Poet Study - Stuyvesant High School



E1FC – Mr. Weil Poet Study

In the next few weeks, as we read and discuss a variety of poems in class and try our hand at writing some of our own, each of you will choose a poet to study in greater depth.

Your poet must be:

• Someone with a significant body of work (at least two published books), aimed primarily at adults.

• Someone you haven’t studied in depth before.

• Someone whose work you love.

Other than this, there are no limits. Your poet may be alive or dead, male or female, writing originally in English or in translation.

Places to find good poets:

• The school library

• Your local library

• Your local bookstore

• Poets House (10 River Terrace) – an amazing browsing library! They recently opened a new location just down the street from Stuy! We’ll visit together as a class, and I encourage you to check it out on your own. ()

• Ask your friends and family for recommendations

• Websites like , , , or

Your assignment:

1) Read a significant body of work by your poet (at least thirty poems).

2) Create an anthology of your poet’s work, including:

• 8-10 of your favorite poems by your poet.

• A foreword that introduces and analyzes the work of your poet, including a strong claim

(a thesis) about your poet and his/her work. Include:

a) an explanation of why you chose these poems

b) what themes do you notice in this poet’s work?

c) what techniques (poetic devices, style, language, etc.) does this poet use most often, and how do they affect the poems?

• At least two poems you have written in the style of your poet.

• A table of contents.

3) Present your anthology to the class. Read us some of your poet’s work and some of your own, and tell us something we should know about the poet. Show off your anthology!

This anthology must be bound in a way that would make sense to your poet – be creative!

Due Dates

Tues, 1/10-Thurs, 1/12 Choice of poet due

Thurs, 1/19 A book of your poet’s work (preferably, a physical copy to show me), along with a brief letter explaining what you’re noticing in his/her work so far.

Mon, 1/23 Foreword due for workshopping

Thurs, February 2 Poems in the style of your poet due for workshopping

Monday, February 6 Poet Studies due/Presentations begin

Academic Honesty: I am interested in your thoughts about the poet you chose, and your insights into poetry. Your sources for this work should be the poetry of your chosen writer, and you should use your knowledge and understanding of poetry to aid you in your discussion of your poet’s work. If you must include outside information, make sure it is clearly cited, whether you quote someone’s words directly or merely paraphrase ideas. Academic dishonesty of any sort will not be tolerated and will have severe consequences.

Tips for Success (with gratitude to Ms. Thoms):

1) Read a lot of your poet’s poetry. Read the book you’ve found. See what else you can find in other books and online. Get really into your poet. Read his or her work out loud. Have fun with it.

2) As you read, mark poems you really like. Stick post-its in your book, or copy the poems you love out of your book. Start gathering the 10 poems by your poet that you’ll be including in your Poet Study.

3) Start trying to write like your poet. Some tips:

a) Identify aspects of your poet’s style. Does your poet write mostly in free verse, or form? What poetic devices does your poet use most often?

b) Identify your poet’s major themes. What does your poet write about most often? Does he or she write about lots of subjects, or just one or two? Which poems are your favorites?

c) Choose two or three specific poems to use as models. These should be poems which show off your poet’s most common themes and stylistic moves. Read these poems really closely.

d) Choose the aspects of style and the themes you want to write about. Draw from your own life and experience. For example, if your poet writes a lot about nature, think about experiences you’ve had with nature, and list them. Choose one of them to write about. If your poet uses a lot of repetition, choose a line of your own to repeat as you write, and keep coming back to that line.

e) Freewrite. Write nonstop for 8-10 minutes in the style of your poet – just play around and get it out onto the page. Play with line breaks.

4) Start thinking about your main opinion, or thesis, about your poet’s work. Some good questions to ask yourself as you read:

a) What themes do you notice in your poet’s work?

Where and how do these themes appear?

Which poems you’ve read most clearly show these themes?

b) What poetic devices do you notice in your poet’s work?

