Poetic Forms: A Poetry Workshop

Poetic Forms: A Poetry Workshop CRN: 03679 Fall 2002

Jeff Oaks
Office: 628 F Cathedral of Learning Office Hours: Wednesdays 11-1
Phone: 412-624-9341 and by appointment
Email: oaks@pitt.edu Mailbox: 501 Cathedral of Learning
Website: www.pitt.edu/~oaks (where there is a version of this course description you can print out if you lose this one)

Texts:
Required:

The Penguin Book of the Sonnet, Phillis Levin

Exaltation of Forms, Annie Finch

The Eye of the Poet, David Citino

Recommended:
De/Compositions, WD Snodgrass

The Book of Forms, Lewis Turco

A Poetry Handbook , Mary Oliver

Poem Work:

A poem a week (due on every Thursday) in form:

Aphorism, Haiku
The Line and the Sentence
Anglo Saxon Verse
Syllabic Verse
Unrhymed Syllabic Sonnet
Syllabic Italian Sonnet
Accentual-syllabic Shakespearean Sonnet
Blank Verse
Blues Stanza
Villanelle and Sestina
Free Verse
The List Poem
Prose Poem

Critical Work: 10 1 page "difficulty" papers. The Difficulty Paper was invented by Professor Mariolina Salvatori as a way to move readers of a text away from judging whatever difficulties they find as simply their inability to understand it (or as the writer's inability to communicate properly) and toward seeing those difficulties as signs that the reader is becoming aware of what the particular demands a text's language/structure/style/content make upon it. In our version of the Difficulty Paper, you will identify and begin to hypothesize the reasons for any possible difficulty you might be experiencing as you write the assigned forms you'll be assigned.

These papers will be due in my mailbox on Mondays. Every week, I will select one or two of them that I find to be unusual or representative, copy and distribute them to help us ground our discussions.

Grading:

Grades will be most heavily based on the written work, most particularly the poems, although class participation and attendance at extra-curricular events like readings will certainly count in your favor and may make the difference between a B and a B+.

A=Meritorious (i.e. you gave the teacher much more than what was asked for)

B= Good (i.e. you gave the teacher more than what was asked for)

C=Average (i.e. you did everything that was asked of you)

D=Below Average (i.e. you didn't do everything that was asked of you)

F=Failure (i.e. you missed more than six classes or plagiarized)

Course Description:

In this workshop we’re going to explore issues of "form" in poetry by working in, against, and through a number of traditional poetic structures: quatrains, sonnets, blank verse, villanelles, sestinas, and a few others. Although one can certainly work through formal issues—the effect of particular line lengths, particular rhythms, particular dictions, imagery, metaphors, and syntax on a poem’s content—using free verse models, the reason we’ll be working with, in, and within traditional structures is because those structures will compel us to make our choices more conscious, since they restrict our ability to say anything we want. This is often perceived by inexperienced writers as a "problem" with formal structures; I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people object to working in form because they’re afraid that the form will restrict their freedom of expression. To a certain degree, that is true: if you have a particular line in mind, and it doesn’t conform to a particular meter or end on the right rhyming word, you can’t use it in, say, a sonnet. You’re forced to change that line by the demands of the form. Understandably, this causes a writer frustration.

But what the demands of the form also create are opportunities for the writer to revise that line (and no line ought to be so precious that it can’t be re-thought). The demands of the sonnet, for instance, are that you come up with 14 lines of iambic pentameter, which rhyme in a certain pattern. It requires that you start to consciously restrict or extend what you're writing, which is something that free verse generally doesn’t require. Mostly, free verse allows you to shape lines and poems by feeling, which is fine usually but doesn’t really help teach you what other options there might be. Working in form offers you these options, even forces you to consider and re-consider a number of possibilities.

Of course working in form isn’t simply a matter of giving into the demands of the form. Every great poet who has written in forms, which means most of the history of poets in English, has agreed to the rules in the abstract but has found ways to rebel, cheat, re-fashion, exploit, and negotiate those rules in ways that allow both the individual poet’s voice to be heard, but also the deep connection to a culture to be felt. Many writers, even contemporary ones, have felt that the resistance created by writing in form helps to keep them awake to what they’re doing, and that it can surprise the writer who, in having to refashion a line to suit a formal demand, stumbles into an image that’s better, sharper, or more interesting than he or she might have come up with on his or her own. That there is the clear pattern of sound arising out of most forms is a kind of added bonus, especially for the writer who’s used to working in the generally muted sound of free verse.

