ENGLISH 266
Winter 2002
Benjamin Vogt
enfrancais@att.net
Office: Denney 513, T/R 11:30-1
Ph: 292-1730
Mailbox: Denney 421, below name
Class: T/R 9:30-11:18, DE 368
This course is structured primarily around the work of each
beginning writer. We will critique, nurture, and absorb each
other's words in a daily workshop environment that fosters
creative freedom and fearlessness of language. Although the focus
is on the crafting of your own work, it is necessary to
understand where, as young poets, we've come from, and where we
might want to go. To that end we will read, learn from, examine,
and take a glimpse into the muscle of poetry from numerous
writers. Each student will keep a journal on assigned topics
responding to poets we read, and a midterm quiz will also crop
up. Language is all around you - the chore and pleasure for the
poet is to translate it and make it into something wholly new,
unique and honest.
Texts
An Introduction to Poetry, eds. Dana Gioia and X.J.
Kennedy, 10th edition
The Branch Will Not Break, James Wright
The Wild Iris, Louise Gluck
The Benjamin Vogt Website,
http://people.english.ohio-state.edu/vogt.39
Your work
All books available at SBX
The Percentages
40% -- Work (4 poems, at least 3 revised, in a portfolio - work
can also be defined as effort put forth in your revisions and
originals)
25% -- Participation (workshop contribution; on-time and prepared
before class to present/examine ALL assigned
poetry - peers and others - with oral and written comments;
outside poetry readings and write up)
20% -- Poet's Journal (where you will respond to poets we read;
each student will also choose one poet to explore more in-depth,
ideas to follow)
15% -- Quiz (on prosodic terms, form identification,
scansion…)
Policies
Attendance is a vital part to your success as a
writer and to the success of your peers in a workshop
environment. Each unexcused absence after 2 will result in the
lowering of the final course grade by 1/3 of a letter, 5
unexcused absences is course failure. Excused absences such as
documented personal illness, family illness/tragedy, religious
observance or collegiate athletic events will not affect your
grade. However, it is your responsibility to notify me ahead of
time, or in the event of personal or familial illness, as close
to on time as possible. Excessive tardiness - more than 2 times -
will lower your final course grade by 5 percent. Being tardy is
arriving 5 minutes late without a valid excuse.
All work must be completed and handed in
at the beginning of class on the date due. Each day a poem is
late I will take off 1/3 of a letter grade from your portfolio.
Late portfolios will cause a full letter grade drop on your
course grade each day missing. Late written comments on peer
drafts will not be accepted; these comments should be handed
back to the author after we have workshopped for that day, I will
occasionally spot check.
When your poem is workshopped, take notes on the
things said in class. I expect you to turn in these notes
on each poem, with at least one draft besides the final
one, in the portfolio.
I also strongly encourage you to write a poem in meter
(15 lines blank verse or iambic tetrameter).
Outside Readings (must attend at
least 1 of 4, turn in 150 word write up)
January 17, Thursday, 7pm, Denney 311
Student Faculty Reading Series -- Erin McGraw, Catherine Pierce,
Keith Cooper
January 25, Friday, 9pm, Barley's, 476 N. High
Mother Tongue -- Sponsored by the OSU Writers Guild
February 7, Thursday, 7pm, Denney 311
Student Faculty Reading Series -- Jacquelyn Spangler, Michael
Kardos, Lesley Jenike
February 19, Tuesday, 3:30pm, Denney 311
Ohio Poetry Circuit -- Rafael Campo
-------------------------------------------------
April 4, Thursday, 7pm, Denney 311
Student Faculty Reading Series -- Michelle Herman, Benjamin Vogt,
Kelly Magee
Plagiarism
It is the representation of another's works or ideas as one's
own. It includes the unacknowledged word for word use and/or
paraphrasing of another's work, and/or the inappropriate
unacknowledged use of another person's ideas. All cases of
suspected plagiarism, in accordance with university rules, will
be reported to the Committee on Academic Misconduct.
Resources
Disability Services: is located in 150 Pomerene Hall,
292-3307, and offers a variety
of services for students and teachers with disabilities.
- For each day I've highlighted poets found within each
chapter. These are poems we will discuss in class and use as
examples, or that you, as writers, should simply be familiar
with. Please reread and study the poem pertaining to that author,
and in some cases answer the questions that follow as part of
your Poet's Journal. Feel free to write on and explore any poem
even if it doesn't have assigned questions!
