The Moaner writes in the personal or expressivist

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 The Moaner … writes in the personal or expressivist mode. The focal point

The Moaner … writes in the personal or expressivist mode. The focal point is the “I” and the feelings and experiences of the “I. ”

Look at “Western Wind” a very old, very basic “moan. ” From 16 th

Look at “Western Wind” a very old, very basic “moan. ” From 16 th century England.

Western Wind Western wind, when wilt thou blow, The small rain down can rain?

Western Wind Western wind, when wilt thou blow, The small rain down can rain? Christ! If my love were in my arms, And I in my bed again! “small rain” = light rain, mist?

The personal mode is what most of us think of when we think of

The personal mode is what most of us think of when we think of poetry, and it’s what most of us write when we first begin writing poems: we’re “letting our feelings flow” etc.

A SUB-SET of the personal mode is the confessional mode. The “confessional poem” was

A SUB-SET of the personal mode is the confessional mode. The “confessional poem” was inaugurated by such poets as Sylvia Plath, Ann Sexton, and Robert Lowell in the late 1950 s and early 1960 s. This type of poem Young poets writing in this mode today are sometimes referred to as the “post-confessional poets. ”

The Confessional Mode This kind of poem, with roots in the Romantic period of

The Confessional Mode This kind of poem, with roots in the Romantic period of English literature as well as (to some extent) in antiquity, tends to do the following: § Reveals something normally hidden or unspoken. Explores subject matter that isn’t usually discussed out loud; challenges the line between acceptable and not acceptable, private and public. May broach such intimate subjects as family traumas, mental illness, troubled romantic relationships, moral transgressions, etc. § Focuses on personal life: family, relationships, childhood. § Focuses on personal neuroses, personal “issues, ” illness, fears, conflicts, loneliness.

Look at “Personal Poetry Sampler” (available as a link on our Schedule and also

Look at “Personal Poetry Sampler” (available as a link on our Schedule and also as a file in our Class Library) Tony Hoagland’s “Adam and Eve”

1. What’s the situation in “Adam and Eve”? Who’s talking and where are they?

1. What’s the situation in “Adam and Eve”? Who’s talking and where are they? What’s happening? 2. What is the speaker confessing to? If you are having trouble with 3. How does he initially present his confession? a poem, or even if you aren’t, 4. In the course of the poem, how does he actually you should ask yourself what use, transform, or redeem that confession, if at a poem’s basic “situation” is. all? It’s a good first step to 5. What do you make of all the questions in the understanding poems that are poem? especially difficult, and it’s 6. What do you make of the final lines? also part of what is call an 7. Based on Hoagland’s poem, what, would you “explication” of a poem: a say, are the benefits and drawbacks of the basic paraphrase. confessional mode?

Hoagland’s “Adam and Eve” Strategies: • Shocks us with first line—sets us up to

Hoagland’s “Adam and Eve” Strategies: • Shocks us with first line—sets us up to JUDGE him. • Addresses the issue of shock and offensiveness from the get-go (postconfessionalism). • Doesn’t EXPLAIN things away. Instead he repeatedly asks specific questions, some of which are self-critical. The poem is very reflective, thinky. • Despite the abstract thinkiness of his poems, he virtually always includes some very specific, vivid, concrete particulars. • Deflects possible embarrassment with humor. • Works with the problem, doesn’t just state it. Acknowledges his own culpability. • Ends with an interesting, paradoxical insight about confronting our own evil head-on as a way to truly find our own compassionate nature.

Lisa Lewis • Like Hoagland, thinks long and hard about her subject matter—but not

Lisa Lewis • Like Hoagland, thinks long and hard about her subject matter—but not to explain it away. Uses poem as a vehicle for inquiry into her personal experience as it is linked to LARGER issues. • Like Hoagland, always provides ultra-specific, gritty details which balance, support, illustrate, and refresh the abstraction. • Works hard toward—earns—the conclusions she draws at the end?

What are the dangers of this sort of art? • • • n o

What are the dangers of this sort of art? • • • n o i t a m r fo n i e r o m b! s o a B w y l l t i Tha really needed, B e w n a h t Self-absorption Solipsism Narrow interest Alienation of reader Embarrassment. You know, the feeling that makes you want to say….

