WRIT-1040 Matthea Harvey
First Year Studies
“Radial, bilateral, transverse: symmetries that change over a life; radical asymmetries. Sea shells unfurl by Fibonacci. Horn, bark, petal: hydrocarbon chains arrange in every conceivable strut, winch and pylon, ranging over the visible spectrum and beyond into ultraviolet and infrared. Horseshoe crab, butterfly, barnacle, and millipede all belong to the same phylum. Earthworms with seven hearts, ruminants with multiple stomachs, scallops with a line of eyes rimming their shell like party lanterns, animals with two brains, many brains, none.”
—The Gold Bug Variations by Richard Powers
“Here we have the principle of limitation, the only saving principle in the world. The more you limit yourself, the more fertile you become in invention. A prisoner in solitary confinement for life becomes very inventive, and a simple spider may furnish him with much entertainment.”
—from Either / Or by Kierkegaard
This course is part workshop, part an exploration of writing in established, evolving and invented forms. We will use An Exaltation of Forms, edited by Annie Finch and Katherine Varnes (featuring essays on form by contemporary poets) alongside books of poetry by such writers as Baudelaire, Anne Carson, D.A. Powell, Haryette Mullen, W.S. Merwin, and Olena Kalytiak Davis to facilitate and further these discussions. You will direct language through the sieves and sleeves of the haiku, sonnet, prose poem, ghazal, haibun, etc. Expect to move fluidly between iambic pentameter and the lipogram (in which you are not allowed to use a particular letter of the alphabet in your poem). Expect to complicate your notion of what “a poem in form” is. We will utliize in-class writing exercises and prompts.
BOOK LIST
Required (these books will be on reserve at the library)
A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman
An Exaltation of Forms by Annie Finch and Katherine Varnes
Shattered Sonnets by Olena Kalytiak Davis
A Humument by Tom Phillips
Vixen by W.S. Merwin
Sleeping with the Dictionary by Haryette Mullen
Skid by Dean Young
Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A by A. Van Jordan
The Most of It by Mary Ruefle
Wind in a Box by Terrence Hayes
Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau
What It Is by Lynda Barry
Elements of Style by Strunk and White illustrated by Maira Kalman
Photocopied excerpts from:
Selected Odes by Pablo Neruda
I Remember by Joe Braina
Your Time Has Come by Joshua Beckman
Polyverse by Lee Ann Brown
100 Selected Poems by e.e. cummings
Maraca by Victor Hernandez Cruz
Black Dog Songs by Lisa Jarnot
Translating Mo’Um by Cathy Park Hong
Love Alone: Eighteen Elegies for Rog by Paul Monette
Tea by D. A. Powell
Goodbye Mister Easter Island by Jon Woodward
Ravishing Disunities, Real Ghazals in English, edited by Agha Shahid Ali,
Imagining Language: An Anthology edited by Jed Rasula and Steve McCaffery
Nets by Jen Bervin
Haiku: This Other World by James Wright
Selected poems by Donald Justice
Prose Poems by Baudelaire
Buffalo Head Songs by Tim Seibles
alongside many others…
FALL SEMESTER REQUIREMENTS
1. You will write one poem a week, writing a minimum of ten poems in the fall semester.
2. You will keep a critical journal, in which you write informal but detailed responses to all of the reading. Include quotations, images, questions, ideas. Bring this journal to conference each week. These will be handed in at the end of the semester.
3. You will respond to your classmates’ poems by writing comments on their poems on the week they are being workshopped.
4. Each student will do a creative process presentation (more on this later…)
5. Class participation is key. Please make sure that you are contributing no more or no less than your classmates!
6. Missed conferences will not be rescheduled. If you are going to miss conference, please email me beforehand.
7. There will be two field trips per semester. Attendance is required.
8. One missed class is permissable. If you miss more than one class, it will be noted in your evaluation and class grade. Grades go down by one half for every missed class or conference (or combination of the two).
If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to get the assignment from a fellow student.
The College provides reasonable accommodations to students with documented disabilities. If you would like to request accommodations because of a physical, medical or learning disability that may have some
impact on your work in this class and for which you may require accommodations, please let me know in conference.
FALL SCHEDULE
We will workshop your poems on Thurdays. Every Tuesday you will hand one copy of your poem to me. The week you are going to be workshopped, please bring 14 copies of your poems to class on Tuesday. Students will read the poems before class and write comments on them, which will be handed to the poet at the end of class. This is an integral part of workshop.
Class field trips: Out of Hand: Materializing the Post-Digital / MAD Museum / 2 Columbus Circle
October 17th 7pm (leave at 6:30pm)
Thursday November 21: Neruda’s Odes: with Edward Hirsch, Philip Levine, Paul Muldoon and Ilan Stevens. 8:15 pm.
