ENG201Y: Outline syllabus for second term

||Carolyn Murray's poetry learning questionnaire||

Please read and reread all of the poems for each evening, although we won’t have time to discuss all of them.

January 8: World War One poetry

McCrae, “In Flanders fields” (1119)

Sandburg, “Grass” (1147)

Thomas, “As the team’s head brass” (1149)

Sassoon, “The general”, “Glory of women” and “On passing the new Menin Gate”

(1208-9)

Brooke, “The soldier” (1217)

Rosenberg, “Break of day in the trenches” (1262)

Owen, *“Anthem for doomed youth” (1276) and *“Strange meeting” (1279)

January 15: Yeats

Yeats, “An Irish airman foresees his death” (1088), “Easter 1916” (1089),

“Sailing to Byzantium” (1094)

Auden, “In memory of W.B. Yeats” (1368): “Poetry makes nothing happen...”

January 22: (Too many) landscapes & Essay #2 due

Housman, “On Wenlock Edge the wood’s in trouble” (1071)

Yeats, “The wild swans at Coole” (1087)

Thomas, “Fern hill” (1464)

*Eliot, “The burial of the dead”, from The Waste Land (1236)

cummings, “Spring is like a perhaps hand” (1283)

January 29: Snow, Frost and Stevens: Modern/ist American poetry

Frost, *“Stopping by woods on a snowy evening” (1131, Joe P), “To earthward” (1132, Badri N),

*“West-running brook” (1133, Adam N), *“Come in” (1137), “Directive” (1138, Noel M)

Stevens, “The snow man” (1150, Michelle R), “Thirteen ways of looking at a blackbird”

(1155, thirteen of us), “Of mere being” (1162, Emily T)

Questions solicited for essay #3 (in-class essay). List given out next week.

February 5: “Confessional poetry” and the Beats

Ginsberg, from Howl (1598)

Sexton, *“And one for my dame” (Medeine T) (1652) AND “Housewife” (Livia T)

Plath, “Daddy” (1732), *“Black rook in rainy weather” (Adrian V) (1737), “You’re” (Adam N and “Child” (Joe P)

Questions for essay #3. given out today in class

2. Plath, "Daddy": Clara Blackwood, Devon Laberge, Adam Nielsen.

3. Ginsberg, Howl: Joe Fuda, Peter McCamus, and Jivan Nagra.

February 12: Identity poetics & Essay #3 (written in class, 50 minutes from 6:15-7:05, 10 marks)

Cullen, “Heritage” (1335; Adrian V)

Walcott, “A far cry from Africa” (1709)

Lorde, *“Coal” (1752; Medeine T.) and *“Echoes” (1755, though we won't get to it)

4. One seminar group of 3 presenting on Walcott, "A far cry from Africa":

Katherine Grzejszczak, Audrey Gagnon, Peter Izdebski.

Reading week

February 26: Poetry for children

A gripping lecture on meter and rhythm.

5. Dr Seuss: Adam Burgetz, Anna Guigauri, Ryon Levitt.

6. Dennis Lee’s “Alligator Pie” (and Alligator Pie): Jonathan L, Diane L, Brenda C.

Unit on poetry in Canada:

I’d like to give groups the chance to pick poems (ones that aren’t about poetry or death, perhaps!), but I’m happy to make suggestions.

March 5: Test #2 (12.5%) written in class

Al Purdy: "At the Quinte Hotel", "The Machines"

Poems about poetry, poems about spring:
Phyllis Webb: *“Eschatology of spring”, "Evensong" (even song syllabics).
George Elliott Clarke: "Primitivism", *"April".

7. Al Purdy: "At the Quinte Hotel", "The Machines": Mike Jackson, Daniela Link, and Michelle Runch.

March 12: The Land.

Al Purdy, "A Handful of Earth (to Rene Levesque)".
George Bowering (Canada’s poet Laureate): “Grandfather”.

8. "Ballad of the Absent Mare" by Leonard Cohen: Calvin Maclean, Joe Perfetto, and Corey Woodley.

9. "The fiddle and the drum" by Joni Mitchell: Medeine Tribinevicius, Angela Verven, Kimberlee White.

March 19:

Margaret Atwood: *"You begin" (1785) (we won't get to this, but you should read it!), ...

Gwendolyn MacEwen: *“Poems in Braille”, “Magic Cats', "Dark Pines Under Water".

10. "Letters & Other Worlds" (1814), by Michael Ondaatje: Claire Chow, Adrian Visheau, Norris Weisman.

11. "This Is A Photograph of Me" (1783), by Atwood: Emily Leeson, Noel Muller, Emily Thomas.

March 26: the immigrant experience, cont. (non-seminar poems were given out when test #2 was given back in class)

Margaret Atwood: "Progressive Insanities of a Pioneer" and "The Immigrants".

Dionne Brand: "Blues Spiritual for Mammy Prater", excerpts from Land to light on and thirsty. We didn't get to the last two, so will revisit them in the final week of term.

Louise Bernice Halfe, "My Ledders" and "I'm so sorry".

12. "My Ledders" and "I'm so sorry", by Louise Bernice Halfe: Virginia Hughes and Livia Tsang.

April 2: Contemporary Canadian prizewinners

Michael Crummey, "Northern Ontario: Finnish Cemetery" and "Rivers/Roads". Beware of typos (e.g. "cemetery"!).

Anne Michaels, *"Memoriam" and *"Miner's Pond".

13. "Essay on what I think about most", by Anne Carson: Claire Alexander, Rachell Buhler, Badri Narayan.

April 9: Catch-up, closure...

Dionne Brand, excerpts from Land to light on and thirsty (from March 26).

EXAM: Wednesday 7 May, 7-10 pm. Varsity Arena South.