The topic for your first assignment can be found in this post and in the sidebar. As you work on the assignment, feel free to reflect (or vent) here on any particular difficulties you encounter. Is there anything about this poem you are finding confusing or unusually challenging?
Deadline: Monday (2/2), 10am.
Friday, January 30, 2009
For Credit: Reasoned Disagreement or Ad Hominem Attack?
In the course of lively discussion today of Montagu's poem, we never quite got to thoroughly air the larger question of how Montagu responds to Swift.
Is this verse conversation largely a matter of Swift writing a nasty poem about women, which annoys Montagu, who writes an nasty attack on Swift in response? Or is there a substantive issue here about which they disagree?
Often, the rhetorical set-up, "It is just X going on here--or is it really Y?" is meant to elicit the answer "Oh, well obviously Y, it couldn't possibly be just X." However, I'd encourage you to consider seriously the possibility that it is just X. And whichever way you come down, cite some text to support your response.
Deadline: Wednesday (2/4), noon.
Is this verse conversation largely a matter of Swift writing a nasty poem about women, which annoys Montagu, who writes an nasty attack on Swift in response? Or is there a substantive issue here about which they disagree?
Often, the rhetorical set-up, "It is just X going on here--or is it really Y?" is meant to elicit the answer "Oh, well obviously Y, it couldn't possibly be just X." However, I'd encourage you to consider seriously the possibility that it is just X. And whichever way you come down, cite some text to support your response.
Deadline: Wednesday (2/4), noon.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
For Credit: Dressing Rooms UPDATED AND BUMPED
The original post:
I put links to Wednesday's reading in the right-hand sidebar, in case you didn't get the Montagu handout or haven't bought the C18 Poetry anthology yet.
The question for you to consider: What is Swift's problem? Do you think Montagu's diagnosis of the situation is correct, or are there other ways to understand the emotions and ideas at play in "The Lady's Dressing Room"?
The updated question, following Wednesday's excellent discussion (where we never got to Montagu's poem): Reflect here on how Montagu interprets Swift's poem. To what extent is she reading "A Lady's Dressing Room" accurately? To what extent does she miss the point? What about Swift's poem seems to bother her most? What evidence do you find to support the suggestion that Montagu's response is a "friendly jest"? Your answer does not need to answer all these questions! But do offer your thoughts on the nature (tone, point, biographical subtext, gender politics) of Montagu's role in this poetic interaction--and be sure to support your claims with evidence drawn from the poem.
Deadline:Wednesday (1/28) Friday (1/30), noon.
I put links to Wednesday's reading in the right-hand sidebar, in case you didn't get the Montagu handout or haven't bought the C18 Poetry anthology yet.
The question for you to consider: What is Swift's problem? Do you think Montagu's diagnosis of the situation is correct, or are there other ways to understand the emotions and ideas at play in "The Lady's Dressing Room"?
The updated question, following Wednesday's excellent discussion (where we never got to Montagu's poem): Reflect here on how Montagu interprets Swift's poem. To what extent is she reading "A Lady's Dressing Room" accurately? To what extent does she miss the point? What about Swift's poem seems to bother her most? What evidence do you find to support the suggestion that Montagu's response is a "friendly jest"? Your answer does not need to answer all these questions! But do offer your thoughts on the nature (tone, point, biographical subtext, gender politics) of Montagu's role in this poetic interaction--and be sure to support your claims with evidence drawn from the poem.
Deadline:
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
The First Assignment
Your first writing assignment, due Monday (2/2), can be found here. Please feel free to ask questions about the assignment in comments on this post.
Deep Background: The C18 Port-a-Potty
The top and left-hand panel of this object are hinged; the top swings down and the left-hand side swings in to make it more compact. It is thought to have been used by military officers in the field.
If you've got a spare $1.5K - $2.5K lying around, this object can be yours from Bloomsbury Auctions, an antique dealer in NYC.
Monday, January 26, 2009
For Credit: What IS the solemn lesson of the ruin'd year?
Well???
Offer your conjectures here.
Two related questions you might consider:
Seward writes of "Nature" and of "the time,/and its great Ruler," and of "sacred fear." What (if anything) do such concepts have to do with Stevens's "Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is"?
