Schedule

Class Activities

• Course Introduction: Post-45–American Poetry Before and After: Modern vs. Contemporary
• In our first class, we will examine a set of poems and performances that will encourage us to articulate some key distinctions between modernist and post-modernist (or “contemporary”) poetics more clearly. In a second group activity, we will chart out some of the extremes of contemporary American poetry itself.

PROSE:

• How to Read a Poem (Prof. VZ)

GOUP ACTIVITY 1: Modern vs. Contemporary

• • Kenneth Goldsmith at the White House: Whitman, Crane, Traffic
  • Pound vs. Wright
  • Eliot vs. Ashbery
  • Hughes vs. Brooks
  • Stein (red hat) vs. Mullens (page 28 in Trimmings)

GROUP ACTIVITY 2: Mapping the Extremes: Varieties of the Contemporary

• Robert Creeley: “I Know a Man“
• William Stafford: “Traveling Through the Dark”
  —
• Gwendolyn Brooks: “The Rites for Cousin Vit“
• Morgan Parker: “Let Me Handle My Business, Damn”
  —
• James Wright: “Saint Judas“
• James Tate: “Goodtime Jesus“

Help Resource: PennSound

PROSE:

• Optional Critical Overviews from Week 1 (on Modern and Contemporary)

• Critical Introduction:
  • Osborne, John. “The Beats.” A Companion to Twentieth Century Poetry, edited by Neil Roberts, Blackwell, 2001, pp. 183-196
  • Johnson, Ronna. “Three Generations of Beat Poets.” Cambridge Companion to American Poetry Since 1945, edited by Jennifer Ashton 2013, Oxford UP, pp. 80-94
• Historical Poetics:
  • Allen Ginsberg, “Notes on Finally Recording Howl“

POETRY

• Allen Ginsberg:
  • “Howl” (CAP 256-266)
  • “A Supermarket in California” (CAP 266)
  • “Sunflower Sutra”
  • “America“
• Bob Kaufman:
  • From Jail Poems (CAP 218)
  • [The Night the Lorca Comes]
  • “Bagel Shop Jazz“
• Gregory Corso:
  • “Marriage” (CAP 388-391)
  • “Bomb” (CAP 391-396)
  • “The American Way“
• Lawrence Ferlinghetti:
  • “Dog“
• Gary Snyder:
  • Riprap (CAP 382-383)
  • “Above Pate Valley“
• Jack Kerouac
  • “The Perfect Love of Mind Essence” (CAP 193)
  • “October in the Railroad Earth” (video)
  • “Charlier Parker” (video)
• Ted Joans
  • “Jazz is My Religion“
• Diane di Prima
  • “The Practice of Magical Evocation” and “Backyard” (selections)
  • “The Quarrel”
• Anne Waldman:
  • “Fast Speaking Woman” (sound file)

ASSIGNMENT DUE–Tuesday, 8/30 by midnight 

• Blog Post 1 (on this week’s readings)
• Reflective Engagement

PROSE

• Critical Introduction:
  • Osborne, John. “Black Mountain and Projective Verse.” A Companion to Twentieth Century Poetry, edited by Neil Roberts, Blackwell, 2001, pp. 168-182
  • Scroggins, Mark. “From the Late Modernism of the ‘Objectivists’ to the Proto-postmodernism of the ‘Projective Verse‘”
• [Optional] Critical Background: The Beats, Black Mountain, and New Modes in American Poetry, edited by Matt Theado (2021). Available online via CofC library–might be a great resource for some “Critical” blog posts.
• Historical Poetics:
  • Charles Olson, “Projective Verse“
  • Robert Creeley, “To Define” and “Form“
  • Denise Levertov, “Some Notes on Organic Form“
  • [optional]: Charleston Olson, “Human Universe“

• From the Archive [optional]: Black Mountain Review

POETRY

• Charles Olson:
  • “Variations Done for Gerald Van De Wiele” (CAP 9-12)
  • “Maximus, To Himself” (CAP13-14)
  • “Cole’s Island” (CAP14-16)
  • [optional] “The Kingfishers“