- Assignments are listed on the date due and subject to change.
JANUARY
Tuesday 8
Introduction a la poesie, a moi, et vous-memes
Thursday 10
Gioia: Ch. 1, 5-19 (Lawrence and Qs, Frost and Qs 1-3)
Ch. 17, 376-380
Conference sign-ups
Tuesday 15
Poem 1 due, with copies for all
Ch. 2, 21-48 (Wordsworth, Sexton and Qs, Williams, Owen)
Conferences this week
Thursday 17
Ch. 3, 54-70 (Williams, Donne and Qs, Cummings and Qs, Anonymous,
Carroll)
Conferences this week
Tuesday 22
Ch. 4, 82-86 (Blake, Stevens and Qs)
Ch. 5, 96-104, 111-112 (Roethke and Qs, Bishop and Qs, Bly,
Gluck, Smith)
Ch. 12, 272-274 and p. 487, Lowell
Thursday 24
James Wright
Tuesday 29
Ch. 6, 119-136 (Shakespeare/Moss and Qs, Blake, Roethke and Qs)
Ch. 7, 147
Thursday 31
Poem 2 due, with copies for all
Ch. 8, 165-184 (Herrick/Lewis Qs, Hopkins Qs 2-3, Frost Qs 2-3)
FEBRUARY
Tuesday 5
Ch. 9, 189-209 (Brooks, Hughes)
205, do exercise
Thursday 7
Ch. 10, 213-236 (Keats, Millay, Thomas and Qs, Bishop and Qs 1-4)
Tuesday 12
Midterm Quiz
Ch. 11, 238-258 (Merwin Qs, Williams Qs 1-4, Fulton)
p. 452, Eliot
Thursday 14
Poem 3 due, with copies
Ch. 14, 307-318
(Plath Qs, Espaillat Qs 1-3, Komunyaka, Justice, Reid, Emanuel)
Tuesday 19
Ch. 16, 346-373 (Stafford/McKuen and Qs, Yeats, Bishop, Whitman,
Poe)
353-355, do exercise
Thursday 21
Louise Gluck
Tuesday 26
Total workshop day
Thursday 28
Poem 4 due, with copies
Workshop
MARCH
Tuesday 5
Workshop
Thursday 7
No class -- AWP
Tuesday 12
Workshop
Thursday 14
Workshop
Monday 18
Turn in Portfolio
and Poet's Journal
by 1pm in my mailbox or in office, 12-1pm.
Poet Exploration in Journal
Find a poet who you like from Intro. to Poetry and do a 2
page review of the poet's prosodic style. This will
require you doing some minor research on who the
poet is--why he might write the way he does--but no need to turn
this into a formal paper.
Choose a poem from that poet not found in Intro.,
and discuss what it is doing stylistically, how that plays into
the writer's overall M.O. and decision making within the poem.
Include the poem in the journal, however, it will not count
towards the two un-typed pages (feel free to
type this all up-double-spaced-and stapled in). Style is in part:
use of imagery, diction, line breaks, subject matter, tone... all
the things we've discussed in class at some point.
Portfolio and the Rest
-- 4 poems, at least 3 re-drafted.
-- Include 3 drafts of the 3 re-drafted poems, in this order:
1) Final (finely-polished draft)
2) Second draft
3) First (class draft)
4) Notes taken during workshop.
What I'm expecting is that the second draft be a heavy revision,
and the third a final coat of wax. Writing is a process that
takes time, and can be near never-ending (sorry) -- I'd like to
see that you've begun to experiment with this essential concept
and have approached the poem from a few fresh starts.
-- Paper clip the drafts of each poem together,
in the above order, and slip into a folder, manila or
pocketed.
-- Collect all of the comments you've received
from others, organize by poem in 1-2-3-4 order,
and clip together, insert anywhere.
-- Insert poet write-up in the front of your
Journal (if typed), loose-leaf or clip, whatever, and rubberband
the Journal to the folder of poems. If you wrote it in
there, please flag it with a post-it note.
-- the Reading write-up can be slipped into the
front of the Journal.
-- Include bribes. I won't accept them, but it makes late nights
interesting.
--> I will hold your porfolios until the end of next
quarter.
| Home |