UGS 303: Classics of World Poetry

Transcription

1 UGS 303: Classics of World Poetry TTh 5 6:30 pm..par 201 Discussion Sections: F 9 10 (63605)..CBA F (63610)..CBA F (63615)..CBA4.330 Michael Craig Hillmann, Instructor, WMB mchillmann@austin.utexas.edu, mchillmann@aol.com (UT office), (cell) Spring 2013 Office Hours: TTh 11 am 1 pm.. Teaching Assistant.@. This introductory survey of world poetry from after the days of Ancient Greece and Republican Rome through the end of the twentieth century involves the close and appreciative reading of classics of poetry from around the world. The course aims to: expose students to the variety and richness of poetic expression, forms and styles; suggest the enjoyment and cultural insights that poetry can offer adults in today's world; help students increase their facility and confidence in their independent reading of and reacting to poetic texts; and help students improve their skills in writing about writing. Course poems all in English originals or English translations come from African, Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Hebrew, Japanese, Latin, Persian, and Turkish poetic traditions. The course emphasizes two of those literary traditions, English and Persian, the latter in order to illustrate the significance of taking into account cultural context in reading poetry. Half-way around the world from America, Persian is the language of a rich poetic tradition that extends back to the tenth century CE (= A.D.). Persian poetry, which figures prominently in the lives of a hundred million Persian-speaking peoples in Afghanistan, Iran, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, has influenced poetry in Turkey, the so-called Arab world, and the Indian Subcontinent, as well as poets writing in German (e.g., Goethe), French, and English (e.g., Matthew Arnold and Edward FitzGerald). As for the emphasis on poetry in the English language, owing to the loss of poetic qualities in many poems in other languages when translated into English, more poems in English appear in the syllabus than would appear in an anthology of world poetry with classic texts in their original languages. At the same time, some English poems appear in the syllabus because they represent sorts of poetic statements in other poetic traditions (e.g., Ezra Pound s version of Li Po s The River Merchant s Wife: A Letter ). World Poetry.1

2 The required course texts are: The Aeneid by Virgil, translated by Robert Fitzgerald (paperback); Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali (paperback); Julius Caesar by Shakespeare (paperback); and Classics of World Poetry Course Packet (on the course Blackboard and available in hard copy at Paradigm Books), which contains: Genesis 1 and 2 and Psalms from The Hebrew Bible Lyric passages from The Koran Quatrains by medieval Persian poets Ode to Ctesiphon (from the Persian) by Khaqani Sufi poems (from the Persian) by Rumi Ghazal poems (from the Persian) by Hafez Haiku poems by Basho Several French poems Poems by John Donne Poems by John Keats Matthew Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum Poems by Emily Dickinson Song of Myself by Walt Whitman The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám by Edward FitzGerald Poems by William Butler Yeats Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot Poems by E.A. Robinson and W.C. Williams Poems by Robert Frost Poems by Dylan Thomas Poems (from the Persian) by Forugh Farrokhzad Poems from and about the Middle East Poems by African American poets Miscellaneous shorter poems Handouts The bases for course grades are: daily open-book and group exercises (10% of the course grade), class participation and oral reports on assigned poems (15%), two review tests (20% each), eight two-page essays on assigned poems (4% each), and composition of a short poem revised throughout the course (3%). The course grading scale is: A (93-100), A- (90-92), B+ (87-89), B (83-86), B- (80-82), C+ (77-79), C (73-76), C- (70-72), D + (67-69), D (63-66), D- (60-62), and F (0-59). World Poetry.2

3 Classics of World Poetry Course Schedule and Assignments Michael Craig Hillmann, Instructor WMB 5.146, (UT office tel), (home office tel/fax) Spring 2012 Office Hours: TTh 1:30 3 pm., Teaching Assistant.@.. 1 T Jan 17 Open Book Exercise #1: Interpreting Tennyson s The Eagle. Discussing interpretations of the The Eagle. Ideas about the nature of poetry. Course goals and activities. Assignment: Read Breathes there the man by Walter Scott Read The Long Voyage by Malcom Cowley. Read Talking about Poems: A Check List of Terms. Visit the instructor at WMB by January 31st. 2 Th Jan 19 Open Book Exercise #2: Comparing two poems. Breathes there the man. The Long Voyage. Haikus by Basho. We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks. Discussion of Writing Assignment #1. Assignment: Reread assigned and discussed poems. Read The River-Merchant s Wife: A Letter by Li Po/Ezra Pound. Read The Nature of Literature by René Wellek and Austin Warren. Prepare Writing Assignment #1 (the first draft of a poem). F Jan 20.Discussion Session # Students am..cba Students CBA Students CBA T Jan 24 Open Book Exercise #3. Submission of Writing Assignment #1. The River-Merchant s Wife: A Letter. Wellek and Warren s The Nature of Literature. Assignment: Reread assigned poems. 4 Th Jan 26 Open Book Exercise #4. Group Discussion of Writing Assignment #1 sample sentences. Talking about Poems: A Check List of Terms. Dulce et Decorum Est... by Wilfred Owen. Assignment: Read Book of Genesis 1, 2 and selected Psalms from the Hebrew Bible. World Poetry.3