• Robert Creeley:
  • “I Know a Man” (CAP 274)
  • “The Flower” (CAP 275)
  • “For Love” (CAP 276-77)
  • “I Keep to Myself Such Measures”
  • “The Language“
  • “The Rain“
  • “Age” (CAP 278-280)
  • “When I Think“
• Robert Duncan:
  • “Often I am Permitted to Return to a Meadow” (CAP 149-150)
  • “Passage Over Water“
  • “A Poem Beginning with a Line by Pindar“
• Denise Levertov:
  • “The Ache of Marriage” (CAP 203-204)
  • “Life at War” (210-211)
  • “Everything that Acts is Actual“
  • “Summer 1961“
• Larry Eigner [Selections]
  • “[trees green    the quiet sun],”
  • “Wholes,” [“a temporary language]”
  • “[the sun solid]”
  • “[out of the wind   and leaves]”
  • ”June 19-September 9 90”
• [Optional] See additional poems under the Poetry Foundation overview and selections of Black Mountain poetry

ASSIGNMENT DUE–Tuesday, 9/6 by midnight 

• Blog Post 2 (Tuesday prior to class, on this week’s readings)
• Reflective Engagement

PROSE

• Critical Introduction:
  • Reed, Brian M. “The New York School.”The Cambridge History of American Poetry, edited by Alfred Bendixen and Stephen Burt, 2016, Cambridge UP, pp. 844-868
• Historical Poetics:
  • Frank O’Hara: “Personism: A Manifesto” and his poetics statement from The New American Poetry (1960) (under Readings)
  • Barbara Guest: “A Reason for Poetics” (under Readings)

POETRY

• Frank O’Hara:
  • “A Step Away from Them” (CAP 233-234)
  • “The Day Lady Died” (CAP 234-235)
  • “Why I Am Not a Painter” (CAP 236)
  • “A True Account of Talking to the Sun at Fire Island” (CAP 236)
  • “To You“
  • “Walking“
  • “Personal Poem“
• John Ashbery:
  • “‘They Dream Only of America'” (CAP294-95)
  • “Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape” (CAP 295-96)
  • “Mixed Feelings” (CAP 297)
  • “Paradoxes and Oxymorons” (CAP 304-305)
  • “The Problem of Anxiety” (CAP 305)
  • “These Lacustrine Cities“
  • “Soonest Mended“
  • “The One Thing that can Save America“
  • “Like a Sentence“
• Barbara Guest:
  • “Couch of Space” (CAP 157-158)
  • “Words” (CAP 158)
  • “Passage“
• James Schuyler:
  • “Korean Mums“
  • “February“
• Kenneth Koch:
  • “Permanently“
  • “The Circus“

ASSIGNMENT DUE Tuesday 9/13 by midnight:

• Blog Post 3 (Tuesday prior to class, on this week’s readings)

PROSE:

• Critical Introduction:
  • Nelson, Deborah, “Confessional Poetry.” Cambridge Companion to American Poetry Since 1945, edited by Jennifer Ashton, 2013, Oxford UP, pp. 31-46 (under Readings)
  • Thurston, Michael. “Psychotherapy and Confessional Poetry.” Cambridge Companion to Modern American Poetry, edited by Walter Kalaidjian, 2015, Cambridge UP, pp. 143-154 (under Readings)
  • Bushnell, Kevin. “Leaping Into the Unknown: The Poetics of Robert Bly’s Deep Image” (linked)

• Historical Poetics:
  • Robert Lowell:  Sylvia Plath’s”Arial“

POETRY

• Robert Lowell:
  • “Man and Wife” (CAP 116)
  • “Memories of West Street and Lepke” (CAP 117-18)
  • “Skunk Hour” (CAP 118-120)
  • “For the Union Dead” (CAP 120-122)
• Sylvia Plath:
  • “Daddy” (CAP 413-415)
  • “Lady Lazarus” (CAP 416-417)
  • “Morning Song“
  • “Elm“
• Galway Kinnell:
  • “Another Night in the Ruins“
  • “The Vow” (CAP 315)
• W.D. Snongrass:
  • Mementos, 1
• Anne Sexton:
  • “Her Kind” (CAP 327-28)
  • “The Truth of the Dead Know” (CAP 327)
  • “The Room of My Life” (CAP 331-32)
• John Berryman:
  • excerpts from Dream Songs #1 (CAP 77)
  • excerpts from Dream Songs #14 (CAP 79)
  • excerpts from Dream Songs #40 (CAP 81)
  • excerpts from Dream Songs #76 (CAP 83)
  • excerpts from Dream Songs #384 (CAP 84)
• Sharon Olds:
  • “The Waiting” (CAP 543)
  • “Right of Passage“
• James Wright:
  • “Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio” (CAP 291)
  • “A Blessing” (CAP 291)
  • “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota” (CAP 291).
  • “Beginning“
• Robert Bly
  • “Waking from Sleep“
  • “The Great Society“
  • “An American Dream“

