Instr:                  Tyler Farrell
Office:               CRT 474   229-3935
e-mail:                farecho@uwm.edu
Office hours:    by appointment

Course Information:                      MW   1:30-2:45    MER G16

Course Description

Does Place inform a writer and how his/her works are shaped and written?  This course is concerned with two schools of poetry and an inquiry into their art. We will look at poets and poetry that was written primarily in New York City as well as poetry that was written in midwestern states such as Minnesota, Iowa, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Both of these groups of poets
wrote from the middle to late 20th century.  We will analyze each school's perspective of their surroundings and discuss why and how they use theme, tone, and voice in their poetry. We
will also look at location or placement of these writers in order to determine differences in style possibly based on surroundings. Many of these writers used their immediate locale to guide their style and voiceand to talk about specific whereabouts.  How does location inform writing? What are the implications a writer must deal with when recording an experience in real world surroundings? Can we use location to define these writers? Is there a distinct "New York Voice" or a unique "Midwestern Voice?" This class will mainly involve discussion of specific works and an open forum of questions and ideas.

Required Texts and Materials:
Ashbery, John. Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror
O'Hara, Frank. Lunch Poems
Schuyler, James. The Morning of the Poem
Koch, Kenneth. Selected Poems
Lehman, David. The Last Avant-Garde
Roethke, Theodore. Collected Poems
Wright, James. The Branch Will Not Break
Berryman, John. 77 Dream Songs
Niedecker, Lorine. The Granite Pail: Selected Poems
Handouts throughout the semester

Course Requirements:
1. 1 page response paper every other week on reading.
2. 2 critical papers (5-7 pages)
3. Quizzes (always given at the beginning of class)
4. Assigned readings / regular attendance
5. Class participation on discussion of authors and their works.
6. Mid-term and final exam (essay questions)