SYLLABUS

Form, Content, Jabberwocky
& Other Wayward Beasts

“Through the ear, we shall enter the invisibility of things.”

-Edmund Jabès

“We are the bees of the invisible.”

-Rainer Maria Rilke

“Art is an invention of aesthetics, which in turn is an invention of philosophers... 
What we call art is a game.”

-Octavio Paz

“Poetry is the art of substantiating shadows, and of lending existence to nothing.”

-Edmund Burke

Course Description/Goals

What is a poem?  What is a sonnet, a dramatic monologue, a villanelle, a haiku, a psalm, a proem?  Why do we seek to categorize our production and what does such compartmentalization say about the critic, the reader, the author?  What is translation?  What is hybridity?  What does it mean to write poetry now?  For whom do we write?  Why?  What does it do? mean?  Why does it?  In a world where publication meets market demands—what does it mean to participate in the arts?  In the least lucrative, least traditionally collaborative, and most hermetic of them?  What does it mean to straddle the fence, fall between the cracks, refuse formulas, test limits, push envelopes, and resist convention?  What does it mean not to?

In this class, you will be asked to produce poetry in recognized and less recognizable forms, both short in-class exercises and longer works.  You will also read and analyze the works of both older and more contemporary authors, and you will be asked to add your insightful analysis to the dialogue about what makes their work unique and/or meaningful.  Once you understand why you like what you like and dislike about the pieces you read, you will be more capable of making distinctive choices about your own work. 

 

The different pieces we study for class, along with your classmates’ writings and your own, will provide fodder for discussion (probably), direction for your own writing (possibly), and will serve as stylistic models to emulate or to avoid emulating (almost certainly).

You will learn, by the semester’s end, how to scan and gloss a poem, how to analyze it for use of voice, point of view, mood, diction, tone, and formal elements. By collaborating and working within the community of the classroom and the world at large, you will realize that art is not produced within a vacuum.  This epiphany may be accompanied by a sense of great relief and/or great responsibility.  I hope both.  Finally, you will both read and write more deeply by way of questioning and re-questioning, editing, revising and starting again from zero.  My responsibility as your instructor is to ensure that the recursiveness of such tasks not bore you.  (I make no such promises regarding possible frustration.)

You will be graded on the quantity and quality of verbal and written feedback you offer to your peers as well as on a recitation, a presentation, and a final portfolio. See eventual handouts/blog for clarification. Your end-of-semester portfolio will contain a number of reflective pieces as well as with SUBSTANTIAL revisions of six poems you have written throughout the term.  See eventual handout, another one.

Course Texts and Materials

The Making of a Poem  eds. Mark Strand and Eavan Boland

Rhyme’s Reason   John Hollander

A Literary Magazine of your choice (approved by me). Due in class February 25^th.

OUR BLOG—www.slupoesis.com—must be consulted Wednesday and Friday mornings each week for links to class readings… clarifications and explanations of assignments… helpful summaries of classwork… and things I forgot to say because I am tangential.

ALSO:                        

                        brilliant handouts provided by the instructor… that would be me

                        a place to keep those handouts (folder, envelope, microfiche…)

                        a notebook that has no other commitments

                        a working pen, pencil, crayon, stylus, waxboard, abacus, etc.

                        NO computers in class

Be prepared to provide hardcopies of your work for everyone the class before it is to be workshopped.

You are required to read and make substantial comments on ALL workshopped poems.

You are required to read in-depth, gloss, comment, and LINE edit your writing partners’   work AND provide a copy of that gloss to your instructor (me, again)

Grades

Because of the workshop nature and experiential/discussion nature of this course, no absences are preferable. Two absences will be permitted without penalty. A third absence will lower your grade by .5. A fourth absence will result in failing grade. Plan your illnesses accordingly.

Use of Student Writing

It is understood that participation in this class presupposes permission by the student for the instructor to use any student work composed as a result of this course as classroom material.

Computer Use

Most of the work you do for this class will be handed in word-processed. Please use an easily readable font.  Please.  I grow old.  Use email to contact me about your coursework, or to ask any salient questions.  My email address is kkaschock@hotmail.com  Computers are susceptible to crashing and freezing.  I suggest handwritten drafts.  Or, memorize your work as you go.  If neither of these suggestions sounds feasible— Save your work frequently, always make backup copies, and plan your projects with extra time allowed for those inevitable glitches.

Disabilities

Please come see me with any issues you may have regarding the accomplishment of classwork as soon as possible so that we might work together for the best experience.