The word "Enlightenment" got written on the board in class on Friday, and has not been referred to since. Is that a term that--like "sensibility"--can help us make sense of this poem?
Please don't worry that you should have emerged from class today with a solid "big picture" of what these two poems are all about, or that your response here should reflect such a big picture. Thoughtful explanation or questioning of a single line or image can contribute to the conversation through which we can together arrive at a big picture.
Deadline: Wednesday (1/28), noon.
Offer your conjectures here.
Two related questions you might consider:
Seward writes of "Nature" and of "the time,/and its great Ruler," and of "sacred fear." What (if anything) do such concepts have to do with Stevens's "Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is"?
The word "Enlightenment" got written on the board in class on Friday, and has not been referred to since. Is that a term that--like "sensibility"--can help us make sense of this poem?
Please don't worry that you should have emerged from class today with a solid "big picture" of what these two poems are all about, or that your response here should reflect such a big picture. Thoughtful explanation or questioning of a single line or image can contribute to the conversation through which we can together arrive at a big picture.
Deadline: Wednesday (1/28), noon.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
For Credit: Minds of Winter
Read the two poems on the "The Minds of Winter" handout. Respond here with your thoughts about how these poems are similar or different. You don't have to have a fully worked out analysis of each poem! Just point out some interesting point of connection, the more specific, the better. It's okay to be brief. Cite lines as necessary to support your reflections.
Deadline: Monday (1/26), 9am.
Deadline: Monday (1/26), 9am.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
For Credit: Toilet Humor, Then and Now
The following clip is not, in my opinion, among the best The Daily Show has to offer, but somewhere around 2:18, you'll see its relevance to "Holt Water."
Out-loud laughs there. Why? Does this scene provoke the same audience response that "Holt Water" elicits from the reader? Is the nature of the intended humor the same in both instances, or is something different going on in "Holt Water"?
Offer some reflections here.
If you have had further thoughts about Friday's discussion of this poem (remarks you didn't have a chance to make, concerns or issues you would have liked to discuss further), feel free to write about them here.
Deadline: Monday (1/26), 9am.
(Thanks to Professor Renee Trilling for alerting me to this clip.)
Out-loud laughs there. Why? Does this scene provoke the same audience response that "Holt Water" elicits from the reader? Is the nature of the intended humor the same in both instances, or is something different going on in "Holt Water"?
Offer some reflections here.
If you have had further thoughts about Friday's discussion of this poem (remarks you didn't have a chance to make, concerns or issues you would have liked to discuss further), feel free to write about them here.
Deadline: Monday (1/26), 9am.
(Thanks to Professor Renee Trilling for alerting me to this clip.)
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
For Credit: Mary Jones Debriefing (DEADLINE EXTENDED)
[UPDATE: And we're off! Everyone did a great job in class on Friday. Like I said in class, we won't be discussing "Holt Water" on Monday, but it may be coming up again over the course of the semester. Since I screwed up the response format this past week and people didn't get a chance to record their reflections, I'm extending the deadline until Monday.]
Excellent discussion today! We're off to a great start. If you're curious about Mary Jones, I encourage you to look her up in the Eighteenth-Century Poetry anthology (aka Blackwell), which has a comprehensive biographical note about her. The anthology does not reprint "Holt Water" (surprising?) but it does have some other poems from the volume of her poetry, the only book she is known to have written.
What follows is a grab-bag of questions about "Holt Water." You can get blog credit for answering any one of them (so long as you don't repeat someone else's response), or by taking issue (kindly and constructively, please!) with what someone else has written. As I said in class, blog posts are meant to be short, informal, and low- stress. That said, any interpretive remark about the poem should be supported by a brief and relevant quotation drawn from it.
1. How does the biographical info about Jones change how you read "Holt Water"?
2. It was suggested in class that "Holt Water" might actually mean "holy water." What outside information about the term "Holt Water" or "Holt" can you find to support this claim or to suggest some other reason for the title?
3. What is significant about the name "Baucis"? What outside information can you find to suggest why Jones goes from calling the dairy-maid "Nan or Mary" to calling her "Baucis"?
