Department of English

Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University


2202242  Introduction to the Study of English Poetry

 

Puckpan Tipayamontri

Office: BRK (Boromrajakumari Building) room 1106.1

Office Hours: W 2-4 or by appointment

Phone: 0 2218 4703

puckpan.t@chula.ac.th

 

W 11-1 (BRK 312)

F 8-9 (BRK 301)

 

Tentative Schedule (Group 2)

 

Week 1

Oct. 31

Introduction

Unit 1 Reasons for Reading Poetry

Unit 2 Making Sense of Poems

Reading

Discussion: art of reading; function of poem; subject matter of poetry; What do you think of Bernstein's views of poetry compared to Barr's?; the art of reading, the function of a poem (p. 1-5); subject matters of poetry (p. 6-7)

Nov. 2

Unit 2 Making Sense of Poems

Reading

Discussion: words and meaning: diction, denotation, connotation, tone (p. 7-13)

Week 2

Nov. 7

Unit 3  Imagery

Reading

Discussion: words and the senses: imagery; visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory imagery

Nov. 9

Unit 4  Figures of Speech: Simile  

Reading

Discussion: words and associations: simile; comparing things

Week 3

Nov. 14

Unit 4  Figures of Speech: Metaphor, Personification

Reading (coursebook 21-26)

Study Questions

Robert Francis, "The Hound"

  • How does Francis's choice of metaphor express his view of life?

  • Look up the word "equivocal" in a dictionary that has etymological information, such as Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary or the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).  Is the root meaning of "equivocal" a comment on Francis's own poem?

  • Which reveals his attitude about life better?  His metaphors or his conclusion?

James Stephens, "The Wind"

  • Notice the connotations of the verbs used to personify the wind.  What do you think of the shift to such a threatening verb ("kill") in the penultimate line? and the even more ominous "will"?

C. H. Sisson, "Money"

  • Follow the transformation of money.  What does the play with bedroom imagery/words suggest about the relationship between money and the speaker?

  • Do you agree with the speaker that he is deserving of money's embrace as proclaimed in the last line?

Discussion: words and associations: metaphor; making things human: personification

 

Assignment 1 given

Nov. 16

Unit 4  Figures of Speech: Apostrophe  

Reading (coursebook 26-27)

Discussion: making things human: apostrophe

 

Assignment 1 due beginning of class

 

Discussion of Assignment 1: Sylvia Plath, "Mirror"

Week 4

Nov. 21

Unit 4  Figures of Speech: Overstatement, Understatement

Reading (coursebook 27-30)

Discussion: overstatement, understatement

 

Study Questions:

  • Think of Donne's "Song" as a series of ideas or arguments.  How are the arguments different in the three stanzas?  The discussion of this poem in your handout suggests that Donne is making fun of typical romantic overstatements.  They are impossibilities.  What other impossibilities does he poke fun at in the poem?

  • Several of Frost's poems are considerations about choice: being presented with choices, having to choose, being tempted by certain choices.  (See "The Road Not Taken" and "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" in conjunction to "Fire and Ice.")  How is Frost playing with the idea of choice here?

Student Presentation 1: Navanat (poetry and music)

Student Presentation 2: 

Student Presentation 3: 

Student Presentation 4: 

Nov. 23

Unit 4  Figures of Speech: Allusion

Reading (coursebook 31-32)

Discussion: intertextuality: allusion

 

Student Presentation 5: Phavit (sonnet)

Student Presentation 6: Panjaporn (meter and foot)

Student Presentation 7: Plyor (?)

Week 5

Nov. 28

Unit 4  Figures of Speech: Allusion, Metonymy

Reading (coursebook 32-35)

Discussion: intertextuality: allusion; words and associations: metonymy

 

Student Presentation 8: Papaporn (Poetry World: poetry and children)

Student Presentation 9: Nawaporn M. (Literary Tool Chest: personification)

Student Presentation 10: Pritzana (Literary Tool Chest: allegory)

Student Presentation 11: Parima (Poetry World: poetry and therapy)

Student Presentation 12: Pancharle (Literary Tool Chest: allusion)

Nov. 30

Unit 4  Figures of Speech: Synecdoche

Reading (coursebook 35-38)

  • Louis Simpson, "The Battle"

  • Frances Cornford, "The Guitarist Tunes Up"

  • Synecdoche (short definition with examples)

  • Synecdoche (classical rhetoric, examples)

  • Synecdoche (short definition)

Discussion: words and associations: synecdoche

 

Student Presentation 13: Phantida (Literary Tool Chest: metonymy)

