During the first two weeks of class, we spent a lot of time speaking about the roles that cities, urbanization, crowds, and consciousness play in literary modernism. This week (April 12th-15th), we’ll be looking more specifically at the notion of “the new” in modernism, and we’ll be reading some poetry in the process.
That said, here’s the reading for Tuesday the 13th and Wednesday the 14th:
Tuesday: Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” Williams’s “The Red Wheelbarrow,” and Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro”
Optional for Tuesday: I’ve also included Pound’s “Portrait d’Une Femme” and Williams’s “Portrait of a Lady,” if you would like to read more.
Wednesday: Loy’s “Gertrude Stein,” H.D.’s “Oread,” and selections from Stein’s Tender Buttons.
Download all of these readings (as a PDF). (The ID and password are the same as for the class blog.)
For Tuesday’s class, please post your second Change Log. In it, respond to the reading (Eliot, Williams, and Pound) by addressing the following:
There was a desire for something new in modernism, and these three poems might demonstrate what “new” was doing—what it looked like, what poets were after. Other than “new,” please provide one word that you think best describes at least two of these poems (but ideally all three), and explain your answer in a paragraph or two. (Drawn upon the poems for concrete examples.)
When you are finished, in a few sentences, explain why, for Anglo-American poets in the first half of the 20th century, you think writing “new” poetry mattered.
Don’t forget that every entry on the blog should be categorized and include an image and three tags. The category for this entry is “#2″.
Did you forget how to embed a custom image? Here’s a review of how-to.
For Wednesday’s class, you should comment on one post by a peer in your cluster. In so doing, please draw quotes from Loy, H.D., and Stein. You might specifically focus on how your understanding of “new” changed after reading the work of these three other poets, post-Pound, Eliot, and Williams. Remember: There’s a protocol for commenting, folks.
See me with questions! And three cheers for poetry week!
April 12th, 2010 → 8:01 am @ jentery