ASSIGNMENT DUE Tuesday 9/20 by midnight:

• Blog Post 4 (Tuesday prior to class, on this week’s readings)

Tuesday 2/12

PROSE

• Critical Introduction:
  • Shockley, Evie. “The Black Arts Movement and Black Aesthetics.” Cambridge Companion to Modern American Poetry, edited by Walter Kalaidjian, 2015, Cambridge UP, pp. 180-195.
  • Crawford, Margo Natalie.  “The Poetics of Change and Inner/Outer Space: The Black Arts Movement.” Cambridge Companion to American Poetry Since 1945, edited by Jennifer Ashton, 2013, Oxford UP, pp. 94-107.
• Historical Poetics:
  • Larry Neal, “And Shine Swam On,” Afterword to Black Fire
  • James T. Stewart, “The Development of the Black Revolutionary Artist,” from Black Fire
  • Amiri Baraka, “Expressive Language“

POETRY

• Amiri Baraka:
  • “SOS” (CAP 427)
  • “Black Art” (CAP 427-29)
  • “When We’ll Worship Jesus” (CAP 429-432)
  • “As Agony, As Now“
• Carolyn M. Rodgers
  • “How I Got Ovah” (CAP 329-340)
  • “And When the Revolution Came” (530-531)
  • “Mama’s God” (CAP 531)
• Gwendolyn Brooks:
  • “To Those of My Sisters Who Kept Their Naturals” (CAP 142-143)
  • “The Boy Died in My Alley” (CAP 141-142)
  • “We Real Cool” (CAP 135)
  • The Ballad of Rudolph Reed (CAP 135-136)
  • “Malcolm X” (CAP 139-140)
  • “Young Afrikans” (CAP 139)
  • “Boy Breaking Glass“
• Sonia Sanchez (all poems linked here)
  • “homecoming”
  • “Malcolm”
  • “blk / rhetoric”
  • “A poem for my father”
  • “towhomitmayconcern”
• Nicki Giovanni:
  • “The Great Pax Whitie“
  • “Walking Down Park“
  • “Ego Tripping“
• Haki Madhubuti:
  • “Gwendolyn Brooks“
  • “For The Consideration of Poets“
• Dudley Randall:
  • “Ballad of Birmingham” (CAP 88-89)
  • “A Difference Image” (CAP 89)
• Jayne Cortez
  • “I am New York City” (CAP 467-468)
  • “Do You Think” (CAP 468-469)
  • “There It Is“
• Audre Lorde:
  • “A Litany for Survival“
  • “Power“

ASSIGNMENT DUE–Tuesday by midnight

• Blog Post 5 (on the readings for this week)

PROSE

• Critical Introduction:
  • Christopher Beach, “The New Criticism and Poetic Formalism,” from the Cambridge Introduction to Twentieth-Century American Poetry (2003)
• Historical Poetics:
  • Dana Gioia, “Notes on the New Formalism,” from The New Expansive Poetry (1999)
  • Annie Finch, “Introduction” to A Formal Feeling Comes:Poems in Form by Contemporary Women (1994).
  • R.S. Gwynn, “Preface” to Rebel Angels: 25 Poets of the New Formalism (1996)

