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JOHN CABOT UNIVERSITY

COURSE CODE: "CW 354"
COURSE NAME: "Creative Writing Workshop: Poetry"
SEMESTER & YEAR: Spring 2018
SYLLABUS

INSTRUCTOR: Daniel Connelly
EMAIL: [email protected]
 HOURS: TTH 1:30-2:45 PM
TOTAL NO. OF CONTACT HOURS: 45
CREDITS: 3
PREREQUISITES: Prerequisite: EN 103 or 105 with grade of C or above
OFFICE HOURS: TBA
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course aims to develop the creative, editorial, and reading habits needed for the production of poems; to develop self-editing skills; to foster an aesthetic sensibility for use in writing poems. Students will read both contemporary and canonical poetry and materials related to analyzing and editing poems, and participate in a traditional creative writing workshop through in-class writing exercises, reading classmates’ poems, and producing their own poems and discussing them in workshop. Students will compile a portfolio of the work they produce during the term. Students completing this workshop course will be familiar with the skills needed to produce poems, to self-edit work in progress, and to discern the characteristics of quality poetry.
SUMMARY OF COURSE CONTENT:
Students will read a wide variety of poems and styles, both down and across time. They will also read and engage critically with materials related to analyzing and editing poems. Students will participate in the traditional creative writing workshop, will complete in-class writing exercises and will learn how to read and critique classmates’ poems, all with the goal of writing and revising their own poems to be discussed in workshop. Finally, students will assemble a portfolio of the work (including various drafts and revisions) that they produce during the term.
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
On completion this workshop course, students will be familiar with the skills needed to write poems, to self-edit work in progress, to edit - in workshop - the work of others and to discern the characteristics of quality poetry.

Specifically: 

1. To finesse compelling works of literary merit in poetry.

2. To comprehend a variety of technical terms and concepts and to bring these to bear upon poetry's aesthetic and emotional conditions;

3. To engage with poetry's aesthetic and emotional conditions in crafting poems. 

4. To understand a number of poetry movements, past and present. 
TEXTBOOK:
Book TitleAuthorPublisherISBN numberLibrary Call NumberCommentsFormatLocal BookstoreOnline Purchase
A Poetry HandbookMary OliverMariner Books978-0156724005 https://www.amazon.com/Poetry-Handbook-Mary-Oliver/dp/0156724006/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_img_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=8BKHKKMSZZ3ZREHV50TW    
Extravagant StrangerDaniel Roy Connelly Little Island Press978-0993505683     
REQUIRED RESERVED READING:
NONE

RECOMMENDED RESERVED READING:
NONE
GRADING POLICY
-ASSESSMENT METHODS:
AssignmentGuidelinesWeight
Attendance 10
Response to a favourite poemStudents will respond to a poem they love in a 1,000 word paper. 20
Qualitative self-editing 20
Impactful critique of classmates' poetry  20
A suite of portfolio poetryAs a final project, students will present 200 lines of poetry in a portfolio. 30

-ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:
AWork of this quality directly addresses the question or problem raised and provides a coherent argument displaying an extensive knowledge of relevant information or content. This type of work demonstrates the ability to critically evaluate concepts and theory and has an element of novelty and originality. There is clear evidence of a significant amount of reading beyond that required for the course.
BThis is highly competent level of performance and directly addresses the question or problem raised.There is a demonstration of some ability to critically evaluatetheory and concepts and relate them to practice. Discussions reflect the student’s own arguments and are not simply a repetition of standard lecture andreference material. The work does not suffer from any major errors or omissions and provides evidence of reading beyond the required assignments.
CThis is an acceptable level of performance and provides answers that are clear but limited, reflecting the information offered in the lectures and reference readings.
DThis level of performances demonstrates that the student lacks a coherent grasp of the material.Important information is omitted and irrelevant points included.In effect, the student has barely done enough to persuade the instructor that s/he should not fail.
FThis work fails to show any knowledge or understanding of the issues raised in the question. Most of the material in the answer is irrelevant.
-ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS:
This course aims to develop the creative, editorial, and reading habits needed for the production of poems; to develop self-editing skills; to foster an aesthetic sensibility for use in writing poems. Students will read both contemporary and canonical poetry and materials related to analyzing and editing poems, and participate in a traditional creative writing workshop through in-class writing exercises, reading classmates’ poems, and producing their own poems and discussing them in workshop. Students will compile a portfolio of the work they produce during the term. Students completing this workshop course will be familiar with the skills needed to produce poems, to self-edit work in progress, and to discern the characteristics of quality poetry.
ACADEMIC HONESTY
As stated in the university catalog, any student who commits an act of academic dishonesty will receive a failing grade on the work in which the dishonesty occurred. In addition, acts of academic dishonesty, irrespective of the weight of the assignment, may result in the student receiving a failing grade in the course. Instances of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Dean of Academic Affairs. A student who is reported twice for academic dishonesty is subject to summary dismissal from the University. In such a case, the Academic Council will then make a recommendation to the President, who will make the final decision.
STUDENTS WITH LEARNING OR OTHER DISABILITIES
John Cabot University does not discriminate on the basis of disability or handicap. Students with approved accommodations must inform their professors at the beginning of the term. Please see the website for the complete policy.
SCHEDULE

I will hand out selected poems one week prior to their discussion in class

week 1: Intro

HOW NOT TO WRITE POETRY POETRY

Collins, Creative Writing

Blake, The Tyger

Shakespeare, Sonnet 130

Hughes, The Negro Speaks of Rivers

Rich, Tonight no poetry will serve

 

week 2: Love

Komunyakaa, We never know

Whitman, A Glimpse

Addonizio, First Poem for You

Bukowski, Love is a Dog from Hell

Neruda, If You Forget Me

 

week 3: Hate

Brock, Five ways to kill a man

Pinter, American Football - A Reflection upon the Gulf War

Różewicz, The Survivor

Sheehan, Hate Poem

Kennard, My friend

 

week 4: How it was

Larkin, I Remember, I Remember

Brodsky, Song of Welcome

Tennyson, Ulysses

Wordsworth, Nutting

Giovanni, Nikki-Rosa

 

week 5: How it is

Baraka, Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note

Mueller, Palindrome

Hafiz, All The Hemispheres

Rosenberg, Break of Day in the Trenches

Kwesi Johnson, Inglan Is A Bitch

 

week 6: Nature

Plath, Mushrooms

Hardy, The Darkling Thrush

Keats, To Autumn

Marlowe, The Passionate Shepherd to his Love

Yearsley, The Indifferent Shepherdess to Colin

 

Week 7: Art

Auden, Musee des Beaux Arts

Jennings, Rembrandt's Late Self-Portraits

Browning, My Last Duchess

Eady, Poet Dances with Inanimate Object

Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn

 

Week 8: Death

Tichborne, Tichborne’s Elegey

Larkin, Aubade

Owen, Dulce et Decorum Est

Gluck, The Wild Iris

Rilke, Death

MIDTERM PORTFOLIO CHECK

week 9: Life Writing

Frost, The Road Not Taken

Bishop, One Art

Cummings, somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond

Rossetti, Somewhere or Other

Fenton, Tiananmen

 

week 10: Life Writing

Wilde, Sonnet on Hearing the Dies Irae Sung in the Sistine Chapel

Douglas, Bête Noire (fragments)

Shihab Nye, Gate A4

Heaney, Midterm Break

Connelly, 1330

 

week 11: Life Writing

Plath, Daddy

Hayes, American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin

Nash, To My Valentine

Housman, A Shropshire Lad 19: The time you won your town the race

Pinsky, Samurai Song

 

week 12: Life Writing

Guernsey, For My Wife Cutting My Hair

Ryan, The Late Worm

Merwin, In the Winter of My Thirty-Eighth Year

Schuyler, February

Rodriguez, memory of water

 

Week 13: Life Writing

O’ Hara, Poem [“Lana Turner has collapsed!”]

Brooks, We real cool

Williams, This is just to say

Gunn, The Man with Night Sweats

Ferlinghetti, Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes

 

Week 14: Final Portfolio re-readings