Unit information: How Poets Work: Form, Metre, Meaning in 2010/11

Unit name	How Poets Work: Form, Metre, Meaning
Unit code	ENGL30103
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Griffiths
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None.
Co-requisites	None.
School/department	Department of English
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

The course will trace a broadly chronological pattern, beginning with forms and metres first attested in Middle English and ending with free verse, but overall chronology will be of less concern than analysis of how individual forms and metres develop: in many weeks the suggested reading will range from the Sixteenth to the Twenty-first Century. We shall focus in particular on the way in which grammatical, syntactical and formal elements of the texts interact, and thereby on the way in which form both influences and is influenced by meaning. The aim will be to provide tools not only for close critical reading and historical understanding of the development of poetic genres, but also for the writing of new poetry. Critics and poets alike will gain a thorough knowledge of the poet's medium, and with it the insights that come from thinking through, rather than about, technique.

The Aims of this course are to enable students:

• To build on their existing knowledge of poetic forms and metres

• To explore the way in which forms and metres develop over time

• To gain a sophisticated understanding of the way formal aspects of a poem interact with grammatical and syntactical ones

• To consider the way in which form influences meaning, and vice versa

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course students should:

• Be familiar with a wide variety of poetry ranging from the medieval period to the present day

• Understand the historical development of poetic genres

• Be familiar with various critical approaches to the relationship between form and meaning, and especially the contentious debates surrounding free verse

• Be able to construct a reasoned argument supported by appropriate use of evidence and analysis, and close attention to form and technique

Teaching Information

1 x 2 hour seminar per week in one teaching block, plus 1-to-1 discussion in Consultation Hours where desired.

Assessment Information

1 Short Essay (2000 words max) and 1 Long Essay (4000 words max), both summative.

Reading and References

• Eavan Boland and Mark Strand (ed.), The Making of a Poem: a Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms (2000)

• George Puttenham, The Arte of English Poesie, in English Renaissance Literary Criticism, ed. Brian Vickers (1999)

• Alexander Pope, Essay on Criticism, in Pastoral Poetry and An Essay on Criticism, ed. E. Aubra and Aubrey Williams (1993)

• Derek Attridge, Poetic Rhythm: an Introduction (1995)

• Annie Finch, The Ghost of Meter: Culture and Prosody in American Free Verse (1993)

• Susanne Woods, Natural Emphasis: English Versification from Chaucer to Dryden(1985)