Literature CS 111: Contemporary American Poetry
Fall 2009

Instructor: James Donelan
Email: donelan@english.ucsb.edu
Office Phone: 893-2291
Office Location: 2702 South Hall
Office Hours: Monday and Tuesday, 11-12, or by appointment.
Enroll Code: 28803 
Class Meetings: TR 9:30-10:50 494 (Old Little Theater) 160B  

Texts:
Ramazani ed., The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, Volume II
Ammons, A.R., Collected Poems
Elizabeth Bishop, The Complete Poems
Texts are available in the UCen Bookstore. Copies of the course books will not be on reserve; please purchase them as soon as possible.

Course Description:
We will study American poetry of the late twentieth- and early twenty-first centuries, with an emphasis on works by especially original, interesting, and challenging authors. We will also examine what poetry means to us, here and now: where it is published, who reads it, how it is written, and what may happen to it in the future. Students will be asked to write essays about particular poems, contemporary poetics, and general currents in contemporary poetry. Authors to be studied include John Ashbery, A. R. Ammons, Rita Dove, Elizabeth Bishop, Charles Wright, James Merrill, and Robert Lowell, among many others.

Requirements:
The course requires regular attendance, active participation in class discussion and activities, and timely completion of all assignments. All assignments must be completed by the end of the quarter for full credit. They include:

· A short (1500-word) close reading essay

· A five-entry annotated bibliography

· A long (3600-word) scholarly essay

· Two 250-word peer reviews

· A five-minute oral presentation

In addition, please note:

• Every written assignment should be carefully edited and proofread.
• Your classmates and your instructor depend on your full participation.
• Chronic absenteeism or late assignments will result in failure of the course.
• Students with disabilities may contact me via email, during office hours, or after class to discuss special accommodations.

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Syllabus

9/24     Introduction and Logistics: Poetry in Our Place and Time

9/29     Bishop, “The Map,” 3; “The Man-Moth,” 14; “Love Lies Sleeping,” 16; “The Monument,” 23; “The Fish,” 42; any other Bishop poem you choose.

10/1     “Brazil, January 1, 1502,” 91; “Questions of Travel,” 93; “First Death in Nova Scotia,” 125; “In the Waiting Room,” 159; “One Art,” 178; “North Haven,” 188.

10/6     Poems by Robert Lowell, 119.

10/8     Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks, 140, and Denise Levterov, 247, “Poetics,” 1081.

10/13   Poems by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, 162, and Allen Ginsberg, 334. “Notes,” 1074.

10/15   Poems by Kenneth Koch, 261, and Frank O’Hara, 361. “Personism: A
            Manifesto,” 1072.
            Close reading essay due.

10/20 Poems by John Ashbery, 384.

10/22   Ammons, “So I Said I Am Ezra,” 1; “I Went Out to the Sun,” 6; “Interval,” 36;
            “Gravelly Run,” 55; “Symmetry of Thought,” 55; “Mechanism,” 77.
            First peer review due.

10/27   “Expressions of Sea Level,” 134; “One:Many,” 138; “Corsons Inlet,” 147; “Laser,” 187; “Poetics,” 199; “Essay on Poetics,” 296.
Second peer review due.

10/29   “Extremes and Moderations,” 328, “Hibernaculum,” 351.

11/3     Poems by James Merrill, 305, and Richard Howard, 449.

11/5 Poems by Anne Sexton, 431, Adrienne Rich, 456, “When We Dead Awaken,” 1086, and Sylvia Plath, 593.

11/10   Poems by W. S. Merwin, 408, James Wright, 414, and John Hollander, 490.

11/12   Poems by Charles Simic, 705, and Robert Pinsky, 778.
Annotated bibliography due.

11/17   Poems by Robert Haas, 785, and Sharon Olds, 806.

11/19   Poems by Louise Glück, 818. Poems chosen from the anthology.

11/24   Poems chosen from the anthology.

11/26   Happy Thanksgiving!

12/1     Oral presentations.

12/3     Final class. Oral presentations and conclusions.

12/7     Scholarly Essay Due.