So let me make it clear right away that what you’re supposed to do in this class is struggle. You’re supposed to obey the "rules" of the form and, at the same time, make yourself heard as an individual among and above the voices of the past. It may help to remember that you’re participating in the same basic struggle Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Dickinson, Hopkins, Frost, Hughes, Bogan, Auden, Brooks and Heaney have had to face. They each have had to struggle to make themselves be heard, not as mere followers of a tradition but as apprentices to and eventually innovators of their traditions. The kinds of tools they had and which you have (and may also have to develop) are these: a thorough knowledge of English syntax and punctuation, a large vocabulary, and a capacious knowledge not only of literature but also the sciences, art, music, and philosophy. Other tools of equal importance are patience, ambition, curiosity, a flexible intelligence, and in some cases just a simple stubbornness. These qualities are all things that writing in form requires and consequently can help to develop. Even if you decide not to continue to write sonnets or one of the other forms, those qualities can help you see more clearly the kinds of choices you make when you write in free verse. Having to do this work gives you a new sense of the work of past writers. Your experience of their work will grow more complex.

I know all of these claims sound grandiose, but from my own experience working with forms, I’ve found them to be real. I think you should congratulate yourself for having stepped into the challenge of writing in forms; there are many pleasures to be found in the work, as well as many frustrations.

If none of these reasons are good enough, then you might simply think of this work as earning how to play an ancient game. A game, as Miller Williams has said, is a human activity made difficult for the joy of it. We judge the performers of that game by how easy they’ve made those difficult rules look.

________________________________ Requirements: 1. Class Requirements: You should have had at least 2 workshops in poetry by now. If you've only had one, you'll need to come talk to me; you may be in over your head, and we need to make sure you have a basic working knowledge of some key elements. Specifically, these will be

the line
the sentence
meter/rhythm
metaphor
diction
argument or narrative
point of view

(If you've had a number of fiction classes, you're probably fine--although you may want to brush up on your poetic terms.)

The two main requirements you'll need to stay on top of are attendance and keeping up with the reading and writing assignments.

I'll expect you to show up to every class and on time. If you miss more than 6 classes, I will automatically fail you. (see grading policies for details).

You should have an ability to organize your time well, to have mastered (or at least practice) editing, proofreading and the basic elements of grammar and punctuation.

2. Requirements as a writer:

By this point, you should be able to

use images as a way to present complex situations or feelingsthat can't be or that resist simple formulation
trust images over abstractions, the specific and particular over the general and vague, the unruly over the well-behaved, exactitude over "close enough"
know poetic cliches in image, metaphors, and diction. You should be used to avoiding or undermining them
differentiate yourself (the writer) from the narrator (the "I" speaking in the poem ), even if the poem literally is a description of something that you (the writer) "really experienced"; this is called "aesthetic distance," and will save you much agony when revision inevitably finds you
have some working knowledge of how poems are constructed--i.e. by lines and by sentences, by images and by metaphors--, and some sense of how to build drama or pressure out of them, as well as some sense of how to resolve that pressure

3. Requirements as a human: There is a need in any class like this, in which people are experimenting with the way they're used to doing things, to make sure that you have in some measure these characteristics:

patience in the face of difficulty and the unfamiliar
curiosity about the wys other people and poems might think or work
courage to not give up on your work even if it's flawed at the moment
ambition for the work (as opposed to ambition for your own fame) so that criticism doesn't mean you've failed as a person
an ability to listen without jumping to your own defense so that you can see your work through other people's eyes.
respect for others' ideas so that you can learn about things you don't know yourself
some knowledge of the conventions of social grace so that we can all function as a group
an ability to forgive yourself (as well as others) for mistakes, to let yourself make them, and to learn from them

_________________________________ Tentative Syllabus

1^st Week Introduction

(August 27, 29) A Review of the Basics; Vocabulary
Please note:
Retrospective assignment (see last page of this course packet) due August 29

2^nd Week Aphorism, Epigram and Haiku

(September 3, 5) Large work in small spaces; In class Writing

First assignment due September 5th

*Read: in An Exaltation of Forms, "Haiku" by Hyung Yul Chu
and "The Art of the Epigram" by X J Kennedy

NOTE: All readings are to be read for the week where they appear. Thus, please read "The Line/The Form/The Music" (below) before September 3rd.

