Tuesday, August 27

In class

• Emily Dickinson's poetry (resource)
• Emily Dickinson Archive
• [Because I could not stop for Death] manuscript
• Scansion exercises (resource)

Assignment

• Read chapter on Walt Whitman and all his poems in our textbook. (Alternatively, read this resource, and many of the poems it links to.)
• Read Free Verse in The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics.
• Discuss how one of his poems (or section of a larger poem) is both Romantic in poetics, but innovative in its use of free verse. Discuss some of his techniques to make his free verse poetic. Post this in our forum before class on Thursday.

Thursday, August 29

In class

• Walt Whitman's poetry (resource)
• Walt Whitman Archive
• U.S. Published Versions of Leaves of Grass

Assignment

• Read Poetry of the United States in The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, at least as far as the section on Modern Poetry.
• Read chapter on Edgar Lee Masters and his poems in our textbook. (Alternatively, read this resource, and 5-6 poems it links to.)
• Write a forum post in which you discuss 1-2 poems by Masters and how they fit within an American poetic tradition. Post in our forum before class on Tuesday.