4. [This question continues the tail end of our discussion in class, and assumes that you had a look at the biographical info about Jones.] What additional questions would you like to ask about "Holt Water"? What continues to puzzle or surprise you about it?
Deadline:Friday (1/23) Monday (1/26), 9am.
(Please note--the "For Credit" questions below are still open for responses and will be until Monday.)
Excellent discussion today! We're off to a great start. If you're curious about Mary Jones, I encourage you to look her up in the Eighteenth-Century Poetry anthology (aka Blackwell), which has a comprehensive biographical note about her. The anthology does not reprint "Holt Water" (surprising?) but it does have some other poems from the volume of her poetry, the only book she is known to have written.
What follows is a grab-bag of questions about "Holt Water." You can get blog credit for answering any one of them (so long as you don't repeat someone else's response), or by taking issue (kindly and constructively, please!) with what someone else has written. As I said in class, blog posts are meant to be short, informal, and low- stress. That said, any interpretive remark about the poem should be supported by a brief and relevant quotation drawn from it.
1. How does the biographical info about Jones change how you read "Holt Water"?
2. It was suggested in class that "Holt Water" might actually mean "holy water." What outside information about the term "Holt Water" or "Holt" can you find to support this claim or to suggest some other reason for the title?
3. What is significant about the name "Baucis"? What outside information can you find to suggest why Jones goes from calling the dairy-maid "Nan or Mary" to calling her "Baucis"?
4. [This question continues the tail end of our discussion in class, and assumes that you had a look at the biographical info about Jones.] What additional questions would you like to ask about "Holt Water"? What continues to puzzle or surprise you about it?
Deadline:
(Please note--the "For Credit" questions below are still open for responses and will be until Monday.)
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
For Credit: Poetry in Your Life (DEADLINE EXTENDED)
UPDATE: the responses to this thread have been going in such interesting directions that I'm going to leave it open a while longer.
What it means to read (and write) poetry has changed since the eighteenth century; this fact will shape how you read the poems we will be working with this semester.
To get you thinking about the kinds of assumptions we bring to poetry (and to give you a low-pressure way to get familiar with the blog), respond to this blog post by identifying a poem that has meant something to you (expressed your emotions, given you new things to think about, baffled you in interesting ways, helped you through a difficult time, angered you...) and saying why.
If an answer doesn't come easily to you (if you find yourself trying to remember the reading from a high school English class, or rifling through a textbook for inspiration), that's okay! Be honest about it and tell us what kinds of literary texts are meaningful for you--and why.
Deadline:Monday (1/26) Monday (2/2), 9am.
What it means to read (and write) poetry has changed since the eighteenth century; this fact will shape how you read the poems we will be working with this semester.
To get you thinking about the kinds of assumptions we bring to poetry (and to give you a low-pressure way to get familiar with the blog), respond to this blog post by identifying a poem that has meant something to you (expressed your emotions, given you new things to think about, baffled you in interesting ways, helped you through a difficult time, angered you...) and saying why.
If an answer doesn't come easily to you (if you find yourself trying to remember the reading from a high school English class, or rifling through a textbook for inspiration), that's okay! Be honest about it and tell us what kinds of literary texts are meaningful for you--and why.
Deadline:
For Credit: How to Read a Poem, Then and Now
The following poem was not written in the C18, nor is its author a woman. I'm putting it here, though, because it illuminates a very C21 way of looking at poetry.
Respond to this poem with your reflections: How do Collins's students read poetry? How does he think they ought to read poetry? How relevant are his prescriptions for reading poetry written 200 years ago? Don't feel you need to answer all those questions comprehensively! A few sentences that can open up or advance discussion are fine.
Introduction to Poetry
by Billy Collins
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
(from The Apple that Astonished Paris, 1996
University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville, Ark.)
Deadline: Monday (1/26), 9am
Respond to this poem with your reflections: How do Collins's students read poetry? How does he think they ought to read poetry? How relevant are his prescriptions for reading poetry written 200 years ago? Don't feel you need to answer all those questions comprehensively! A few sentences that can open up or advance discussion are fine.
Introduction to Poetry
by Billy Collins
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
(from The Apple that Astonished Paris, 1996
University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville, Ark.)
Deadline: Monday (1/26), 9am
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