ENGL 4623, ENGL 5653, AMST 5843: Emily Dickinson Spring 2010 Mercer

Italicized information applies only to students enrolled for graduate credit.

ASSIGNMENTS

All assignments are subject to announced changes. You are responsible for all such changes whether or not you are present when they are announced. “WW” denotes weekly writing assignments (see syllabus). Readings identified by chapter number are from Ferlazzo=s Emily Dickinson.

For the teaching presentation and research paper, graduate students enrolled in ENGL 5653 may choose one of the poems preceded by an asterisk or, with my approval, some other assigned or unassigned poem by Emily Dickinson.

Jan. 19

Introduction to course

Jan. 26

WW 1: Write an analysis of the diction (word choice) in one assigned poem. Discuss the denotations and connotations of several important words in the poem, and explain the importance of these words to the poem as a whole. (See model analysis of diction: “Dickinson’s Diction in ‘Publication – is the Auction.’”)

Ch. 1, "Legend and Life," 13-28

Johnson, "Introduction," v-xi

Freedom of the mind

556: AThe Brain, within its Groove@ [how a small thing can change one=s conventional thinking]

701, AA Thought went up my mind today@ [return of a previous, unfinished thought]

613, AThey shut me up in Prose@ [one=s mind can=t be controlled]

Skills, accomplishments of poets

448: AThis was a Poet – It is That@ [ability to see the extraordinary in the ordinary]

569: AI reckon – when I count at all@ [preeminent place of poets; they take in the whole universe]

657: AI dwell in Possibility@ [poet gathers paradise]

883, AThe Poets light but Lamps@ [poetry lives on after the poet]

1176, AWe never know how high we are@ [poets/poetry not overtly mentioned; things that challenge us make us grow]

1755, ATo make a prairie@ [creation through the imagination alone (Arevery@)]

Poetic truth; the recognition of truth

210: AThe Thought beneath so slight a film@

1129: ATell all the Truth but tell it slant@ [necessity of using indirect language (symbols, figures)]

1222: AThe Riddle we can guess@ [difficult riddles are more interesting than simple questions; poetic truth may be in form of riddle]

ED=s own expertise (or lack thereof) in writing poetry

326, AI cannot dance upon my Toes@ [says she lacks skill but proves she doesn=t]

540, AI took my Power in my Hand@ [says that she was like David vs. Goliath but she hurt only herself]

Publication of ED’s poetry

441, AThis is my letter to the World@

709, “Publication – is the Auction” [the disgrace of selling one=s thoughts]

Difficulty in choosing words

581, AI found the words to every thought@ [inability to find words in one situation]

1126, AShall I take thee, the Poet said@

Power of words

952: AA Man may make a Remark@ [the danger and potency of words]

1212: AA word is dead@ [words live on after they are spoken]

Feb. 2

WW 2: Using your own words, write a prose paraphrase of 3 assigned poems. (On the class Web page, see “Guidelines for Writing a Paraphrase of a Poem” and “Model Paraphrases.”)

Ch. 7, "The Prose of a Poet," 125-42

Read all 11 pages of “Emily Dickinson’s Letters” by Thomas Wentworth Higginson at www.earlywomenmasters.net/essays/authors/higginson/twh_dickinson.html.

494, "Going to Him! Happy letter!"

494, "Going-to-Her!"

636, “The Way I read a Letter's – this”

1639, AA Letter is a joy of Earth@

1263, "There is no Frigate like a Book" [simile, metaphor]

1587, "He ate and drank the precious Words"

371, “A precious – mouldering pleasure – ’tis” [literary classics; personification]

593, "I think I was enchanted" [inspiration by Elizabeth Barrett Browning]

312, “Her – ‘last Poems’” [about Elizabeth Barrett Browning]

148, "All overgrown by cunning moss" [about Charlotte Brontë]

288, "I'm Nobody! Who are you?"

303, "The Soul selects her own Society"

14, "One Sister have I in our house" [Sue = sister-in-law Susan Gilbert; simile, metaphor]

486, "I was the slightest in the House" [meter]

586, "We talked as Girls do"

1401, "To own a Susan of my own"

*585, "I like to see it lap the Miles" [ED=s father was instrumental in bringing the railroad to Amherst]

Feb. 9

WW 3: Identify at least six (6) examples of figures of speech (such as metaphor, simile, personification, and metonymy) in one or more assigned poems. Identify the literal and figurative terms (tenor and vehicle) of the figures, and explain the functions of the figures in the poems.

