ENG 40 The Poetry of WWI & WWII. Prof. Jeffery Blanchard 209 Sitterly Hall May 23 - June 17, M, T, Th 9:30-12:30pm

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1 ENG 40 The Poetry of WWI & WWII Prof. Jeffery Blanchard 209 Sitterly Hall May 23 - June 17, 2011 M, T, Th 9:30-12:30pm Reading List 1.) The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry ed. George Walter 2006 ISBN 13: ) Course Pack which will be available from me at the start of the course Course Description When war occurs, emotions range from patriotic to paranoid to tragic. Poetry is frequently used as a medium to express these wartime emotions, yet it can create a number of issues. With multiple nations involved in battle, conflicting opinions on the home front, and different cultural influences at work in each of us, the poetry we call war poetry can result in a series of unsettling questions: What qualifies as war poetry? What are the characteristics each poem must display? What happens when the latest war changes all of the previous rules? This course will examine wartime poetry written by British and American soldiers, as well as civilians, as we deliberate over what counts as war poetry and how we apply those standards to other poetry that one may not have considered. We will focus on WWI and WWII and include work by Sassoon, Owen, Rosenberg, Brooke, Pound, Stevens, Eliot, and others. Course Policies Attendance: Because so much of your learning and exchanging of ideas will take place in class, you must attend on a regular basis to receive credit for the course and you are expected to be in class for every scheduled meeting. Should you miss more than (2) two classes without reason we have previously discussed, I reserve the right to lower your final grade in this course (A+ to A). I will take attendance at the beginning of class. If you arrive late to class it is your responsibility to approach me after class and make sure I have not marked you absent. Participation: Participation in class will be rewarded in the Process portion of your grade. Always bring assigned readings to class for discussion. Coming to class prepared, participating in discussions, and contributing regularly to the class will be reflected favorably in your grade. This class will function in a give and take fashion. You are essentially subtracting from your own work, as well as that of others, when you arrive unprepared and unwilling to discuss the readings at hand. Exchange of thought is how we move our understanding of literature forward. Coming to class without having prepared the required reading and/or writing is unacceptable. If you are not prepared, you should not be in class. 1

2 Class Work: KEEP ALL OF YOUR WRITING FOR THIS COURSE, including notes, responses, drafts, revisions, and final drafts. I strongly urge you to keep a backup of all your work. It could be unfortunate for your grade if you cannot produce evidence of your work at semester s end. Academic Integrity: Students are expected at all times to follow the rules for source use described in the Drew University College of Liberal Arts Standards of Academic Integrity document available on line at this location and in printed form from the office of the Dean of the College, BC 110. Students found to be in violation of these standards by the Committee on Academic Integrity will fail this course regardless of other additional penalties levied by that committee. Note: You are accountable for all University, Departmental, and class policies whether you have read them or not! Course Objectives At the end of the course the student will be able to: 1. Demonstrate a critical understanding of and appreciation for war poetry when analyzing the poetry 2. Clearly exchange their thoughts on the readings within the course discussions held in each session 3. Analyze the texts they are assigned utilizing the genre knowledge we have constructed as a class 4. Identify similarities and differences between works of literature within the genre of war poetry 5. Develop a reasonable interpretation of a literary text and support that interpretation with evidence from the text(s) they have chosen 6. Compose a written argument (in the form of our Final Paper) describing the relationship(s) that they have found between war poetry from soldiers, civilians, and between the two world wars 7. Draw upon course materials to develop further, meaningful questions about this course, other literature courses, history courses, or other areas of the arts and communications Grades: Attendance and In-class participation: 20% Written Responses: 30% Final Paper: 50% 2

3 Week 1 Monday 5/23/11 - Intro to the course - Genre construction - Keats To Autumn - Hardy s Channel Firing - Brooke s 1914: Peace - For All We Have and Are - Jessie Pope s The Call - Sorley s All the hills and vales along - Sassoon s To Victory - AND excerpt from Wittgenstein s Philosophical Investigations Tuesday 5/24/11 - Discussion of poetic techniques - Romanticism & early poetry of WWI - Sassoon s Trench Duty - Owen s Exposure, Anthem for Doomed Youth - Rosenberg s Break of Day in the Trenches, Marching, Louse Hunting, Returning, We Hear the Larks - Manning s Grotesque - Nichols Eve of Assault: Infantry Going Down to Trenches - Aldington s Bombardment Thursday 5/26/11 - Reality of war as the romance fades: changes in the poetry - Harvey s If We Return - Graves The Survivor Comes Home - Brittain s Hospital Sanctuary - Gibson s Air-Raid - Sassoon s Counter-Attack, Does it Matter, Glory of Women, They, Repression of War Experiences - Owen s Dulce et Decorum Est, The Sentry, Mental Cases - Rosenberg s Dead Man s Dump 3

4 Week 2 Monday 5/30/11 - NO CLASS: Memorial Day Tuesday 5/31/11 - The horrors of war: shell shock, trauma, and poetry - Eleanor Farjeon s Easter Monday - Jessie Pope s War Girls - Margaret Sackville s A Memory - Theresa Hooley s A War Film - Margaret Postgate Cole s The Veteran - Eva Dobell s In a Soldier s Hospital I: Pluck Thursday 6/2/11 Week 3 - Women and their representation of WWI - HD s The God, Orion Dead - William Carlos Williams A Sort of Song, Catastrophic Birth, The Rose, Rumba! Rumba!, The Aftermath - Sandburg s Among the Red Guns, Fight, Buttons, Jaws, Wars - Stevens The Death of a Soldier - Pound s Song of the Bowmen Shu Monday 6/6/11 - Civilian poets of WWI - Stevens Asides on the Oboe, Examination of the Hero in a Time of War, excerpt from The Noble Rider pg

5 Tuesday 6/7/11 - Introduction to WWII - Wallace Stevens pt. I - Stevens Man and Bottle, Of Modern Poetry, Esthetique du Mal Thursday 6/9/11 Week 4 - Wallace Stevens pt. II - Read Pound s Canto LXXIV Monday 6/13/11 - Pound s Pisan Cantos - Re-read Canto LXXIV Tuesday 6/14/11 - Finish Pisan Cantos - Introduction to T.S. Eliot - Eliot s Little Gidding Thursday 6/16/11 - Eliot s Little Gidding - Discussion of the final paper - Course Survey Complete the Final Paper 5