4 F Jan 27.Discussion Session #2. 5 T Jan 31 Open Book Exercise #5. Genesis 1, 2. Psalms. Assignment: Read Poets on Poetry A List of Quotations. Read Shall I compare thee to a summer s day by William Shakespeare. Read Ars Poetica by Archibald McLeish. Prepare Writing Assignment #2. 6 Th Feb 2 Open Book Exercise #6. Submission of Writing Assignment #2. Poets on Poetry A List of Quotations. Shall I compare thee to a summer s day by William Shakespeare. Ars Poetica by Archibald McLeish. Assignment: Read Aeneid Books 1-6. F Feb 3...Discussion Session #3. 7 T Feb 7 Open Book Exercise #7. Group Discussion of Writing Assignment #2 sample sentences. Aeneid Books 1-6. Assignment: Read Aeneid Books Th Feb 9 Open Book Exercise #8. Aeneid Books Assignment: Read Poetry in/and The Koran. F Feb 10.Discussion Session #4. 9 T Feb 14 Open Book Exercise #9. Discussion of poetry in The Aeneid or The Aeneid as poetry. Poetry in/and The Koran. Assignment: Read Ode to Ctesiphon by Khaqani. Prepare Writing Assignment #3. 10 Th Feb 16 Open Book Exercise #10. Submission of Writing Assignment #3. Ode to Ctesiphon. Assignment: Read poems by Rumi and Hafez. World Poetry.4

5 _ F Feb 17.Discussion Session #5. 11 T Feb 21 Open Book Exercise #11. Group Discussion of Writing Assignment #3 sample sentences. A Thumbnail Sketch of the History of Persian Poetry Rumi s The Reed Poem. Hafez s Visitation Ghazal. Assignment: Read Poetry for Poetry s Sake by A.C. Bradley. Start Reading Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali. _ 12 Th Feb 23 Open Book Exercise #12 Quatrains and Ghazals by Rumi. The Cup of Jamshid and other Hafezian Ghazals Discussion of Poetry for Poetry s Sake. Assignment: Read Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali. Prepare Writing Assignment #4. _ F Feb 24.Discussion Session #6. 13 T Feb 28 Open Book Exercise #13. Submission of Writing Assignment #4. Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali. Assignment: Read Shakespeare s Julius Caesar. _ 14 Th Mar 1 Open Book Exercise #14. Group Discussion of Writing Assignment #4 sample sentences. Julius Caesar. Assignment: Read selected poems by John Donne. _ F Mar 2..Discussion Session #7. 15 T Mar 6 Open Book Exercise #15. The Canonization by John Donne. A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning by John Donne. For Whom the Bell Tolls by John Donne. Assignment: Review for Review Test #1. 16 Th Mar 8 Review Test #1 (= Open Book Exercise #16). Assignment: Read Ode on a Grecian Urn and To Autumn by John Keats. Prepare Writing Assignment #5. World Poetry.5

6 _ F Mar 9..Discussion Session #8. Review of Review Test #1. 17 T Mar 20 Open Book Exercise #17. Submission of Writing Assignment #5. Keats s To Autumn. Keats s Ode on a Grecian Urn. Assignment: Read Suhrab and Rustum by Matthew Arnold. _ 18 Th Mar 22 Open Book Exercise #18. Group Discussion of Writing Assignment #5 sample sentences. Suhrab and Rustum. Assignment: Read poems by Emily Dickinson. Read Walt Whitman's Song of Myself. Prepare Writing Assignment #6. _ F Mar 23 Discussion Session #9. 19 T Mar 27 Open Book Exercise #19. Submission of Writing Assignment #6. Poems by Emily Dickinson. Song of Myself 1. Assignment: Reread Walt Whitman's Song of Myself. _ 20 Th Mar 29 Open Book Exercise #20. Group Discussion of Writing Assignment #6 sample sentences. Song of Myself 2. Assignment: Read Edward FitzGerald s The Rubaíyát of Omar Khayyám. _ F Mar 30 Discussion Session # T Apr 3 Open Book Exercise #21. The Rubaíyát of Omar Khayyám. Assignment: Read The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats. Read Richard Cory by Edward Arlington Robinson. Prepare Writing Assignment #7. _ 22 Th Apr 5 Open Book Exercise #22. Submission of Writing Assignment #7. The Second Coming. Richard Cory. Assignment: Read T.S. Eliot s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. World Poetry.6

7 _ F Apr 6...Discussion Session # T Apr 10 Open Book Exercise #23. Group Discussion of Writing Assignment #7 sample sentences. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Assignment: Read The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot. _ 24 Th Apr 12 Open Book Exercise #24. The Waste Land 1. Assignment: Reread The Waste Land. F Apr 13.Discussion Session # T Apr 17 Open Book Exercise #25. The Waste Land 2. Assignment: Read selected poems by Robert Frost. Prepare Writing Assignment #8. _ 26 Th Apr 19 Open Book Exercise #26. Submission of Writing Assignment #8. Selected poems by Robert Frost. Assignment: Read selected poems by African American poets. _ F Apr 20.Discussion Session # T Apr 24 Open Book Exercise #27. Group Discussion of Writing Assignment #8 sample sentences. Selected poems by African American poets. Review for Review Test #2. Assignment: Review for Review Test #2. _ 28 Th Apr 26 Review Test #2 (= Open Book Exercise #28). Assignment: Read selected poems by Nima Yushij and Forugh Farrokhzad. _ F Apr 27.Discussion Session #14. Review of Review Test #2. 29 T May 1 Open Book Exercise #29. Selected poems by Nima Yushij and Forugh Farrokhzad. Assignment: Read selected poems from around the world. World Poetry.7

8 Prepare Writing Assignment #9 (= final revision of Assignment #1). _ 30 Th May 3 Open Book Exercise #30. Submission, recitation, and discussion of Writing Assignment #9 (= final versions of poems). F May 4. Discussion Session #15. World Poetry.8