Ch. 6, "The Secret and Spectacle of Nature," 94-108(t)

*214, "I taste a liquor never brewed"

155, "The Murmur of a Bee"

191, "The Skies can't keep their secret"

314, ANature – sometimes sears a Sapling@

668, "'Nature' is what we see"

1333, "A little Madness in the Spring"

1770, "Experiment escorts us last"

1097, "Dew – is the Freshet in the Grass"

1400, "What mystery pervades a well"

1624, "Apparently with no surprise"

348, "I dreaded that first Robin, so"

328, "A Bird came down the Walk"

520, "I started Early – Took my Dog"

"The Pageantry of Nature," 108-10

204, "A slash of Blue"

219, "She sweeps with many-colored Brooms"

318, "I'll tell you how the Sun rose"

228, "Blazing in Gold and quenching in Purple"

1672, "Lightly stepped a yellow star"

290, "Of Bronze – and Blaze" [aurora borealis]

764, "Presentiment – is that long Shadow – on the Lawn"

Feb. 16

WW 4: Identify the sound devices (such as end rhyme, approximate rhyme, internal rhyme, alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia) used in one or more assigned poems. Explain the effect of these sound devices on the poem(s) as a whole.

"[Seasons]," 110(b)-18

1051, "I cannot meet the Spring unmoved"

74, "A Lady red – amid the Hill" [figures of speech]

844, "Spring is the Period"

140, "An altered look about the hills"

99, "New feet within my garden go"

812, "A Light exists in Spring"

122, "A something in a summer's Day"

18, "The Gentian weaves her fingers"

1540, "As imperceptibly as Grief"

1422, "Summer has two Beginnings"

12, "The morns are meeker than they were"

130, "These are the days when Birds come back"

131, ABesides the Autumn poets sing@

311, "It sifts from Leaden Sieves"

1252, "Like Brooms of Steel"

258, "There's a certain Slant of light"

794, "A Drop fell on the Apple Tree"

824, "The Wind begun to knead the Grass" (both versions)

1593, "There came a Wind like a Bugle"

Feb. 23

Memorization: Deadline for recitation of first 16 lines

WW 5: Write a scansion of one assigned poem. Accurately type and triple-space the poem. Above each line, mark accented and unaccented syllables and divisions between feet. At the top of the page, identify the basic meter of the poem. Within the scansion, identify the specific feet that depart from this meter. Also mark the rhyme scheme, using the letters of the alphabet. In a paragraph or more, comment on how the meter and rhyme relate to the meaning of the poem. (See “Guidelines for Doing a Scansion” on the class Web page.)

"[Plants and animals]," 118(b)-24

1332, "Pink – small – and punctual"

333, "The Grass so little has to do"

1405, "Bees are Black, with Gilt Surcingles"

896, "Of Silken Speech and Specious Shoe"

916, "His Feet are shod with Gauze"

1224, "Like Trains of Cars on Tracks of Plush"

1522, "His little Hearse like Figure"

1035, "Bee! I'm expecting you!"

1466, "One of the ones that Midas touched"

*1463, "A Route of Evanescence"

500, "Within my Garden, rides a Bird"

285, "The Robin's my Criterion for Tune"

526, "To hear an Oriole sing"

1265, AThe most triumphant bird I ever knew or met@

1465, "Before you thought of Spring"

1356, "The Rat is the concisest Tenant"

*986, "A narrow Fellow in the Grass"

1068, "Further in Summer than the Birds"

1298, "The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants"

Mar. 2

WW 6: Write an explication of one assigned poem, explaining the meaning of the poem line by line or section by section. Demonstrate your ability to paraphrase and to analyze diction, figures of speech, sound devices, and scansion. Explain how each poetic device helps communicate meaning. Include a scansion page. (Minimum length: 2 full pages + scansion; 20 points possible)

Ch. 2, "A Question of Faith," 29-40

338, AI know that He exists@

377, ATo lose one=s faith – surpass@

915, AFaith – is the Pierless Bridge@

79, "Going to Heaven!"

501, "This World is not Conclusion"

696, "Their Height in Heaven comforts not"

376, "Of Course – I prayed"

*216, "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers" (both versions)

1052, "I never saw a Moor"

724, "It's easy to invent a Life"

823, "Not what We did, shall be the test"

61, "Papa above!"