POETRY

• Richard Wilbur
  • “Year’s End”
  • “The Pardon” (CAP 181-182)
  • “A Baroque Wall-Fountain in the Villa Sciarra” (CAP 182-184)
• William Stafford
  • “Traveling Through the Dark” (CAP 86)
• Elizabeth Bishop
  • “Pink Dog” (CAP 29-30)
  • “One Art” (CAP 35)
• Derek Walcott
  • “A Far Cry from Africa” (CAP 368)
• Adrienne Rich
  • “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” (CAP 343)
• Robert Lowell:
  • “Epilogue” (CAP 126)

• Sonia Sanchez
  • Read the poetics statement “Forms and Responsibility,” along with the poems “Haiku” and “Father and Daughter” (LINK)

• Julia Alvarez
  • Read the poetics statement “Housekeeping Cages”, along with the poems “How I Learned to Sweep” and “Sonnet 42” (LINK)

• Molly Peacock
  • “Good Girl“
  • “Anger Sweetened“

• Joan Austin Geier
  • “On Your Twenty-First Birthday“

• Mary Jo Salter
  • “Young Girl Peeling Apples“

• Brad Leithauser
  • “The Haunted“

• Dana Gioia
  • “Summer Storm“

• Rhina P. Espaillat
  • Read the poetics statement “Why I Like to Dance in a Box” and the poem “Metrics” (LINK)

• R.S. Gwynn
  • “Anacreontic“

ASSIGNMENT DUE–Tuesday by midnight

• Blog Post 6 on the readings for this week
• Reflective Prompt

PROSE

• Critical Overview:
  • Simon Perrill. “Language Writing.” A Companion to Twentieth Century Poetry, edited by Neil Roberts, Blackwell, 2001, pp. 220-231 (under Readings)
  • McCaffery, Steve. “Language Writing.” Cambridge Companion to American Poetry Since 1945, edited by Jennifer Ashton, 2013, Oxford UP, pp. 143-155
• Historical Poetics:
  • Charles Bernstein, from “Artifice of Absorption” and “Introjective Verse“
  • Lyn Hejinian, “Against Closure“
  • Rae Armantrout, “Why Don’t Women Do Language-Oriented Writing“

POETRY

• Ron Silliman
  • from Ketjak (CAP 571-573)
  • from Sunset Debris (CAP 573-575)
• Bob Perelman”
  • “Chronic Meanings,” “Confession,” “An Autobiography,” “My One Voice,” “God“
• Charles Bernstein
  • “This Line,” “Self Help,” “The Boy Soprano” (CAP 650), “In a Restless World Like This“
• Rae Armantrout
  • “Close,” “Empty,” “Anti-Short Story,” “Tone,” “You Float”

• Michael Palmer
  • “Song of the Round Man” (CAP 559)
  • “All Those Words” (CAP 560)
  • “Autobiography” (CAP 562-563)
  • “Notes for Echo Lake 4“
• Lyn Hejinian
  • from My Life (CAP 535-536)
  • from The Distance (CAP 536-539)

ASSIGNMENT DUE– Monday by midnight

• Blog Post 7

Final Project Preview: during this class, we will discuss the final project and review deadlines for the various final project components. The instructor will also be available for one-on-once conferences over the next two weeks to discuss ideas for the final project.

PROSE

• Critical Introductions:
  • Muyumba, Walton. “Black and Blues Configurations: Contemporary African American Poetry and Poetics.”The Cambridge History of American Poetry, edited by Alfred Bendixen and Stephen Burt, 2016, Cambridge UP, pp. 1048-1079
  • Coval, Kevin. “Introduction” to The Breakbeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop (2015)

POETRY

• Robert Hayden
  • “Night, Death, Mississippi” (CAP 56-57)
  • “Aunt Jemima of the Ocean Waves” (CAP 57-59)
• Lucille Clifton
  • “I Am Accused of Tending to the Past” (CAP 470-471)
  • “at the cemetery, walnut grove plantation, south carolina, 1989” (471-472)
• Michael S. Harper
  • “Song: I Want a Witness” (CAP 486-87)
  • “Blue Ruth: America” (CAP 487)
  • “American History” (CAP 489)
  • “We Assume: On the Death of Our Son: Reuben Masai Harper” (489-490)
  • “Reuben, Reuben” (CAP 490)
• Yusef Komunyakaa
  • “Tu Do Street” (CAP 618-19)
  • “Facing It” (LINK)
• Harryett Mullen
  • from Trimmings (CAP 696)
  • from S*PeRM**K*T (CAP 687)
• Natasha Tretheway
  • “Native Guard” (CAP 768-772)
• Ross Gay
  • “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude“
  • “Pulled Over…”
• Patricia Smith
  • “Blonde White Woman” (CAP 713-14)
  • “Skinhead” (CAP 715-17)
  • “Man on TV Say” (CAP 717)
• Terrance Hayes
  • “American Sonnet for my Past and Future Assassin [I lock you…]”
  • “American Sonnet for my Past and Future Assassin [Probably Twilight…]”

