tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10246709.post113746216005901749..comments2023-12-22T19:52:13.198-05:00Comments on Fernham: Poetry: an eccentric list of tenAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281027116636227323noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10246709.post-1138219945495573702006-01-25T15:12:00.000-05:002006-01-25T15:12:00.000-05:00OK, I'm still thinking about this.In Masterpieces ...OK, I'm still thinking about this.<BR/><BR/>In Masterpieces of Literature Part I, a general distribution requirement and a required course for all English majors, we read Greek and Roman classics, unsurprisingly.<BR/><BR/>But I'd never encountered that stuff before. I'm sure that the professors get bored teaching the same texts over and over. But for each group of students, the material is new and fresh.<BR/><BR/>We read <I>The Illiad</I>, we read <I>The Odyssey</I>, and we were supposed to read Ovid's <I>Metamorphosis</I>. I was really excited about that one, but the professor wasn't. He chose, instead, to have us read a modern retelling of the story. Since I'd never read the original, I didn't get it. At all. It would have been a lot of fun to read the modern version *after* I'd learned the classic.<BR/><BR/>Just like it's OK to play with sentence structure, but only *after* one has demonstrated mastery of the form.<BR/><BR/>I bought <I>Metamorphosis</I> and read it on my own, but I still wish I'd studied it in school, with a professor to explicate the text and shape the discussion.Sarahlynnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13658866017847046987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10246709.post-1138218097180750002006-01-25T14:41:00.000-05:002006-01-25T14:41:00.000-05:00That list of poems certainly looks like it comes f...That list of poems certainly looks like it comes from the syllabus of an intro/core course. Sure, it would be nice to have some Eliot on there. But I think you made a very good decision when deciding to facilitate better discussions of fewer poems. There's so much to cover in each of those pieces.<BR/><BR/>Also - very important for a survey/distribution requirement/intro course - these poems are likely to leave lasting impressions, and be referred to again and again. When your students are 30 someone will quote a line from the Wordsworth and they'll remember it. At odd moments, they'll be reminded of "Ode on a Grecian Urn," and they'll be grateful.<BR/><BR/>Or, at least, I know that I am.Sarahlynnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13658866017847046987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10246709.post-1137631265371275392006-01-18T19:41:00.000-05:002006-01-18T19:41:00.000-05:00Wow, I think Anon is forgetting the years (and I d...Wow, I think Anon is forgetting the years (and I do mean years and years) of training that went into making that selection so easy to put together.Bud Parrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06822665831678026794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10246709.post-1137560187498783542006-01-17T23:56:00.000-05:002006-01-17T23:56:00.000-05:00Oh, come off it, anonymous. Boo.Also, interesting ...Oh, come off it, anonymous. Boo.<BR/><BR/>Also, interesting trend in Lit anthologies: the academic publisher I work at is starting a program where they will keep a database of poems, plays, and short stories online, and a professor will be able to choose which selections to include in a custom anthology to be printed.Blakehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02656419738811010977noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10246709.post-1137534582405602022006-01-17T16:49:00.000-05:002006-01-17T16:49:00.000-05:00Anonymous:You're right. Only poems that have never...Anonymous:<BR/><BR/>You're right. Only poems that have never been anthologized can be "eccentric" or even vaguely interesting. And professors should spend weeks -- nay months -- selecting poems for analysis that no one has ever heard of, <I>especially</I> in a lit survey class. You see, students forced to meet distribution requirements have exacting tastes in literature. They're jaded -- they don't want to read chestnuts. They've burned out on deconstructionism, post-feminism, and new historicism. Only gay cowboy poetry and nihilist post-post-modern anachronistic pseudorealism will do with this crowd.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10246709.post-1137534086214479902006-01-17T16:41:00.000-05:002006-01-17T16:41:00.000-05:00"I think they're probably also cheap because they ..."I think they're probably also cheap because they use so much older material."<BR/><BR/>Yep.<BR/><BR/>I'm not terribly ashamed to admit that I was a pioneer in making cheap anthologies, starting with my own book 80 Readings, which you can still find on Amazon as cheaply as $0.92!<BR/><BR/>Another trick we used on that book was finding more contemporary public-domain material, including presidential speeches and Nobel Lectures, as well as near-free material such as student essays.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10246709.post-1137533869388835372006-01-17T16:37:00.000-05:002006-01-17T16:37:00.000-05:00Can ten poems be "eccentric" if they've already be...Can ten poems be "eccentric" if they've already been collected into an anthology? A syllabus should require a little more thought than an afternoon in a reading room the day before class starts. Your students read this blog and have higher expectations of you than you apparently do of us.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10246709.post-1137533267731324622006-01-17T16:27:00.000-05:002006-01-17T16:27:00.000-05:00That's cool. I think they're probably also cheap *...That's cool. I think they're probably also cheap *because* they use so much older material. But I really think it's a boon to have the plays move from Sophocles up to the present, to have the poems go all the way back to "The Ballad of Sir Patrick Spence," etc. I get most excited when I'm teaching literature that is hard enough that students need a professor's help to get it--and that means lots of earlier stuff (and of course, my beloved high modernism).Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03281027116636227323noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10246709.post-1137519528812386452006-01-17T12:38:00.000-05:002006-01-17T12:38:00.000-05:00Oops! "reasone"?Good thing I wasn't the one proofr...Oops! "reasone"?<BR/><BR/>Good thing I wasn't the one proofreading the thing!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10246709.post-1137519441601597802006-01-17T12:37:00.000-05:002006-01-17T12:37:00.000-05:00I don't have any comments on the specific poems, b...I don't have any comments on the specific poems, but I just wanted to say that I worked on the Gwynn Literature series, years ago, when it first came out. Longman hired my company to do the interior design and production of all the books in the series (we were willing to work cheap, which is one reasone the books are so cheap). I'm glad to see the books are still in use (though I think the series has since been revised, so the work is no longer mine).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com