicies

Information about the Timing of Student Evaluations

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Evaluations (Fall and Spring)

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