Al’s update on Friday of week 1 (ModPo 2019)

Here are a few notes from me on this Friday of week 1 of ModPo 2019:

• WEEK ONE CONTINUES. Yes, let’s keep reading Dickinson and Whitman today and tomorrow, and let’s keep talking about them in our poem-specific discussion forums. On Sunday we turn to week 2 (see below) but for now there’s so much more to say—and to ponder—when encountering these two foundational (pre- or proto-)modernists. There are many good discussions happening HERE.

• ESSAY ASSIGNMENT #1 NEXT WEEK: Many of us will be writing short essays in response to essay assignment #1 next week. Go HERE to find out about how the four ModPo essay assignments work. (Please do NOT click “Grades” in the left-side menu. Rather, click the “essay assignments” tab in the “Resources” submenu; find “Resources” at the left of any ModPo page and click.) For ModPo repeaters: this essay, a close reading of a Dickinson poem, is about a poem we have not ever yet discussed in ModPo. Fresh stuff! Try it. (Note that the following week—during week 3—we will be reading and commenting on others’ essays. For next week many of us will be writing and posting our essays.)

• ModPoPLUS HIGHLIGHT FOR THE WEEK: Even if you are new to ModPo this year—and especially if you are returning—we hope you will take a look at ModPoPLUS. As you know, this is a parallel, supplemental syllabus of poems and videos (and other materials). ModPoPLUS week 1 includes many poems added recently. Below I have posted a sampling of Dickinson poems and videos. Take a look!

• WEEK TWO COMING SOON. On Sunday, we will all turn to our week 2 poems, audio, and video. After a week with Dickinson and Whitman, we now consider a variety of later responses to these two distinctly influential poets. We read modernist responses to each, and also contemporary responses. Of course I’ll write again about week 2 soon. Count on that! If you want to take a look ahead, by all means go to our week 2 main syllabus page, read the headnote (copied below), and listen to the audio introduction (11 minutes).

As ever, if you have questions about how to use the ModPo site, post a note to our “tech help” forum or write to us at modpo@writing.upenn.edu.

Enjoying not being alone in the circumstance, because of you,

—Al

ModPoPLUS WEEK ONE – a sampling of Dickinson poems

PART ELEVEN: THERE IS A SOLITUDE IN SPACE

11.1 read Dickinson’s “There is a solitude of space”: LINK TO TEXT

11.2 watch Al Filreis discuss Dickinson’s “There is a solitude of space”: LINK TO VIDEO

PART TWELVE: LOVE RECKONS BY ITSELF ALONE

12.1 read Dickinson’s “Love reckons by itself alone”: LINK TO TEXT

12.2 watch discussion of “Love reckons by itself alone”: LINK TO VIDEO

PART THIRTEEN: THE SOUL UNTO ITSELF

13.1 read Dickinson’s “The Soul unto itself”: LINK TO TEXT

13.2 watch discussion of “The Soul unto itself” (in Montreal): LINK TO VIDEO [OFFSITE COPY]

13.3 watch Al Filreis & Anna Safford convene a FacebookLive session on “The Soul unto itself”: LINK TO VIDEO

PART FOURTEEN: A MAN MAY MAKE A REMARK

14. 1 read Dickinson’s “A Man may make a Remark”: LINK TO TEXT

14.2 watch discussion of “A Man may make a Remark”: LINK TO VIDEO

PART SIXTEEN: MUCH MADNESS IS DIVINEST SENSE

16.1 read Dickinson’s “Much Madness is divinest Sense”: LINK TO TEXT

16.2 watch discussion of Dickinson’s “Much Madness is divinest Sense”: LINK TO VIDEO

HEADNOTE TO WEEK TWO

Week 2 of ModPo 2018 runs from Sunday, September 16 at 9 AM through Sunday, September 23 at 9 AM.For those doing ModPo on their own or in small groups, the week 2 materials are open and available all year.

During this week, the second half of chapter 1, we will read the work of two poets writing in the Whitmanian mode and three poets writing in the Dickinsonian mode. We will encounter our Whitmanians, William Carlos Williams and Allen Ginsberg, again later in the course—Williams as a modernist and Ginsberg as a Beat poet. The Whitman/Williams/Ginsberg connection is a strong one; Ginsberg wrote directly in response to both Whitman and Williams and saw the lineage as crucial to the development of his approach. Our Dickinsonians are more disparate in their response to Dickinson’s writing. Of the three—Lorine Niedecker, Cid Corman, and Rae Armantrout—only the last could be said to be a direct poetic descendant of Emily Dickinson’s aesthetic.