Reading and Writing Poetry (English 92)

Reading and Writing Poetry (English 92)

Stanford University, Spring 2015

Tuesday and Thursday 1:15 – 3:05

Instructor: Austin Smith

Office: Margaret Jacks Hall, Room 213

Phone: 725-1209

Email:

Office Hours: TBA

This was a Poet – It is That

Distills amazing sense

From ordinary Meanings

- Emily Dickinson

English 92 is a beginner course in the reading and writing of poetry. Any and all Stanford undergrads are welcome! If you’ve been intimidated by the reading and writing of poetry, this course will be the perfect introduction to this beautiful form. And if you’ve filled countless notebooks with poems, this course will help you hone your craft.

Texts

Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

The Triggering Town by Richard Hugo

The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms by Eavan Boland and Mark Strand

Instead of using an anthology or course reader, I will be bringing in poems throughout the quarter that demonstrate particular mastery of poetic techniques. Each student will also be responsible for creating their own anthologies of poems that resonate with them.

By the second day of class every student must have purchased a poetry notebook in which all their writing for the quarter will be done.

Course Requirements

Class Participation: 30%.

This grade will be determined by a number of factors. Of course, absences will greatly affect your Class Participation grade. You have two excused absences for the quarter. An excused absence is a family or medical emergency that must be documented in writing. If you are sick or know you will be absent, you must email me before class for the absence to count as excused. Any unexcused absence will result in a loss of one full letter grade. This means that if you are getting an A in the class, one unexcused absence will drop you to a B. If you have three absences, even if all are excused, your grade will be dropped by half a letter grade for each absence. (Example: If you’re getting an A- in the class but have three excused absences, your grade will drop to a B+).

As for lateness, it will not be tolerated. I shut the door and begin teaching promptly at the start of class, and expect you to be present before class begins. Lateness will be penalized two points. Finally, simply being in the classroom is not enough: I expect everyone to contribute to our in-class discussions. Cell phones must be turned off upon entering the classroom. Use of a phone during class time will cost you two points. Finally, laptops are the worst tool ever invented for writers. They lead to distraction and procrastination. Use of a laptop is not allowed in class unless explicitly allowed by me.

At some point in the quarter, you must spontaneously arise and recite a poem you have memorized.

Finally, participation-wise, I would like to meet with all of you one-on-one at least once this quarter. Think of it as an extra class that there are no excused absences for. Aside from this required meeting, I am always happy to meet during office hours.

Notebooks: 15%

You will be doing lots of in-class and out-of-class writing this quarter and it should all be done in your notebooks. All brainstorming and all rough drafting of your poems will be done by hand. It’s ok if your handwriting is poor, as long as you can read it. The only thing I’m going to be looking for notebook-wise at the end of the quarter is that your notebook is completely full. You might be thinking it’s impossible to fill a whole notebook in ten weeks, but don’t fear. In addition to filling your notebook pages with words, you can also draw, glue in photographs or found objects that help you visualize your poems, etc. The more colorful your notebooks are, the better. Our goal is to bring our poems to life by giving them a place to live on the page before they go up onto the screen. Your notebook will become a treasure trove of lines, images, ideas, favorite poems, etc. I think you’ll find that if you approach the notebooks with a sense of openness and excitement, they’ll fill up almost on their own. If you’re more concerned about how you’re going to fill the notebook by the end of the quarter, you might want to count pages and keep yourself on a schedule.

Poetry Chapbook: 30% (15% each)

You will finish at least ten poems by the end of the quarter, and these poems will be gathered together at the end into a poetry chapbook, another word for a short collection of poems. My interest in having you do this involves you being able to see the connections between the poems you wrote over the course of the quarter. You will have to consider which poems to place where, and how they resonate with one another to form an arc that may say more than any one individual poem can. Near the beginning of the quarter I will be asking for you to share with me your “poetic project”, a theme or chain of images or some other organizing structure that will help you see your poems not as individual efforts, but as parts of a whole.

Poet Presentation: 10%

You will be required to choose one poet, of any time period and nationality, to present to the class in an oral presentation. Your goal in doing this presentation should be to bring the poet out of the musty pages of an old book and into the classroom in a living, breathing way. This may involve reciting the poet’s work, dramatically narrating their life, whatever you have to do to make us feel that the poet is in our midst.

Readings and/or Adventures: 15%

You must attend at least three readings, art exhibits, concerts, or other manifestations of art, on or off campus, during the quarter. You may substitute one of these three for a trip taken outside the Palo Alto area (to the ocean, the redwoods, San Francisco). To get credit for these three excursions, you must write a very brief synopsis of what the experience was like and include it in your notebook (mark these pages with post-it notes). Each worth five points.

Students with Documented Disabilities

Students who may need an academic accommodation based on the impact of a disability must initiate the request with the Office of AccessibleEducation (OAE). Professional staff will evaluate the request with required documentation, recommend reasonable accommodations, andprepare an Accommodation Letter for faculty dated in the current quarter in which the request is being made. Students should contact the OAE assoon as possible since timely notice is needed to coordinate accommodations. The OAE is located at 563 Salvatierra Walk (phone: 723-1066,URL:

Honor Code

The Honor Code is the University's statement on academic integrity written by students in 1921. It articulates University expectations of studentsand faculty in establishing and maintaining the highest standards in academic work:

The Honor Code is an undertaking of the students, individually and collectively:

1. That they will not give or receive aid in examinations; that they will not give or receive unpermitted aid in class work, in the preparation ofreports, or in any other work that is to be used by the instructor as the basis of grading;

2. That they will do their share and take an active part in seeing to it that others as well as themselves uphold the spirit and letter of the HonorCode.

3. The faculty on its part manifests its confidence in the honor of its students by refraining from proctoring examinations and from takingunusual and unreasonable precautions to prevent the forms of dishonesty mentioned above. The faculty will also avoid, as far as practicable,academic procedures that create temptations to violate the Honor Code.

4. While the faculty alone has the right and obligation to set academic requirements, the students and faculty will work together to establishoptimal conditions for honorable academic work.