At the end of this course, the students; 1) will be able to analyze modern American poetry by focusing on the relationship between form and content.
MODE OF DELIVERY
Face to face
PRE-REQUISITES OF THE COURSE
No
RECOMMENDED OPTIONAL PROGRAMME COMPONENT
None
COURSE DEFINITION
This course studies modern American poetry. Selected poems will be analyzed and discussed in connection with the related theoretical developments of the period.
COURSE CONTENTS
WEEK
TOPICS
1st Week
Introduction to the course, overview of the syllabus; Lecture: Poetry in Colonial America
2nd Week
Puritan Poetry; From The Bay Psalm Book ?Psalm 19?; Michael Wigglesworth (1631-1705) From The Day of Doom, discussion of stanzas 1-4, 21, 25 - 27, 38, 224
3rd Week
Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) ?The Flesh and the Spirit? ?Here Follows Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House, July 10th, 1666?; from Contemplations, stanzas 3 ? 4, 8 ? 9
4th Week
Edward Taylor (1642-1729) from Preparatory Meditations ?Prologue? and ?Meditation 8? ?Huswifery?
5th Week
Regular Form, Regular Meters: American Poets in the late Seventeenth and early Eighteenth Centuries; Mather Byles (1706-1788) ?The Bloom of Life, Fading in a Happy Death? (Moodle); William Livingston (1723?1790) ?Philosophic Solitude? (Moodle); Philip Freneau (1752-1832) ?The Wild Honey Suckle?; Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (1651-1695) ?Suspend, Singer Swan?
6th Week
Female American Poets; Jane Johnston Schoolcraft (1800-1842) ?To the Pine Tree?; Lydia Howard Huntley Sigourney (1791-1865) ?Indian Names?; Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784) ?On Being Brought from Africa to America?
7th Week
Midterm I
8th Week
Transcendentalism and Romanticism; Ralph Waldo Emerson ?The Poet? ?Bacchus?; William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) ?Thanatopsis? ?Sonnet ? To an American Painter Departing for Europe?; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) ?The Day Is Done? ?A Psalm of Life?
9th Week
Romantic and Gothic Poetry; Edgar Allan Poe ?To Helen? ?Annabel Lee? ?The City in the Sea?
10th Week
Civil War and Anti-Slavery Poems; John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) ?The Hunters of Men? ?The Battle of Autumn 1862? ; James M. Whitfield (1822-1871) ?Stanzas for the First of August?; Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825 - 1911) ?Bury Me in a Free Land?; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) ?The Slave Singing at Midnight?
11th Week
Late-Romantic Poetry; Walt Whitman (1819-1892) ?Song of Myself?
12th Week
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886); 340 ?I felt a Funeral, in My Brain?; 372 ?After great pain, a formal feeling comes ??; 479 ?Because I could not stop for Death??; 519 ?This is my letter to the World?; 1263 ?Tell all the truth but tell it slant ??; 1715 ?A word made Flesh is seldom?
RECOMENDED OR REQUIRED READING
Levine, Robert S, general editor. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 9th edition, Volumes A and B, New York, Norton, 2017. Ruland, Richard, and Malcolm Bradbury. From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History of American Literature, London, Routledge, 1991. Stauffer, Donald Barlow. A Short History of American Poetry. New York, Dutton, 1974.
PLANNED LEARNING ACTIVITIES AND TEACHING METHODS
Lecture,Discussion,Questions/Answers,Presentation
ASSESSMENT METHODS AND CRITERIA
Quantity
Percentage(%)
Mid-term
1
30
Quiz
1
10
Attendance
5
15
Presentation of Case Study
1
15
Total(%)
70
Contribution of In-term Studies to Overall Grade(%)
70
Contribution of Final Examination to Overall Grade(%)
30
Total(%)
100
LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION
English
WORK PLACEMENT(S)
No
KEY LEARNING OUTCOMES (KLO) / MATRIX OF LEARNING OUTCOMES (LO)