Selections from the anthology The Breakbeat Poets

• Evie Shockley
  • “duck, duck, redux” and “post-white” (LINK)
• John Murillo
  • “Ode to the Crossfader,” “1989,” & “Renegades of Funk” (LINK)
• Danez Smith
  • “Dinosaurs of the Hood” (LINK), “Alternate Names for Black Boys” & “Tonight in Oakland“
• Steven Willis
  • “Beat Writers” (LINK)

Assignment Due: 

• Blog Post 8 (on this weeks’ readings).

Final Project Rough Pitches: Each student will briefly (2-4 minutes) discuss their final project ideas.

Critical Introductions:

• Timothy Yu, “Introduction,” from The Cambridge Companion to Twenty-First Century American Poetry (2022)
• Dorothy Wang, “The Future of Poetry Studies,” from The Cambridge Companion to Twenty-First Century American Poetry (2022)

Poetry

• Javier Zamora
  • “Second Attempted Crossing“
• Chen Chen
  • “I’m not a religious person but“
• Ross Gay
  • “Love, I’m Done with You,”  “Sorrow is Not My Name“
• Danez Smith
  • “The 17-Year-Old and the Gay Bar“
• Kaveh Akbar
  • “Against Dying“
• Raena Shirali (CofC Alum)
  • “At Home, In the Empire“
• Morgan Parker
  • “If You Are Over Staying Woke“
• Ruth Madievsky
  • “Electrons“
• Tiana Clark
  • “My Therapist Wants to Know about My Relationship to Work“
• Sam Sax
  • “On Alcohol” “Prayer for the Mutilated World“
• Rupi Kaur
  • Instagram Poet
• Ocean Vuong
  • “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous“
• Maggie Smith
  • “Good Bones“

• Nate Marshall
  • “Palindrome“
• Sabrina Benaim
  • “Explaining my Depression to My Mother“
• Matthew Dickman
  • “In Heaven” and “Slow Dance“
• Danez Smith
  • “acknowledgements“

ASSIGNMENTs DUE

Final Project: First group of four mini-modules introduced. For those going during this first week, please share relevant reading materials with me prior to the class so I can update the schedule.

Please review individual proposals related to these projects before class. Proposals are due Tuesday

Project 1

Critical Reading:

Robbins, Amy Moorman. “Harryette Mullen’s ‘Sleeping with the Dictionary’ and Race in Language/Writing.” Contemporary Literature, vol. 51, no. 2, 2010, pp. 341–70.

Poetry Selections:

• Selections from Harryette Mullen, Sleeping with the Dictionary.

Project 2

Critical Reading

• Aslam, Huma. “A Study of Endurance and Aspiration in Maya Angelou’s Poems The Caged Bird (1968) and Still I Rise (1978).” Journal of Communication and Cultural Trends, vol. 3, no. 1, 2021

Poetry Selections

• Maya Angelou, “On the Pulse of Morning, “The Mothering Blackness,” and “Still I Rise,” and “Caged Bird.”
• Video of “On the Pulse” (Inauguration)

Project 3

Critical Reading

• Joseph Wei, “Postmemory Workshops: Vietnamese American Poets, Refugee Memory Work, and Creative Writing”
• Optional: Timothy K. August: Scholar and critic “Re-placing the Accent: From the Exile to Refugee Position.” MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S., Volume 41, Number 3, Fall 2016, pp. 68-88

Poetry:

• Cathy Linh Che: “Go Forget Your Father,” and “Zombie Apocalypse Now“
• Ocean Vuong: “Aubade with Burning City” and “DetoNation“
• Linh Dinh: “Eating Fried Chicken“
• Hoa Nguyen:  “Dang You Then Dang“
• Bao Phi: “Refugeerequiem“
• Quan Berry: “Napalm“
•  Bruce Weigl, “Song of Napalm“

Final Project: The second group of four mini-modules introduced. For those going during this first week, please share relevant reading materials with me prior to the class so I can update the schedule. Each mini-module presenter will also post their formal proposal prior to the start of class for comment

Project 1: 

Critical Reading:

• Encarnación-Pinedo, Estíbaliz. “Intertextuality in Diane di Prima’s Loba: Religious Discourse and Feminism.” Humanities 7, no. 4: 132

Poetry

• Selections from Diane di Prima. Loba. Penguin Books, 1998.
  • “AVE“
  • “Belili     Ishtar...”
  • “Hush, the young-old woman”
  • “When she hoots is makes“
  • “The Loba Dances”

Project 2: 

Critical Reading:

• Christopher Tucker, “I Will Pay That Price as a Poet to Speak My Truth”: Feminism, Activism, and the Historical Moment of Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls

Poetry

• Selections from Ntozake Shange
  • [lady in red] “at 4:30 AM“
  • “i Mood Indigo“
  • [lady in red] “there was no air / the sheets made ripples under his“
  • “who am i thinkin of:

Project 3: 

Background Reading:

• On the Watts Rebellion

Critical Reading:

• Daniel Widener, “Writing Watts: Budd Schulberg, Black Poetry, and the Cultural War on Poverty“

Poetry

• Guadalupe de Saavedra: “The Law,” “Suppression,” “Existence,” “The Jewel“
• Wanda Coleman: “Doctor’s Note” and “Standoff in East Hollywood”
• Ojenke: -“Black Power” and “Watts”

Project 4: 

Critical Reading:

• Robert Shapard: “The Remarkable Reinvention of Very Short Fiction“

Flash Fiction

• Etgar Keret: selections
  • Optional interview
• Tony Varallo: Selections
• Sabrina Orah Mark: selections
• Keret and Bottomy: two additional brief selections

Final Project: The final group of four mini-modules introduced. For those going during this first week, please share relevant reading materials with me prior to the class so I can update the schedule. Each mini-module presenter will also post their formal proposal prior to the start of class for comment.

Project 1:

Critical Readings:

• Marjorie Perloff: “Mysteries of Construction”: The Dream Songs of John Ashbery
• Optional: Robert Luster: “Nietzsche/Dionysus: Ecstasy, Heroism, and the Monstrous“

Poetry:

• John Ashbery: Excerpts from The Mooring of Starting Out: “The Mythological Poet,” “Some Trees,” “Clepsydra,” and “Clouds.” 
• Additional Poems: “Rivers,” “No Way of Knowing,” “Suite,” and “Hop O’ My Thumb”

Project 2:

Critical Readings:

• Camille Dungy, “Is All Writing Environmental Writing.”
• John Shoptaw, “Why Ecopoetry?”

Poetry:

• Joy Harjo, “For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in its Human Feet“
• Joy Harjo, “Speaking Tree“
• Joy Harjo, “Once the World was Perfect“
• Camille Dungey, “Characteristics of Life“
• Maya Popa, “Letter to Noah’s Wife“
• Fanny Choi: “How to Let Go of the World“
• Jane Hirshfield, “Let Them Not Say“

Project 3:

Critical Readings:

• Carmen Bonasera, “Of Mirrors and Bell Jars. Heterotopia and Liminal Spaces as Reconfigurations of Female Identity in Sylvia Plath“
• Christopher Grobe: Coda to The Art of Confession : The Performance of Self from Robert Lowell to Reality TV

Poetry Selections:

• Sylvia Plath, “Mirror“
• Sylvia Plath, “Tulips”
• Patricia Lockwood, “Rape Joke“
• Patricia Lockwood, “The Hypno-Domme Speaks, and Speaks and Speaks“
• Kamala Das: “The Looking Glass“

Project 4:

Critical Reading:

• John J. Ha, “A Verbal Response to Visual Art: The Popularity, Types, and Composition of Ekphrastic Poetry“

Poetry Selections: