CRWT 3351-001 Creating Poetry Prof.

Matuk
fnm100020@utdallas.edu

COURSE SYLLABUS

CRWT 3351 - 001 CREATING POETRY
 Fall 2010

Wed 4:00-6:45, GR4.208

Professor Contact Information

o Farid Matuk, MFA o Office: JO 5.712
o E-mail: fnm100020@utdallas.edu o Office hours: Wed. 7- 8PM, and by
appointment

Course Pre-requisites, Co-requisites, and/or Other Restrictions

o Upper Division Standing
o Introduction to Creative Writing

Course Description
o Creating Poetries: From Expression to Experience

How do we shift our writing from an act of mere expression to the crafting of an experience that feels
vital to our readers? In this class, we will read poetry less to ask what it means and more to
understand how it creates effects for readers. We will consider poetic traditions as well as
contemporary poetic procedures. During the first few weeks of class we will move through Kenneth
Koch’s essays and anthology to give us an overview of poetry’s most important elements (form,
rhetorical stance, repetition, image, music, etc.). Then we will work through the various stages of
inspiration, creation, and revision of our own poems. Concurrent to the writing of our own work we
will read in a sustained manner from two major, though very different, American poets of the 20th
century, Robert Lowell and Alice Notley. Our deep study of their work will provide a counterpoint of
poetic styles while also giving us two masters under whose influence our own writing will progress.
This class will combine close-reading, observational writing, procedural writing, and reader response
as well as the traditional study of poetic tools and editing strategies. One of the main goals of the class
will be to help students attain a writer’s discipline in crafting poems and revising them. Through the
workshop process, we will also focus on how to become better editors of our work and the work of
our peers.

Student Learning Objectives/Outcomes:

o To identify the major elements of poetry
o To explore methods of finding inspiration as well as strategies for creating and revising poems
o To identify and analyze the aesthetic strategies of contemporary poets
o To become better editors of your own work, as well as that of your classmates

You need:
o Access to a computer and a printer
o An e-mail account
o A journal: one notebook that you will consistently use for journaling and class notes
o Folder or binder for handouts

Textbooks:
o Koch, Kenneth Making Your Own Days. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998. ISBN: 0684824388
Lowell, Robert. Selected Poems. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2007. ISBN: 0374530068
o Notley, Alice. Grave of Light: New & Selected. Middletown: Wesleyan, 2008. ISBN: 0819567736
o Additional hand-outs as needed

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CRWT 3351-001 Creating Poetry Prof. Matuk
fnm100020@utdallas.edu

ASSIGNMENTS & CALENDAR

August 25
Discuss: Expectations, course goals, assignments, and policies
What is poetry? What is contemporary poetry?
In-class reading: packet of poems.
In-class writing: notebook strategies.
Reading Assignment (to be discussed Sept 1): Part I, “A Brief Preface,” Chapter 1 “Two Languages” and
Chapter 2 “Music” (13-49). Also read the poems by Petrarch (158-159), Shakespeare (173), Hopkins
(212), Rilke (220-221), Whitman (204-205) and O’Hara (295). All readings in Koch.

September 1
What is poetry? Defining a second language
Discuss: Part I, “A Brief Preface,” Chapter 1 “Two Languages” and Chapter 2 “Music” (13-49). Also
read the poems by Petrarch (158-159), Shakespeare (173), Hopkins (212), Rilke (220-221), Whitman
(204-205) and O’Hara (295). All readings in Koch.

September 8
Discuss: Part I, Chapter 3 “The Inclinations of the Poetry Language” (51-70) and Part II, Chapter 1
“Inspiration” (81-92) and the poem “Queen Ann’s Lace” by Williams (238). All readings in Koch.

September 15
Modeling workshop, the importance of revision
Discuss: Part I Chapter 4 “The Poetry Base”: Part II, Chapter 2 “Writing,” and Chapter 3 “Reading” and
the poems by Williams (247) and Li Bai (148-149). All readings in Koch.

September 22
Discuss: First reading from Robert Lowell’s Selected Poems (pages tba)
Workshop: Group 1 posts group of poems on eLearning/Blackboard by Friday. Class reads and responds
to poems from Group 1. Come to next class with responses to Group 1 poems in hand.

September 29
Discuss: Second reading from Robert Lowell’s Selected Poems (pages tba)
Workshop: Group 1. Group 2 posts by Friday, class responds.

October 6: CRAFT ANALYSIS DUE

Discuss: Third reading from Robert Lowell’s Selected Poems (pages tba)
Workshop: Group 2. Group 3 posts by Friday, class responds.

