Week 4 Assignments

Writing Assignment

Choose One:
1) Go over your free-write from class and underline anything in iambic pentameter (we may or may not have gotten to this in class). Using the sections you underlined, write a poem or monologue in iambic pentameter. Feel free to cheat on the meter, as Shakespeare does. And don’t be afraid to write or revise as much as needed. Your free-write is just a starting point!

2) Write a poem or monologue of no more than a page in which the rhythm and sounds support the content in some way, as in The Dance and My Papa’s Waltz. Allow the language to support (or contradict!) what happens on the page.


Read for Next Week

IN THE BOOKSTORE, OR ONLINE AT http://www.bartleby.com/140/
Objects from Tender Buttons, Gertrude Stein

IN THE COURSE READER
In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried, Amy Hempel from Reasons to Live
The Rain and The Language, Robert Creeley
The Day Lady Died, Frank O’Hara
Fork, Charles Simic
The Difference Between Pepsi and Coke, David Lehman
Musee des Beaux Arts, W.H. Auden


Blog
1. Post an entry about any one of the readings this week. This may be a critical or creative piece of about 200-300 words. It MUST respond to your chosen reading in some way, either by identifying and discussing craft elements, themes, or techniques or by using those elements in a creative response.

2. Post comments on at least three other entries. Remember, this is not a place for critiquing each other’s work. Instead, identify something from the piece that strikes or interests you, ask a neutral question about the work, or suggest ways the author could deepen or expand it.