Weekly Assignments
Artists among Poets
End of Semester Assignments
Final Project:
Poetry Object + Presentation - 30% of grade
You will make a final significant “poetry object,” - a book, a 3d or 2d object, a video, or any other imaginative form you choose to combine original poetry with work of your own in a visual medium. You may use the poetry and/or art work you have created throughout the semester. A presentation of your project will be part of your grade.
Due Thursday Apr 26
Final Blog Post:
Minimum 500 word reflection on these two topics:
1. What did I learn from this class?
2. Given what you have learned about the last 100 or so years in the visual and literary arts, what would you say the role of the artist is in society today?
Due: Monday, April 30
APRIL 5 Assignment
MARCH 22 Assignment
March 15th and 19th
Listen to Ginsberg’s “Howl” Ginsberg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkNp56UZax4
Due Thursday, March 15
Create a Collage or Found poem
Due Monday March 19th at beginning of class
Feb 19 & 26 Assignments
Weekly assignments (before Spring Break)
Write either:
1. A Surrealist or Dadaist poem, or a poem that uses either Surrealism or Dadaism as a technique.
or
2. A narrative poem.
Due Monday, Feb 26th at beginning of class
Feb 15 Assignment
Create a poem that depends on sound as its controlling element. (You know you’re going to have to read it out loud, so make it good!)
Due Monday, Feb 19th at beginning of class
Feb 8 Assignment
Blog assignment:
Read "Poem Type: Lists" handout on creating List Poems, and create a list poem of your own.
Due Thursday, Feb. 8, Minimum length: 3/4 page
Poem for week:
Play with Cubist ideas to construct your poem this week. You may use a poem you have already written to deconstruct and reconstruct, or you may create a new poem for this "challenge."
(In cubist artworks, objects are broken up, analyzed, and re-assembled in an abstracted form—instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context. Often the surfaces intersect at seemingly random angles, removing a coherent sense of depth. The background and object planes interpenetrate one another to create the shallow ambiguous space, one of cubism’s distinct characteristics. What would it look like if this were applied to text, to poetry, as opposed to a visual work?)
Poem due Thursday, Feb. 15, beginning of class
For Monday, Feb 12 class, we will have individual in class conferences. No writing is due for Monday.
Bring outside work you want to work on, or work on the above assignment during class on Monday.
Jan 29 Assignment
Blog assignment:
1. Write out word for word how Ezra Pound defines “image” in the video-clip at 10:20-10:40 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yCgRANLzQ0
2. First say how you determine where to break the lines in your poems, then read and respond to the Edward Hirsh handout (The Line) on how to know where to make line-breaks when creating a poem. 200 word minimum. Due Monday, Feb 5.
Poem for week:
Write 4 imagist poems for this week. See if you can capture the precise instant when a thing outward and objective tranforms itself, or darts into, a thing inward and subjective.
Poem due Monday, Feb. 5, beginning of class
Jan 25 Assignment
Blog assignment: What is a poem good for? What was the hardest thing to you about writing a symbolist poem? How do you think you did?
Minimum 200 words, due Thursday, Jan. 25
Poem for week: Write a Realist poem for this week. Minimum 30 lines, ¾ page. Poem due Monday, Jan 29, beginning of class.
Jan 18 Assignment
-Jan 18 Blog Assignment: Is meaning important in poetry? Why or why not? How about in the visual arts? Is meaning important? How hard is too hard, when it comes to trying to understand meaning?
Due Monday, Jan 22 at beginning of class Minimum: 200 words
-Jan 18 Poem Assignment - Choose one of the following topics to develop an original symbol for. (In other words, you can’t use a dove for peace for example): greed, compassion, jealousy, freedom, restraint, anger, forgiveness, solitude, deceit, peace.
Write a poem with significant use of the symbol. Aside from using a symbol, you also need to use at least four other different figures of speech (like allusion, antithesis). Make sure your poem has a theme (a purpose, a focus throughout the entire poem. In other words, you must have something significant to say about the emotion and how it impacts human behavior.
Due Monday, Jan 22 at beginning of class
Jan 11 Assignment
Talk about your writing process. How do you start? Where do your ideas come from? Can you “just sit down and write” or write on cue? What are your writing habits? Do you have any place in particular you go to write? What hours are best for you to write?
If you have not done so yet, please also talk about what makes a good poem. What elements does it need to be successful? What makes a successful poem?
200 words minimum, Due Jan 11, beginning of class, Thursday, Jan. 18
Jan 8 Assignment
Find a visual work of art and write a short poem as a response to it. Due Jan 11, beginning of class.