October 13
Discuss: Fourth reading from Robert Lowell’s Selected Poems (pages tba)
Workshop: Group 3. Group 1 posts by Friday, class responds.

Fri. Oct 15: MID TERM GRADES AVAILABLE [grades due 10AM]

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CRWT 3351-001 Creating Poetry Prof. Matuk
fnm100020@utdallas.edu

October 20
Workshop Group 4
Discuss: Fifth reading from Robert Lowell’s Selected Poems
Workshop: Group 1. Group 2 posts by Friday, class responds.

October 27
Discuss: First reading from Alice Notley’s Grave of Light: New and Selected Poems (pages tba)
Workshop: Group 2. Group 3 posts by Friday, class responds.

November 3
Discuss: Second reading from Alice Notley’s Grave of Light (pages tba)
Workshop: Group 3. Group 1 posts by Friday, class responds.

November 10: CRAFT ANALYSIS DUE

Discuss: Third reading from Alice Notley’s Grave of Light (pages tba)
Workshop: Group 1. Group 2 posts by Friday, class responds.

November 17: FIRST DRAFT OF FINAL PORTFOLIO DUE TO PEER PARTNER

Discuss: Fourth reading from Alice Notley’s Grave of Light (pages tba)
Workshop: Group 2. Group 3 posts by Friday, class responds.

November 24 PEER PORTFOLIO ANALYSIS DUE (TWO COPIES)

Discuss: Fifth reading from Alice Notley’s Grave of Light (pages tba)
Workshop: Group 3.
Portfolio Feedback: one-on-one conversations

December 1 [last day of class] FINAL PORTFOLIO DUE

In-class reading
Course evaluations

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CRWT 3351-001 Creating Poetry Prof. Matuk
fnm100020@utdallas.edu

Assignments and Grading Policy

 Writing exercises, workshop poems, and feedback on classmates’ work (20%). You will be expected
to write poems towards your final portfolio throughout the course of the class. Some of these pomes will
come from writing exercises, others from work that was critiqued by the class during workshop sessions.
We will hold workshop for each group three times over the course of the semester (9 workshop sessions
total). Each time your group is up you will be expected to post 5-7 pages of poetry to be shared and
discussed with the entire class. You will be asked to post these pages via eLearning the Friday before
your group is up for workshop.

You must turn in on time the first draft of each group of poems or out-of-class assignment. The completion
of these drafts is a course requirement; your peers and I will read your drafts carefully.

 One 3-4 page craft analysis essay of work by a single author (30%). We will be reading selections
from 2 books of poetry over the course of the semester. You will need to write a craft analysis for one of
those books (your choice). You should consider work from at least three phases of the poet’s career. You
will be expected to effectively use the terms and concepts we study during the first four or so weeks of the
course. You will have two opportunities to turn in this assignment, one in the first half of the course, one
in the second half of the course.

 One 3-4 page peer analysis of another student’s final portfolio of poems (20%). You will be
expected to effectively use the terms and concepts we study during the first four or so weeks of
the course.

 Final Portfolio of 7-10 pages of revised poems (30%). To complete the final drafts of the
poems for your portfolio, you need to act upon the comments you received on your first drafts.

Do not discard any drafts, notes, papers or research materials you produce during the semester until you
receive a final grade.

COURSE POLICIES
Attendance
You are expected to be punctual, to attend each class meeting, and to participate in all in-class editing,
revising, and discussion sessions. At the start of each class, I will pass around an attendance sheet.
Excessive absenteeism (6 absences) will result in failure of the course. There is no difference
between excused or unexcused absences. Save any absences to use when you are sick or when you
have an emergency. If you find that an unavoidable problem prevents you from attending class, please
discuss the problem with me before you have reached your absence limit.

Late Assignments and Drafts

Poems, papers, and other out-of-class assignments will be turned in at the time they are due. If you
cannot attend class on the date an assignment is due, arrange to have a classmate or friend drop it off
during scheduled class time. There is no makeup of in-class work.

Electronic Equipment
Electronic equipment (including laptops, phones, & smart phones) is to be used in class only at
the professor’s instruction, unless required by a documented disability. Phones must be turned off
and stowed before class begins. If your cell phone rings during class you will be asked to leave, and
you will be marked absent. Please wait to check your phones until our break at the middle of each
class meeting.

Additional University Policies

http://go.utdallas.edu/syllabus-policies

These descriptions and timelines are subject to change at the discretion of the Professor.