(for both visits, I have requested a van to drive you there—we’ll see if that works out…)
September 2 : Intros
Read A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman
Read Packet One / Form
Fill out the poetic terms worksheet. Look up these terms—write their definitions then create your own examples.
September 10: 20 poetry projects writing exercise / Twin photograph writing exercise / Discussion
September 12 : Library visit
Read Packet Two / Image
Read The Most of It by Mary Ruefle
Read An Exaltation of Forms pp. 359-365 (list poem) and pp.242-246 (litany).
Write a poem in which you pay close attention to image and the senses.
September 17 : Discussion of The Most of It /write group list poem
September 19: Workshop
Read An Exaltation of Forms pp. 1-14 (intro) pp.15-31 (accentual, syllabic)
Read Packet Three / Villanelle
Read in An Exaltation of Forms p.314-324 (villanelle)
Write a villanelle
September 24: Line break exercise / Discussion
September 26: Workshop
Read Packet Four / The Line
Read An Exaltation of Forms pp. 73-80.
Read Vixen by W.S. Merwin
Write a poem in which you pay particular attention to line breaks. Write in incredibly long or short lines. Invent a new kind of line break.
October 1: Workshop
October 3: Read Packet Five / The Haiku and other compressed/minimalist forms
Read An Exaltation of Forms pp.206-210, 238-241 (epigrams, limericks, clerihews), pp.394-5 (the low coup)
Write three short /compressed poems. Think about why a particular subject might lend itself to a short form.
October 8: Discussion
October 10: Workshop
October 15: Creative Process Presentations (six students)
October 17: Visit Museum of Art and Design. 7-8:30pm / leave SLC at 6:30 (no class in the am)
No class October 22 & 24th. October Study Days
October 29: Creative Process Presentations (seven students)
Read Skid by Dean Young
Write a poem (any form)
October 31: Discussion
November 5: Workshop
Read Sleeping with the Dictionary by Haryette Mullen
Read Packet Six / Language
November 7: Discussion
November 12: Workshop
Read A Humument by Tom Phillips
Read An Exaltation of Forms pp.198-205, 352-358.
Write a visually based poem. You may use Phillips’ model if you wish. Another great resource for looking at concrete poems is www.ubuweb.com
November 14: Discussion (bring in other erasure examples–Nets by Jen Bervin etc.)
November 19: Workshop
Read Selected Odes by Pablo Neruda
Read Packet Seven / Odes
Write an ode.
November 21: Neruda’s Odes at the 92nd St Y. 8:15pm (no class in the am) Leave SLC at 7:30pm
Read Packet Eight / Sonnets
Read An Exaltation of Forms pp. 297-307 (sonnet), pp.39-45 (iambic meter)
Write a sonnet. If you want to explode the form once you have written a formal sonnet, feel free. Include both versions.
November 26 Discussion
November 27-Dec. 1st: THANKSGIVING BREAK
December 3: Workshop
Read Shattered Sonnets by Olena Kalytiak Davis
Look at http://www.growndodo.com/wordplay/oulipo/10%5e14sonnets.html (Queneau’s 100,000 sonnets)
Write a poem (any form)
December 5: Discussion
December 10: Workshop
Read The Most of It by Lynda Barry
Write a poem inspired by one of Barry’s exercises.
December 12: Discussion
December 17: Workshop
December 19: Reading
“My mind is bent on telling stories of bodies changed into new forms.”
—Ovid, Metamorphoses
“Hokusai tried to paint without the use of his hands. It is said that one day, having unrolled his scroll in front of the shogun, he poured over it a pot of blue paint; then, dipping the claws of a rooster in a pot of red paint, he made the bird run across the scroll and leave its tracks on it. Everyone present recognized in them the waters of a stream called Tatsouta carrying along maple leaves reddened by autumn. “
—Henri Focillon, The Life of Forms in Art
“The architectural shorthand for alternating variations in a row of brownstones is A-B-A-B-A-B, when two patterns repeat, and A-B-C-A-B-C, if there are three.”
—From “A Dozen 1888 Brownstones, Where Variety Reigns” by Christopher Gray,The New York Times, Jan 8, 2006
This semester we will continue investigating different forms of poetry (the ghazal, sestina, the prose poem, the renga) with an eye to inventing our own forms. What formal strategies are used in the creation of a form? What strategies have not yet been used but could be? We will also continue to look for metaphorical representations of forms in the world around us, such as the A-B-A-B pattern of the brownstones described above.
FIELD TRIPS (if you cannot attend these field trips you are responsible for going to the museum on your own by the date of the field trip)
Art Spiegelman at the Jewish Museum Thursday Feb 20 (leave SLC at 4:30pm, leave JM at 7pm) 1109 Fifth Ave. at 92nd St.
