Spring 2008 Courses

English 280-01: Wishes, Dreams & Lies: Crafts of Poetry from Lyrics to Prose Poems (Wang)

T/TH 10:10-11:40am, Old Main 001

"Works of art are indeed always products of having been in danger, of having gone to the very end in an experience, to where man can go no further." (from Letters, Rilke)

In this workshop, we'll venture into the fertile territory of poetry. We'll look inward (the shadow world of dreams, lies, consciousness and sub-consciousness, etc.) as well as outward (body, nature, society), and our poetry will link the two and weave them into a layered tapestry. We'll play with the forms to bring out the poetic voices, and we'll explore different poetic genres—ballads, song lyrics, sestina, qilu (ancient Chinese form), prose poems, collage poems, etc.

Texts:
1. Great American Prose Poems: From Poe to the Present, ed. David Lehman, Scribner
2. Contemporary American Poetry, latest edition, Poulin, ed., Houghton Mifflin Co.
3. Leadbelly, Tyehimba Jess
4. The Artist's Daughter: Poems (Paperback), Kimiko Hahn

The Line

I want to go where the hysteric resides,
the spinning a child knows
when she twirls around till air and earth
are inebriated and she falls
even bruises her knees even
as a delightful lake of sandwich and milk rises--
and she laughs so fully
the others laugh with her
or tell her:
now that's enough.

--- KIMIKO HAHN

Spring 2008 Course Listings