1741, "That it will never come again"

461, "A Wife – at Daybreak I shall be"

185, "'Faith' is a fine invention"

[Eternity:]

624, "Forever – is composed of Nows"

320, "We play at Paste"

101, "Will there really be a 'Morning'?"

528, "Mine – by the Right of the White Election!"

976, "Death is a Dialogue between"

816, "A Death blow is a Life blow to Some"

Mar. 9

Meet in computer classroom G-___ to take midterm exam.

[Mar. 16: Spring break]

Mar. 23

Memorization: Deadline for recitation of 2^nd set of 16 lines (32 lines total by this date)

WW 7: Identify and explain ED's use of allusions in at least 3 assigned poems.

[Organized religion:]

1207, "He preached upon 'Breadth' till it argued him narrow" [preachers]

324, "Some keep the Sabbath going to church" [Sunday services]

401, “What Soft – Cherubic Creatures” [churchwomen]

248, "Why – do they shut Me out of Heaven?" [holier-than-thou attitude]

*315, "He fumbles at your Soul" [one interpretation: preachers]

[Poems containing biblical allusions:]

1545, "The Bible is an antique Volume" [Bible, Orpheus]

313, "I should have been too glad, I see" [Calvary, ASabachthani@ (Mark 15:34)]

140, "An altered look about the hills" [Nicodemus: John chapter 3]

1651, "A Word made Flesh is seldom" [John 1:14, Communion]

553, "One Crucifixion is recorded – only"

964, A>Unto Me?= I do not know you@ {Luke 9:48]

800, "Two – were immortal twice"

59, "A little East of Jordan" [Jacob's struggle with the angel, Genesis 32:24-32]

1317, "Abraham to kill him" [Abraham and Isaac, Genesis 22:1-14]

1459, "Belshazzar had a Letter" [Daniel 5]

817, "Given in Marriage unto Thee" [the bride of Christ]

234, “You're right – ‘the way is narrow’”

160, "Just lost, when I was saved!"

[Poems containing historical allusions:]

357, "God is a distant – stately Lover" [Miles Standish; John and Priscilla Alden]

1321, "Elizabeth told Essex" [Queen Elizabeth I and Earl of Essex]

678, "Wolfe demanded during dying" [Gens. Wolfe and Montcalm, Battle of Quebec, 1759]

Mar. 30

WW 8: Write an explication of one assigned poem, explaining the meaning of the poem line by line or section by section. Demonstrate your ability to paraphrase and to analyze diction, figures of speech, sound devices, and scansion. Explain how the poetic devices help communicate meaning. Include a scansion page. (Minimum length: 2 full pages + scansion; 20 points possible)

Graduate students: During this week, bring to a scheduled 30-minute conference in my office (1) a sentence outline (with tentative thesis and supporting topic sentences) or other overview of the content and organization of your research paper and (2) working bibliography with at least eight (8) sources in MLA form.

Ch. 3, "This Mortal Life," 41-42; "The Dying," 43-50

850, "I sing to use the Waiting"

241, "I like a look of Agony"

547, "I've seen a Dying Eye"

150, “She died – this was the way she died”

509, "If anybody's friend be dead"

369, "She lay as if at play"

715, "The World – feels Dusty"

648, "Promise This –When You be Dying"

577, "If I may have it, when it's dead"

281, "'Tis so appalling – it exhilarates"

187, "How many times these low feet staggered"

778, "This that would greet – an hour ago"

758, "These – saw Visions"

287, "A Clock stopped"

*465, "I heard a Fly buzz – when I died"

Handout: Paula Bennett, “On >I heard a Fly buzz – when I died – ’”

Handout: Laurence Perrine, Explication of AI heard a Fly buzz@

829, "Ample make this Bed"

519, "'Twas warm – at first – like Us"

Apr. 6

WW 9: Submit proposal for analysis of theme or technique in at least 7-10 poems. Proposal may be in the form of a sentence outline or in paragraph form; it should include the focused topic, tentative thesis, main points of the body, and poems you plan to include.

