Unit 1

Unit 1: Innocence & Experience

Innocence & Experience Poetry

Since D2L is down today, we cOedipus Rexannot do a follow-up post. So your first task for today is to download some software so you can listen to and record some poetry. Follow the directions in this link -- Audacity Instructions -- to install the software; follow all of the directions until you get to "Record Your Audio File."

Pre-Reading
We'll be reading lots of poetry in this course. When I meet classes face-to-face, we always read the poetry out loud together. Since we can't do that in an online course, you need to read the poetry out loud to yourself. I've tried to include many recordings of the poems, but even for those poems for which I've provided audio, you should read the poem out loud to yourself -- several times. All poems should be read aloud several times.

To practice reading poetry, follow this link (Billy Collins, How to Read Poetry) to hear former Poet Laureate Billy Collins' tips on how to read a poem. Read and listen to Collins' instructions, and then practice reading aloud the Sharon Olds' poem he shares, as well as the other poems you are assigned to read below. Text of the Sharon Olds' poem is linked below.

Read/Listen
Read & listen again to Olds, "My Son the Man"

Read & listen to Thomas, "Fern Hill", pages 169-171 Literature: The Human Experience; Audio: Dylan Thomas, "Fern Hill"

Read & listen to Muldoon, "The Sightseers" & Pinsky, "ABC" at Moyers, Fooling With Words
Text for Muldoon Muldoon, "The Sightseers" & Pinsky "ABC"

Read from the text:
Housman, "When I Was One-and-Twenty", page 160; Meinke, "Advice to My Son", page 174-5; Machan, "Hazel Tells LaVerne" page 187; Rich, "Living in Sin" page 1122.

As you read and/or listen to the poems, do the following:

Write down words, phrases & images of innocence.
Write down words, phrases & images of experience.
What does each poem make you think of?
What do you think the author and/or speaker has to say?

Thinking Questions
Complete the following exercises on the Textbook Companion Website (http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/poetry/elements.html): Denotation & Connotation; Diction; & Symbol. Complete the exercise for each element, save the exercise to your notebook, and email your notebook to me at manninck@uwec.edu. Make sure that you send your notebook to me before you leave the Virtualit website; your work will not be saved on the website.

Email Post
Since D2L is down, your posting today will be just to me. After reading the poems & answering the thinking questions, write a response to the poetry read for today. With the poetry, you might think about ways the poems relate to each other. You might also think about the ways the literary elements discussed in the exercises function in the poems we read for today. In a well-crafted, focused posting of 400 or so words, make a clear claim about the texts and then support that claim with details and reasoning. Send all of your work, including the "As you read" questions above to me at <manninck@uwec.edu>.

Major Assignment -- Poetry Podcast
One of the poems you listened to today, "Fern Hill" is one of my favorite poems. The recording you listened to was actually me reading the poem. Since the major purpose of our course is for you to become more comfortable with reading and discussing literature and make reading a lifelong habit, I want each of you to think about the kind of literature you like to read.

Your assignment is to find a favorite poem. Then using the program Audacity, which you downloaded earlier, make a recording of that poem. The information in this file (Audacity Instructions) gives you directions on how to make your recording. Follow this link (Billy Collins, How to Read Poetry) to hear former Poet Laureate Billy Collins' tips on how to read a poem. Following your recording of your poem, you need to discuss your poem for us. Tell us what it reminds you of; why it is your favorite. What images strike you in the poem? What do you think is the most important word? What meaning do you get from the poem? Share your poem and your thinking about the poem with us. I expect that your whole recording will be 3-5 minutes long. We can't go much longer than that, or the file will get too big for our computers to handle efficiently.

Make your recording and then upload your file to the D2L discussions area along with a copy of the poem for everyone to follow along. Check the syllabus for the due date of this assignment. Later in the course, after everyone has had the chance to upload their Poetry Podcast, we'll listen to each other's poems and interpretations and discuss them.

GET STARTED ON THIS ASSIGNMENT RIGHT AWAY; WE NEED TIME TO TROUBLESHOOT ANY PROBLEMS.