READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS FOR TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2006

No readings for this class meeting, as we'll be doing the in-class presentations on contemporary American poets (post-1950) this week instead. (Guidelines for presentations are outlined below).

Please note that in lieu of the regularly-scheduled blog post in response to assigned readings, you can write an informal blog post on the volume of poetry that you did for your presentation this week, or simply do a "freeestyle" blog of your choice, to go along with the regularly-scheduled memoir prompt.

Presentation Guidelines:

Presentations should be approximately minutes long.

Your presentation should be on a volume of poetry by a contemporary American poet (post-1950).

Your presentation should focus primarily on describing stylistic traits that you notice about this poet (i.e., Themes and/or Subject Matter; Diction, Voice, and Tone; Imagery; Structure/Form; Symbols, etc.)

Bring copies of one representative poem to pass out to the class (16 copies total); read and discuss the poem in conjunction with the stylistic traits you've pointed out.

Keep biographical material to a minimum, unless it's pertinent to the discussion of the poet's work.

Important!! Your third and final modeling poem assignment will also be due in class today. You can model on any of the poets studied this semester, provided that you have not already done a modeling assignment based on the work of that poet to date. Please make sure to include your 500-word analysis of your model with your modeling poem, as we've done in the past.

Also Very Important!! Your final papers will be due on Thursday, December 14, by 5:00 p.m. in my mailbox in Dakota Hall 212, or if the office is closed, you can slide your paper under my door in Dakota Hall 207. Please include the rough drafts of your papers with my comments, along with the revised final version.

And finally, here is your final memoir prompt of the semester from The Autobiography Box (for the final round of blogging due by midnight on Monday, December 4, 2006):

Write about your first kiss. Maybe it was with a friend, just practicing. Maybe it was with somebody you were afraid of more than you were in love with. Maybe it was a stolen kiss. Maybe you did the stealing. What were the circumstances leading up to the kiss? Or, start with the kiss and describe what happened after.

READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS FOR TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21 AND TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2006

Tuesday, November, 21, 2006:

No class today, as I'll be giving an out-of-town reading.

Please use the break from readings/assignments to work on the rough draft of your final paper, which will be due on November 28. You may also wish to start working on your third and final modeling poem (due December 5) and/or your second oral presentation on a contemporary volume of poetry (also due December 5).

There will be no blog posts due this week of the Thanksgiving holiday. However, you may submit up to two blog posts by Monday, November 20, 2006, for extra credit (10 points apiece) to replace missing blog posts from earlier in the semester, or to simply earn up to 20 points extra credit. These can be "freestyle" blog posts on any topic of your choice. Please label them clearly as extra credit blog posts so that I can easily identify them and give you the appropriate credit.

* * *

Tuesday, November 28, 2006:

Important!! The rough draft of your final course paper will be due in class today!!

For this class period, please read Mark Doty's volume of poetry, My Alexandria, and Li-Young Lee's volume of poetry, Book of My Nights.

Please also read the following materials contained in the clickable links below, and which will download as PDF documents:

Click HERE for excerpt from Mark Doty's memoir, Firebird.

Click HERE for excerpt from Li-Young Lee's memoir, Winged Seed.

And finally, here is your memoir prompt from The Autobiography Box (for blog posts due on Monday, November 27, 2006.):

Who was your best friend at seven years old? Who was your best friend at 11? At 16? At 20? At 30? And who was your biggest enemy at each of these ages? Describe them.

READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS FOR TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2006

Please print out and read the following full-text articles which can be located via Project Muse, in the USD Library Research Databases. To access the articles, Click HERE to get to the USD Library Research Databases page. Next, click on Arts and Humanities. On the next screen, click on Language and Literature. On the screen after that, scroll down and click on Project Muse. Now you can simply type in article or author titles to pull up the full-text articles from the Project Muse database. (Please note that at some point during this process you'll most likely be prompted for your USD User ID and Password). Once in Project Muse, you can search for the articles using title or author's last name, etc. The articles are available in both HTML and PDF format:

"Elizabeth Bishop and Containment Policy," by Steven Gould Axelrod, American Literature, Vol. 75, No. 4 (December 2003), pp. 843-867.

"Elizabeth Bishop's Impersonal Personal," by Bonnie Costello, American Literary History, Vol. 15, No. 2 (2003), pp. 334-366.

Please also read the following poems from Elizabeth Bishop's Complete Poems: 1927-1976 :

"Arrival at Santos," p. 89
"Brazil," p. 91
"Questions of Travel," p. 93
"Electrical Storm," p. 100
"The Armadillo," p. 103
"First Death in Nova Scotia," p. 125
"Filling Station," p. 127
"Visits to St. Elizabeths," p. 133
"Giant Toad," p. 139
"Strayed Crab," p. 140
"Giant Snail," p. 141
"Under the Window," p. 153
"In the Waiting Room," p. 159
"Crusoe in England," p. 162
"The Moose," p. 159
"One Art," p. 178
"Santarem," p. 185
"Pink Dog," p. 190
"Sonnet," p. 192
"Exchanging Hats," p. 200

* * *

And finally, here is this week's memoir prompt from The Autobiography Box for blog posts due by midnight on Monday, November 13, 2006:

Write about a strange family member. Were you frightened of this person or were they frightened of you? Were they funny? Did they look strange or behave strangely? Do you still carry on a relationship with that person? Write a scene in which that person is doing or exhibiting the things that made them strange. Are you involved in this scene?