Student Presentation 14: Porncharas (Literary Tool Chest: paradox)

Student Presentation 15: Plyor (Literary Tool Chest: metonymy v. metaphor)

Student Presentation 16: Neeranuch (poetry and children: nursery rhymes)

Week 6

Dec. 5

No Class (Father's Day)

Dec. 7

Unit 4  Figures of Speech: Synecdoche, Paradox

Reading (coursebook 38-39)

Discussion: words and associations: synecdoche; imagining impossibility: paradox

 

Student Presentation 17: Phavit (Poetry World: poetry in Ancient Egypt)

Student Presentation 18: Papaorn (Literary Tool Chest: symbol)

Student Presentation 19: Papawarin (Literary Tool Chest: understatement)

Student Presentation 20: Pleowadee (Literary Tool Chest: assonance)

 

Assignment 2 given

Week 7

Dec. 12

Unit 4  Figures of Speech: Paradox, Symbol

Reading (coursebook 37-42)

Discussion: paradox, symbol

 

Student Presentation 20: Navanat (Literary Tool Chest: irony)

Student Presentation 21: Panjaporn (Poetry World: Homer)

Student Presentation 22: Tanadcha (Poetry World: poetry in prisons)

Student Presentation 23: Parima (Literary Tool Chest: onomatopoiea)

 

Assignment 2 due beginning of class

Dec. 14

Unit 4  Figures of Speech: Allegory

Reading (coursebook 42-43)

Discussion: allegory

Week 8

Dec. 19

Unit 4  Figures of Speech: Verbal and Dramatic Irony

Reading (coursebook 44-48)

Discussion: verbal, dramatic irony

 

Student Presentation 24: Pawinrat (Literary Tool Chest: verbal and dramatic irony)

Student Presentation 25: Papaporn (punctuation)

Student Presentation 26: Tanyalak (The Hit List: wrong word)

Student Presentation 27: Parima (Literary Tool Chest: free verse and blank verse)

Student Presentation 28: Thanchanok (poetry is fantasy)

Student Presentation 29: Phantida (parallelism)

Dec. 21

Unit 4  Figures of Speech: Situational Irony

Reading (coursebook 48-49)

Discussion: situational irony

 

Student Presentation 30: 

Student Presentation 31: Naruporn (Literary Tool Chest: carpe diem)

Student Presentation 32: 

 

Final Paper outline due

Week 9

Dec. 26

(Midterm Week December 24-28, 2007)

 

Midterm 11 a.m.-1 p.m. in BRK room 303 (covers material in class and coursebook from the beginning to symbol; read through the exam and pace yourself well)

Dec. 28

No Class (Midterm Week December 24-28, 2007)

Week 10

Jan. 2

Unit 5  The Prose Paraphrase

Reading (coursebook 50-53)

Discussion: paraphrase

 

Student Presentation 33: Phantida (Poetry World: poetry is fantasy)

Student Presentation 34: Pochamarn (Literary Tool Chest: ballad)

Student Presentation 35: Porncharas (The Hit List: verb-noun agreement)

Student Presentation 36: 

Jan. 4

Unit 6  Musical Devices: Repetition, Refrain, Alliteration, Assonance, Consonance

Reading (coursebook 54-55)

Discussion: words and sounds

 

Student Presentation 37: Navanat (The Hit List: being vague, broad, too general)

Student Presentation 38: Phavit (The Hit List: cliche)

Student Presentation 39: Panjaporn (The Hit List: showing v. telling)

Student Presentation: Nawaporn P. (Poetry World: Burmese poetry)

 

Final Paper consultation sign-up

Week 11

Jan. 9

No Class (Intervarsity Games)

Jan. 11

No Class (Intervarsity Games)

Week 12

Jan. 16

Unit 6  Musical Devices: onomatopoeia, rhyme, rhythm, meter, foot, scansion 

Reading (coursebook 55-61)

Discussion: sound and meaning: onomatopoeia, rhyme, rhythm, meter, foot, scansion

 

Student Presentation 40: Pawinrat (The Hit List: logic)

Student Presentation 41: Pancharle (Poetry World: poetry in ancient China)

Student Presentation 42: Nawaporn M. (?)

Student Presentation 44: Pleowadee (?)

Student Presentation 45: Papawarin (?)

Jan. 18

Unit 6  Musical Devices: onomatopoeia, rhyme, rhythm, meter, foot, scansion

Unit 7  Forms and Types of Poetry: Sonnet

Reading (coursebook 62-67)

Discussion: Petrarchan, Spenserian, and Shakespearean sonnets

 

Student Presentation 43: Porncharas (Poetry World: poetry and science)

Week 13

Jan. 23

Unit 7  Forms and Types of Poetry: Limerick, Epic, Romance

Reading (coursebook 67-70)

Fixed form

  • Limerick Discussion Page (Basic Rules and Definitions, Fine Points and Judgment Issues)

  • The Limerick (article on the limerick by Marco Graziosi; includes discussion of the form, its prehistory, rise of the limerick book, Lear's contribution, and the naming of the limerick)

  • Edward Lear Home Page (about Edward Lear, his nonsense works, his art, essays on Lear and the limerick)

Narrative poems: epic

Narrative poetry: romance

Discussion: limerick, epic, romance

 

Student Presentation 46: Tanyalak (Poetry World: deaf poetry)

Student Presentation 47: Tanadcha (repetition)

Student Presentation 48: Patcharanan (Poetry World: riddle poems)

Student Presentation: Nawaporn P. (The Hit List: capitalization)

 

Assignment 3 given

 

Final Paper draft due beginning of class

Jan. 25

Unit 7  Forms and Types of Poetry: Ballad

Reading (coursebook 70-71)

Discussion: ballads

 

Student Presentation 49: 

Student Presentation 50: Pritzana (Poetry World: poetry and war)

Student Presentation 51: Pancharle (The Hit List: spelling)

Week 14

Jan. 30

Unit 7  Forms and Types of Poetry: Lyric, Elegy, Ode

Reading (coursebook 71-74)

Discussion: lyric, elegy, ode

 

Student Presentation 52: Naruporn (?)

Student Presentation 53: Nawaporn M. (?)

Student Presentation 54: Patcharanan (Literary Tool Chest: rhyme)

Student Presentation 56: Neeranuch (?)

 

Assignment 3 due beginning of class

Feb. 1

Unit 8  Theme: Tyranny and Suppression

Reading (coursebook 75-77)

Discussion: theme, the interpretation of poetry

Week 15

Feb. 6

Unit 8  Theme: Tyranny and Suppression, Mothers and their Children

Reading (coursebook 77-79)

Discussion: theme, the interpretation of poetry

 

Student Presentation 60: Pawinrat (Poetry World: poetry and war)

Student Presentation 61: Pleowadee (Poetry World: poetry is reality)

Student Presentation 62: Papawarin (?)

Student Presentation 63: Patcharanan (The Hit List: capitalization)

Student Presentation 64: 

 

Assignment 4 given

Feb. 8

Unit 8  Theme: Mothers and their Children

Reading (coursebook 80)

Student Presentation 57: Tanyalak (Literary Tool Chest: ballad)

Student Presentation 58: Pritzana (The Hit List: using informal expressions)

Student Presentation 59: Tanadcha (Literary Tool Chest: overstatement)

Student Presentation 55: Pochamarn (The Hit List: unity)

Week 16

Feb. 13

Unit 8  Theme: Mothers and their Children

Reading (coursebook 81-85)

  • Adrienne Rich, "A Woman Mourned by Daughters"

  • David Budbill, "What I Heard at the Discount Department Store"

Student Presentation 65: Naruporn (?)

Student Presentation 66: Pochamarn (?)

Student Presentation 67: Neeranuch (?)

Student Presentation 68: 

 

Assignment 4 due beginning of class

Feb. 15

Poetry Is...

Final Paper due, 7-10 pages (follow the link for sample papers and writing guidelines)

 

Sessions

1: "Conquering the Jabberwocky" (Panjaporn, Phavit)

Week 17

Feb. 20

Poetry Is...

Sessions

2: Emily Dickinson, "I envy seas whereon he rides" (Tanyalak, Tanadcha, Pritzana)
3: "London with the Invisible 'I'" (Papawarin, Pleowadee, Pochamarn)

4: "Wordsworth's 'Perfect Woman'" (Patcharanan, Porncharas, Phantida, Parima)

5: Sylvia Plath, "Insomniac" (Pawinrat, Naruporn, Neeranuch)

Feb. 22

Poetry Is...

Sessions

6: A Greater Freedom: Beating an Invisible Cage in Dunbar's "Sympathy" (Navanat, Pancharle, Nawaporn M., Nawaporn P.)

 

Feb. 27

Final Exam 8:30-10:30 a.m., BRK 301

Contains 2 parts (80 points total): one on in-class and coursebook material, and the other on an unseen poem

 

 

 


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Last updated February 19, 2008