"The Living," 50(m)-52(t)

389, "There's been a Death, in the Opposite House"

1100, "The last Night that She lived"

49, "I never lost as much but twice"

1078, "The Bustle in a House"

1732, "My life closed twice before its close"

"Personifications of Death," 52-58

153, "Dust is the only Secret"

970, "Color – Caste – Denomination"

1256, "Not any higher stands the Grave"

98, "One dignity delays for all"

171, "Wait till the Majesty of Death"

1136, "The Frost of Death was on the Pane"

*712, "Because I could not stop for Death"

1445, "Death is the supple Suitor"

390, AIt's coming – that postponeless Creature@

1580, "We shun it ere it comes"

412, "I Read my Sentence – Steadily" [death sentence]

182, "If I shouldn't be alive"

449, "I died for Beauty – but was scarce" [truth, beauty]

Apr. 13

WW 10: Write at least 3 pages of a Acomplete poetic analysis@ of one assigned poem. (See “Minimum Requirements for Final Portfolio.”) (20 points possible)

Graduate students: During this week, bring to a scheduled 45-minute conference in my office a completed draft and works-cited page of your research paper.

Ch. 4, "Versions of Love," 59-66 [physical desire]

1339, "A Bee his burnished Carriage"

213, "Did the Harebell loose her girdle"

1670, "In Winter in my Room" [sexual imagery]

*249, "Wild Nights – Wild Nights" [sexual imagery]

162, "My River runs to thee" [sexual imagery]

729, "Alter! When the Hills do"

Ch. 4, pt. IV, "'With just the Door ajar,'" 66(m)-72(m) [the pain of love]

247, "What would I give to see his face?"

511, "If you were coming in the Fall"

322, "There came a Day at Summer's full"

*640, "I cannot live with You"

293, "I got so I could take his name"

47, "Heart! We will forget him!"

*754, "My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun"

Read Dickinson’s “Master” letters (extra credit for anyone who can find these on the Internet)

"Marriage Poems," 72-76

246, "Forever at his side to walk"

366, "Although I put away his life"

493, "The World – stands – solemner – to me"

508, "I'm ceded – I've stopped being Theirs"

199, "I'm 'wife' – I've finished that"

732, "She rose to His Requirement – dropt"

Apr. 20

Memorization: Deadline for recitation of 3^rd set of 16 lines (48 total by this date)

WW 11: Write an analysis of a theme or technique in at least 7-10 poems. (Minimum length: 3 full pages; 20 points possible)

Graduate students: Submit research paper (including checklist, paper with five [5] pages of source material highlighted and integrated, and works-cited page)

Ch. 5, "The Struggle for Sanity," 77-93

410, "The first Day's Night had come"

997, "Crumbling is not an instant's Act"

560, "It knew no lapse, nor Diminution"

378, "I saw no Way – The Heavens were stitched"

1123, "A great Hope fell"

1046, "I've dropped my Brain – My Soul is numb"

559, "It knew no Medicine"

396, "There is a Languor of the Life"

430, "It would never be Common – more – I said"

510, "It was not Death, for I stood up"

*280, "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain"

341, "After great pain, a formal feeling comes"

443, "I tie my Hat – I crease my Shawl"

599, "There is a pain – so utter"

761, "From Blank to Blank"

957, "As One does Sickness over"

254, "'Hope' is the thing with feathers"

435, "Much Madness is divinest Sense" [conformity]

Apr. 27

Ch. 8, "A Lasting Influence," 143-51

[Suffering:]

67, "Success is counted sweetest"

125, "For each ecstatic instant"

135, AWater, is taught by thirst@

301, "I reason, Earth is short"

305, AThe difference between Despair@

675, "Essential Oils – are wrung" [symbol]

721, "Behind Me – dips Eternity"

744, “Remorse – is Memory – awake”

792, "Through the strait pass of suffering"

313, "I should have been too glad, I see"

650, "Pain – has an Element of Blank"

536, "The Heart asks Pleasure – first"

165, "A Wounded Deer – leaps highest"

609, "I Years had been from Home"

919, "If I can stop one Heart from breaking"

[Joy:]

76, "Exultation is the going"

252, "I can wade Grief"

579, "I had been hungry, all the Years"

1125, AOh sumptuous moment@

May 4

Graduate students: Submit revision of research paper (optional)

Submit final portfolio

Last day to submit extra credit

Class party with refreshments made from Emily Dickinson’s recipes. Please sign up if you would like to bring something to eat or drink.

In-class preparation for final exam

May 11

Meet in computer classroom G-___ to take final exam