3^rd Week The Line and the Sentence

(September 10, 12) Floating and Falling: In Class Writing

Second Assignment due September 12th

Read: in The Eye of the Poet "The Line/The Form/ The Music" by Baker and Townsend

4^th Week Anglo Saxon Verse

(September 17, 19) To Stress or not to Stress; In Class Writing

Third Assignment due September 19th

Read: Exaltation of Forms, "Accentual Verse" by Dana Gioia

5^th Week Syllabic Verse

(September 24, 26) Counting Syllables; In Class Writing

Fourth Assignment due September 26th

Read: Exaltation of Forms, "Syllabics: Sweeter Melodies" by Margaret Holley

6^th Week Accentuals Syllabics and Iambic Meter

(October 1, 3) Thinking Architecturally; In Class Writing

Fifth Assignment due October 3rd

Read: Exaltation, "Iambic Meter" by John Ridland

and Penguin Book of the Sonnet "Introduction" and "Appendix"

7^th Week Syllabic Italian Sonnet

(October 8, 10) Working with Syllables and Rhyme; In Class Writing

Sixth Assignment due October 10th

Read: Penguin Book of the Sonnet 3-164

8^th Week Accentual-Syllabic Shakespearean Sonnet

(October 15, 17) Working with stress, syllables, and rhyme; In Class Writing

Seventh Assignment due October 17th

Read: Penguin Book of the Sonnet 165-336

9^th Week Blank Verse

(October 22, 24) Stretching Out; In Class Writing

Eighth Assignment due October 24th

Read: Exaltation "Blank Verse" by Anthony Hecht
(you might want to reread "Iambic Meter" by Ridland)

10^th Week Blues Stanza

(October 29, 31) The Use of the Refrain; In Class Writing

Ninth Assignment due October 31st

Read: Exaltation "The Blues" by Raymond Patterson

11^th Week Villanelle and Sestina

(November 5, 7) The Return of the Refrain; In Class Writing

Tenth Assignment due November 7th

Read: Exaltation, "Sestina" by Lewis Turco
and "Gymnastics: The Villanelle" by Maxine Kumin

12^th Week Free Verse and Organic Form

(November 12, 14) Free is not Unconscious; In Class Writing

Eleventh Assignment due November 14th

Read Exaltation, Free Verse by Michelle Boisseau
and Organic Form by Hilda Morley

13^th Week The List Poem and the Litany

(November 19, 21) Letting Things Add Up and Slip Out; In Class Writing

Twelfth Assignment due November 21st

Read Exaltation, "The List Poem" by David Lehman
and "The Litany Poem" by Nancy Willard

NOTE: November 21st is the last day I will be able to look at your revisions and get them back to you before the final folder.

14th Week

Thanksgiving Week November 26th class cancelled

15^th Week Prose Poem

(December 3, 5) What Survives Without Linebreaks; In Class Writing

Final Assignment to be handed in with your final folder

Read Exaltation, "Strange Tales and Bitter Emergencies…" by Deville and Chernoff

Final Folder due on the 10^th of December

Final Folder will consist of these:

10 poems written in the forms we've covered

10 difficulty papers

_______________________

Retrospective Assignment:

Due in class on August 29th

Put together a group of four poems--three of your own and one by someone else--in a plain manilla folder.
Please order them this way:

A poem of your own that you think is successful. In a short (1/2 page, typed) statement, say what you think works well about it and why. Feel free to hypothesize, if you're not exactly sure.
A poem you think does not work or one you've abandoned. In a short statement, say what doesn't work well in it and why. Feel free to hypothesize.
A poem you think is typical of the kind of poem you write. What in it--content, imagery, metaphor, etc.--keeps appearing in your work? Again, in a short statement, hypothesize why, if you're not sure.
One poem by someone else that is important to you. In a short statement tell why.

What I'll be looking for is this: your ability to read your own work and your ability to represent your level of knowledge about the poetic challenges you need and don't need help with. (Also: I'll be looking at your ability to be both concise and precise in prose.)

This is your first chance to convey to me who you are, what kinds of issues, strengths and weaknesses you bring into the class and your seriousness about the work of making poems.

Remember: Everything must be typed, including the poem from someone else--DO NOT simply xerox it out of a book or write it out in longhand.

Once these are in, I'll set up individual one-on-one conferences with each of you to talk about the folder and what you want to work on in this class.

Note: There will be no difficulty paper for this assignment.