Upcoming Class:
Class #10 Modern Voices
May 20
- Session 1: Wendy Salkind: Marilyn Nelson
- “The Balance” pg. 296
- “Chosen” pg. 296
- Three sonnets from A Wreath for Emmett Till
- Hear Nelson read two sonnets from A Wreath
- Hear Nelson read all of A Wreath for Emmett Till
- Scroll down a bit to: “Web Extra: Hear Marilyn Nelson read her poem 'A Wreath for Emmett Till.’” Then click on Listen
- Session 2: Discussion: The sonnet genre and the sonnet tradition. See the Question Sheet for details and discussion prompts.
***************************
Class Calendar, Week by Week:
Class #1: Introductions
March 18
- Introduction to the Class: Linda
- Introduction to
the features of the sonnet: Karen
- Michael Drayton’s sonnet # 61, Pg. 35
- Sllideshow: Elizabethan England and the Courlty Love Tradition
- Guest
speaker: Dr. Phillis Levin, editor, The Penguin Book of the Sonnet.
- Topic: Introduction to the sonnet as a living tradition.
- Printout for Day #1: Questions and Sonnets in Pairs
Class #2 The Shakespearean Sonnet
Mar. 25
- Session 1: Linda: Sir Philip Sidney
- Sidney, from Astrophel and Stella: #1 on pg. 20; #41 on pg. 23; #54 on pg. 24; , #71 on pg. 25
- Session 2: Karen: Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18, pg. 40
- Session 3: Chris: Shakespeare's Sonnet 128, pg. 49
Revised Question Sheet for Class #2
Please have on hand during class
Class #3 Sonnets Religious and Political
April 1
- Session
1: Chris: John Donne
- from Holy Sonnets: 10 “Death be not proud” pg. 61.
- “Sonnet. The Token” pg. 63
- Session 2: George Champlin: John Milton, pgs. 78 - 82
- Session 3: Vivian Malloy: George Herbert:
- “Redemption,” pg. 75. “Love," pg. 76. "The Sonne," pg. 76
Class #4 The Sonnet according to the Romantics
April 8
- Session 1: Harriet Magen: William Wordsworth,
- “Nuns fret not…” pg. 89.
- “London, 1802,” pg. 92
- Surprised by Joy . . . impatient as the wind” pg. 93
- Session 2: Debra Abeshaus: John Keats,
- "On the Grasshopper and the Cricket” pg. 111
- “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” pg. 109
- Session 3: Karen: Percy Bysshe Shelley,
- “Ozymandias” pg. 103
- “Ode to the West Wind” pgs. 104-106
- “England in 1819” pg. 104
Class #5 The Sonnet according to the Victorians
April 15
- Session 1: Karen: Gerard Manley Hopkins
- “As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame” pg. 144
- “Carrion Comfort” pg. 149
- “Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend” p.151
- “That Nature is a Heraclitean fire and the Comfort of the Resurrection” pg. 150
- “The Windhover” pg. 145
- A very dramatic reading of “The Windhover.”
- A discussion of the poem and another reading of it (about 12 minutes).
- A reader’s guide to the poem (the author describes it as “A rapturous re-reading of the poet’s love poem to life,”) by Angie Mlinko.
- Session 2: Patricia Bisshopp: Willliam Butlier Yeats
- “Leda and the Swan” pg. 157
- "The Fascination of What’s Difficult” pg. 155
- "All Things Can Tempt Me” click here
- Session 3: Mel Shelly: The Rossettis:
- Dante Gabriel Rossetti: “Silent Noon” pg. 135
- Christina Rossetti: “Rest” pg. 137; “Remember” click here.
Class #6 African American Sonneteers
April 22
- Session 1: Beatrice Swift:
- Countee Cullen “Yet Do I Marvel” pg. 207
- Claude McKay “If I Must Die” pg. 181
- Session 2: Barbara Nesto: Gwendolyn Brooks,
- "Gay Chaps at the Bar" pg. 227
- "Piano After War" pg. 228
- Session 3: Barry Marshall: Robert Hayden, pg. 219
- “Those Winter Sundays” pg. 219
- “Frederick Douglass” pg. 219
- A Robert Hayden interview. “Those Winter Sundays” at 2:25. “Frederick Douglass” at 12:50.
The Question Sheet for Class #6
April 29 Other American Sonneteers
Class #7
- Session 1: Trish Sylvester: Edna St. Vincent Millay,
- From Fatal Interview: XXX. "Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink" pg. 189
- "Read history: so learn your place in Time" pg. 190
- “Recuerdo” (downloadable a copy);
- Session 2: Craig Masten: e.e. cummings
- "I carry your heart with me(carry it in,” pg. 200
- Cummmings reads ""I carry your heart with me"
- “next to of course god america i,” pg. 199
- "I carry your heart with me(carry it in,” pg. 200
- Session 3: Linda: Robert Frost
- “Mowing” pg. 169
- “Hyla Brook” pg. 170
- “Design” pg. 172
Class #8 Modern Voices
May 6
- Session 1: Chris: W H Auden
- "Our Bias" pg. 211
- "The Door” pg. 213
- Session 2: Gordon Hayes: Robert Lowell,
- “”Ezra Pound” pg.231
- “Dolphin” pg. 233
- "Robert Frost” pg. 231
- Session 3: Linda: Elizabeth Bishop
- "The Prodigal" pg. 217
- “Sonnet" pg. 218
Classs #9: Modern Voices
May 13
- Session 1: Liz Kaplan: Seamus Heaney
- “Act of Union” 1, pg. 272
- “The Forge” pg. 271
- Session 2: Roz Kurzer: Adrienne Rich
- from Contradictions: Tracking Poems “1” pg. 254
- "Final Notations” pg. 256
- Session 3: Charlie Adler: Billy Collins
- “American Sonnet” pg. 276
- “The Golden Years”
- Extra reading:
- Extra reading:
- "The Night House" (1998)
- "You, Reader" (2005)
- "Litany" (2002) - recited from memory by a 3-year old!
- Collins reading “Forgetfulness” and “The Lanyard” at the Obama White House in 2011
- Review of Collins’ Sailing Alone Around the Room by Dennis O'Driscoll, Poetry magazine.
- Extra reading:
Class #10 Modern Voices
May 20
- Session 1: Wendy Salkind: Marilyn Nelson
- “The Balance” pg. 296
- “Chosen” pg. 296
- Three sonnets from A Wreath for Emmett Till
- Session 2: Discussion: The sonnet genre and the sonnet tradition. See the Question Sheet for details and discussion prompts.