Week 1: The Materials of Poetry

Monday, August 22

• In class:
  • Introductions
  • Course overview
  • Poetry and Materiality
    • "Why I Am Not a Painter" by Frank O'Hara
    • "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas
    • "Elegy for Three Astronauts" by Mary Ellen Solt
    • "Strings" by Dan Waber
• Assignment:
  • Read the first and third chapters in Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word
  • Refresh your memory on a poem, stanza, song excerpt, saying or slogan you have memorized. Post it in our Forum before our next class, along with a brief paragraph about what makes it memorable and be prepared to recite it in class.

Wednesday, August 24

• In class
  • Discussion of Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word
  • Poetry recitation
  • "Beowulf" and Ballads
  • "10 Old Sayings We Need to Bring Back"
  • "27 Companies With Really Catchy Slogans and Taglines"
• Assignment:
  • Readings:
    • "Meter" and "Prosody" in The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
  • Writing:
    • Post an excerpt from a poem, song, or any other source that you find pleasurably musical and write a short (1-2 paragraphs) description and discussion of what you like about it. Post before next class.