y r e v t u o b a e t i r w

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t a h t w o n by k o t t Poems n

t a h t w o n by k o t t Poems n a rt o p m i d n s ’ a t I t o h s y l l a t n e d i How does this poet Greg Orr r e he acc h t o r b n w o avoid the hazards of s i. h d l d o e l l s i r k a e 2 y the confessional mode? 1 s a w e t n e when h v e s i th t u o b a s i h n i What are his strategies Wrote y l e v i s u l c x e for handling deeply “I”- almost w o n s I. o tw r o centered poems? k o n o a m s e first b k o p s a f o g n ” l a n methi o s s s fe n o c How does he t s o p for the “ encounter and shape. t n e m the expressive e v mo impulse? out b a e t i r et w o p a d l s u e o o h d S ? w ? Ho ial r e t a m c i rif such hor out it at all? ab he write

BTW, here’s a news article Orr wrote recently, after the accidental shooting, by a

BTW, here’s a news article Orr wrote recently, after the accidental shooting, by a young girl, of her instructor at a shooting range: http: //www. nytimes. com/2014/08/31/opinion/ sunday/reflections-on-a-shooting-range-deathfrom-one-who-knows. html? _r=3

Litany a” r o h p a n a “ f I o n

Litany a” r o h p a n a “ f I o n e t c h i v i s e p d l o I remember himffalling beside me, h a e m m r a o t i u s e o h s b t T r a atehood. k l toalready a the dark stain across his parka t g y seeumlts be lspseeping o t m i i m h s p l e c i dethe f I remember mile to our house. f i sticorhalf d seocohe and running y alrscreaming l i l p a t n i o n. o H m e I remember hidingu innmy room. e t s d , n c a l e c i arly an fwas hard to breathe i r r hoothat I remember it r icsotnhceret ne of thcee. Anaphod e t lenter. y a n c , and that I kept the door shut in terror that someone would e e e i s r n a e t r r p h a x p l e rmost adneyes. o d ho r o rrificmy I remember pressing knuckles into my w a f o e v n e o i n a t i t f t s o e o p e f e I remember looking out the window once n i r h l doesn’t e ing of eiasclhife. He n at where an ambulance had up x n p i , g lbacked a r e i e b n b e h m h i t o s s f oetosnthe’t front over the d lawn door. create ealings, h n r a e e c f t l I t e i. c e t m r I remember someone hung from a tree near the barn o e e n o H p. t t heeffec e x p e c i r t i o e the deer we'd killed n just before I shot my brother. n p c y e h ; d t h s n e a o , s m t i l m s a e p r escsoup. l I remember evening someone came with y t it, etoward n d i e d x n a a ribeesing c t m l y h t a y s h I slurped it down, unable to look up. r h s e remeembferom b dd a o r In the bowl, among the vegetable chunks, p s i e t h. t s t n e v realphabet bobbed at n pale shapes ofp the random. l a o s r e or lay in the shallowespoon. rely” p “m

“Gathering the Bones Together” This Orr poem is much more metaphoric than “Litany. ”

“Gathering the Bones Together” This Orr poem is much more metaphoric than “Litany. ” Uses what has sometimes been called the deep image—a type of image which springs from the unconscious, is sometimes dream-like & associational. (Some images in the poem may be from actual dreams. ) Groups of 4 Each group take one assigned, numbered segment of this poem and discuss briefly: 1. 2. What kind of language appears in that segment? How is the speaker talking at that point? How does that segment advance or contribute to the poem--the impressions, sensations, themes, or meanings that are building as you read it? Each group will share with class, and then we’ll consider: • What did you experience as you tried to answer the questions? • How do we talk about something as evocative and resonant and sometimes odd as a poem?

In addition to their personal and confessional flavor, Greg Orr’s poems have touches of

In addition to their personal and confessional flavor, Greg Orr’s poems have touches of what’s called the visionary impulse. The visionary mode will be covered in our next unit, but you might take an early peak at some of the assignments on our schedule.

Additional poets of the personal mode

Additional poets of the personal mode

Sharon Olds …is also in your Confessional Poetry Sampler, and there’s a separate link

Sharon Olds …is also in your Confessional Poetry Sampler, and there’s a separate link to her work on our schedule as well. We won’t be discussing her, but, if you’re interested, she would make a good subject for your end-of-semester essay.

Assignment for Original Poem in The Personal Mode www. ndsu. edu/pubweb/~cinichol/222/. docx Critique Form

Assignment for Original Poem in The Personal Mode www. ndsu. edu/pubweb/~cinichol/222/. docx Critique Form for Drafts www. ndsu. edu/pubweb/~cinichol/222/Critique Personal Poem. docx For Tues. the 1 st, bring a print-out of your draft, and 2 copies of the critique form.

You will critique two of your classmates’ drafts and in turn receive two critiques

You will critique two of your classmates’ drafts and in turn receive two critiques of your own draft. • Everyone should have brought 2 copies of the critique form for today. • Everyone should have brought 1 copy of their draft for today. • Save the critiques you receive today! You will staple them to the final version.