What effect do they have? In other words, how do they shape and change your reading of the poems?

c) What tone, or mood do you get from these poems? How do they make you feel?

Take some notes on your answers to these questions, and start coming up with an opinion about your poet’s work.

Who should I study? Some suggestions:

If you like Shel Silverstein, try:

Ogden Nash Dorothy Parker

Edward Lear Hal Sirowitz

Carol Anne Duffy Philip Larkin

Frank O’Hara Jennifer Michael Hecht

If you like Edgar Allan Poe, try:

Samuel Menashe (rhyme) Franz Wright (dark sensibility)

Sylvia Plath (dark sensibility) Lucie Brock-Broido (dark sensibility)

Robert Pinsky (rhyme) Sara Teasdale (rhyme)

If you like Langston Hughes, try:

Gwendolyn Brooks Paul Laurence Dunbar

Jean Toomer Claude McKay

Countee Cullen Lucille Clifton

Robert Hayden Kevin Young

If you like Robert Frost, try:

Edna St. Vincent Millay Gjertrud Schnackenberg

Elizabeth Bishop William Logan

Emily Dickinson Marilyn Hacker

If you like poems about nature, try:

Mary Oliver Walt Whitman

W.S. Merwin Wendell Berry

Louise Glück A.R. Ammons

If you like slam poems/ poems with strong opinions, try:

Taylor Mali Nikki Giovanni

Yusef Komunyakaa Allen Ginsberg

Sapphire Anna Ahkmatova

Ishle Yi Park () Saul Williams (hip-hop culture)

If you like poems that sound like someone’s talking to you, try:

Billy Collins Stephen Dobyns

Sharon Olds Frances Chung

Frank O’Hara Kimiko Hahn

Naomi Shihab Nye Cornelius Eady

If you like poems that do cool things with shapes and forms, try:

e.e.cummings Denise Duhamel

William Carlos Williams Paul Muldoon

Mong Lan

If you like romantic poems, try:

Pablo Neruda Li-Young Lee

Nikki Giovanni Edna St. Vincent Millay

John Yau William Shakespeare

If you like a strong female perspective, try:

Adrienne Su Tina Chang

Alison Park June Jordan

And, for good measure, here are a few more (mostly contemporary/young) poets you might love:

Roger Sedarat (an Iranian-American poet whose modern-day ghazals (a traditional form) “rock the house,” to quote Ms. Moore)

Lawrence Joseph (an Arab-American poet from Detroit)

Aimee Nezhukumatathil (formal structure, contemporary feel)

Amitawa Kumar (a little racy) Meena Alexander

Vandana Khanna Arthur Sze

Khaled Mattawa Timothy Liu (formal)

Diane Mehta (formal) Betty Kao

Sung Rno (formal, lyrical) Lena Sze

Walter K. Lew (very street)

And of course there’s Jason Koo, who recently read at Stuyvesant:

A Natural History of My Name (excerpt)

Today I read that only 2.2%

out of a million first and last names

have a higher vowel than consonant

ratio, and, since 50% of the letters

in my name are vowels, this means

I am “extremely well-envoweled.”

I go outside strutting the bulge

in my name: the trees are wowed

by my vowels, they only have two e’s,

which is why they have no leaves

at this time of year: the snow must submit

to the scrunch of my boots,

snow only has one o and I have three,

even my boots, so tough and rugged,

clearly dominating the one-o’d

snow, must bow down to the deity

of me, with three, never raising

themselves higher than my feet:

I cross the bridge and it is the same,

the river cannot keep up

with me, look at it writhing in the ice,

so fearsome with its 66.6%

vowel-to-consonant ratio but not

intimidating to me, because ice,

if you’ll notice, slides on its c,

eventually skidding to a stop

like a hockey player before the puck

of the e: which in a flick

disappears: whereas I keep floating out

on my opening of o’s, the song

of my name is repeated through nature,

cuckoos and owls take pleasure

in perpetuating it, just one koo

is never enough for them, koo

must always come coupling

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download