Graffiti show at the Museum of the City of New York Thursday April 3 (leave SLC at 9:30am, leave MCNY at 12pm) 1220 Fifth Ave at 103rd St
Dinner at my place: Thursday May 1st (leave SLC at 6pm, leave Brooklyn at 9pm)
BOOK LIST
What It Is by Lynda Barry
Sleeping with the Dictionary by Harryette Mullen
M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A by A. Van Jordan
Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau
Wind in a Box by Terrance Hayes
The Most of It by Mary Ruefle
Elements of Style by Strunk and White, illustrated by Maira Kalman
SPRING SCHEDULE
January 21 Discuss registration / meetings
January 23 Discuss What It Is /ideas for conference projects
Read Poetry Comics packet. Make a poem-comic. Bring thirteen copies to class.
February 4 Discuss comics packet and class comics.
Read Sleeping with the Dictionary by Harryette Mullen
Write a poem informed/inspired by her formal decisions.
February 6 Discuss Sleeping with the Dictionary
February 11 Workshop Group 1
Read Prose poem packet.
Read An Exaltation of Forms pp262-71 (prose poem)
Write a prose poem.
February 13 Workshop Group 2 / prose poem discussion
Read The Most of It by Mary Ruefle
February 18 Discuss The Most of It / Workshop Group 3
February 20 NO CLASS. MEET AT JM
February 25 Discuss form possibilities/ GA
Read Packet Nine / Invented Forms
Read An Exaltation of Forms pp/ 325-351, 366-390, 396-399.
Invent a form. Write a list of its restrictions/qualities, and name the form.
Write a poem in the form you’ve invented.
Print out one copy of your form to give to a classmate
February 27 Workshop Group 1
Write a poem in your classmate’s invented form. Bring a copy to give to that student on March 4th.
Read Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
March 4 Discuss Autobiography of Red
March 6 Workshop Group 2
Read Packet Thirteen / Ghazal
Read An Exaltation of Forms pp. 210-16 (ghazal)
Write a ghazal.
March 11 Discuss ghazals & The Most of It
Conference project updates
March 13 Workshop Group 3
Read Wind in a Box by Terrance Hayes
Write a poem (any form)
April 1 Discuss Wind in a Box
April 3rd NO CLASS. MEET AT MCNY
Write a poem based on one of the pieces of graffiti—this can be a visual piece if you want.
April 8 Workshop Group 1 (do not bring visual pieces to workshop if you do not intend to revise them)
April 10 Workshop Group 2 (do not bring visual pieces to workshop if you do not intend to revise them)
Read Packet Ten / Sestina
Read An Exaltation of Forms pp. 290-96 (sestina)
Write a sestina
April 15 Discuss sestinas. Bring Elements of Style by Strunk & White to class.
April 17 Workshop Group 3
Read Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau
Write a poem using one of Queneau’s ideas.
April 22 Discuss Exercises in Style
Read fairytale packet
Write a poem based on a fairytale from any culture
April 24 Workshop Group 1
[April 25-27—SLC POETRY FESTIVAL] You must attend at least two readings (see requirements)
Your one page responses to each reading are due on the 29th.
April 29 Workshop Group 2 / Hand in reading responses
May 1 NO CLASS –dinner at my place
Read M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A by A. Van Jordan
Write a poem based on a form used by Jordan.
May 6 Discuss M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A
May 8 Workshop Group 3
Read selections from Sorted Books by Nina Katchadourian
Make four versions of sorted books, photograph. Bring 13 copies to class.
May 13 Renga / exquisite corpses
May 15 Last class. Conference project, critical journal and revised poems are due.
SPRING SEMESTER REQUIREMENTS
1. You will come up with a creative conference project and work on it throughout the semester.
2. You will continue to keep a journal in which you write informal but detailed responses to all of the reading. If your journal is handwritten, you should average about 3 pages per packet or book, typewritten should be a minimum of one page. Include at least three questions at the end of each entry and discuss three peoms per book or packet in detail. These responses must be done by the day of class discussion, not afterwards! You must bring your critical journal to every class meeting and every conference meeting.
3. You will respond to your classmates’ poems by writing comments on their poems on the week they are being workshopped.
4. The Sarah Lawrence Poetry Festival is April 25-27th. You are required to go to two readings and write a one page response to each one.
ATTENDANCE POLICY
You may miss one class over the course of the semester. Class starts at 9:30—anyone arriving after that time will be counted as late. Three late arrivals = an absence. For each absence (beyond the first) your grade goes down by half. If you are absent four times you will fail the class.
***Note: the class meeting before you are workshopped, you must bring 13 copies of your poem to class. If you do not bring copies, we will not discuss your work.
