Syllabus for English 203: Modern Poetry (Altieri) Wheeler 427: hrs Tu 1:15-3:15

Week 1. Aug 27: Introduction. My web site is .., where I hope to post the lectures. You can also find the site through the UCB home page.

“ 29. Poems by Arnold and Tennyson on handout, Victorian Poems in reader, essays by T.S Eliot, also in reader. Reader is at Copy Central on Bancroft just east of Telegraph.

Week 2. Sept 3: T.S Eliot’s first volume of poetry Prufrock And Other Observations, especially Prufrock, Preludes, and Rhapsody on Windy Night. Also whispers of immortality and Sweeny Among nightingales in next volume..

“ 5: Eliot, Wasteland, with some remarks on sacramentalism in Four Quartets.

Week 3. Sept 10: Poetry and Poetics of Ezra Pound. Selections from his prose and the early poems in the reader.

“ 12. The work of the senses in cantos 1-5, 7-to be handed out. There is an indispensable Companion to the Cantos edited by Carroll Terrell.

Week 4. Sept 17: What Cezanne does to Impressionism—texts by painters in reader and look at images from Monet, Pisarro, and Cezanne, either in books or on Images.com. There should also be the images I want to discuss on my website, but not good reproductions.

“ 19. Interpretations of Sensation in selected images by Braque, Picasso, Malevich and Mondrian.

Week 5: Sept 24: Wallace Stevens, the first 20 pages of Harmonium. What is distinctive about this opening?

“ 26: The rest of Harmonium.

Week 6: Oct 1: William Carlos Williams: Collected Poems, vol 1: pp. 1-4,11,15, 21, 25-6,42-9,63-86.

“ 3: Williams: 87-119, 135-74.

Week 7: Oct 8: Williams, all of Spring and All in CP.

“ 10: Willams, all of Descent of Winter in CP plus pp. 377-81, 391-8.

Week 8: Oct 15: Elizabeth Bishop, Complete Poems: pp. 3, 8, 14, 22-8, 31-2, 35, 42-46, 55-75

“ 17: Bishop: pp. 89-104, 123-38, 159-194.

Week 9: Oct 22: Theory week—how might the context these readings provide change our discourse about the poems? For this class Bergson and Nietzsche in reader.

“ 24: Adorno in reader.

Week 10: Oct 29: Yeats and the Nature of Voice. CP: first four poems, and who goes with Fergus from The Rose, all of Wind Among the Reeds, and all of Green Helmet. Essay on Symbolism in reader. And there is a commentary by Norman Jeffares that annotates all the poems.

“ 31. All of Responsibilities, first four poems of Wild Swans, “Upon a Dying lady, Ego Dominus Tuus, Easter 1916, Second Coming and Prayer for Daughter.

Week 11: Nov 5: Yeats: First four poems of Tower, Leda and Swan, first four and last six poems of Winding Stair.

“ 7: All of Words for Music Perhaps and Supernatural Songs. Also essays by Yeats in reader.

Week 12: Nov 12: Yeats, Last Poems down to “To Dorothy Wellesley, then from “Those Images” to end.

“ 14: Auden, from Collected Poems. Assignments to be made later

Week 13: Nov 19: Auden.

“ 21: Auden.

Week 14: Nov 26: Wallace Stevens, from Collected Poems: 128-37, 146, 201-14, 227, 236-46, 273-83.

Thanksgiving—give thanks.

Week 15: Dec. 3: Stevens: “Notes Toward Supreme Fiction” and “Ordinary Evening in New Haven.” Also essay from Necessary Angel in reader.

“ 5: All of The Rock in CP. Wittgenstein in reader.

Assignments 1. Regular attendance is required.

2.      There will be a term essay of about 20 pages on any of the materials covered in the course. I would prefer that you check with me before you begin this project. You can if you want write three intense five page papers as we go, but this too should be negotiated with me.

3.   There will be one oral presentation in the class—either on how voice works in Auden or on how sensation is put to work in a painting by one of the figures mentioned above. If you choose the painting please talk to me before proceeding.