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.