Creative Writing: Poetry, Lesson Six
Tuesday, February 14, 8th period
Kiki has, as always, provided the class with coffee and muffins, so please help yourself. Professor Chaucer greets the class and begins as soon as everyone is seated.
We have a lot of material to cover today, because we'll be discussing both your assigned reading and a new poetic form that you'll be using for your next writing assignment.
Creative Writing: Poetry, Lesson Six
[LECTURE ONE: ASSIGNED READING] The Dunciad is a landmark literary satire by Alexander Pope published in three different versions at different times. The first version (the "three book" Dunciad) was published in 1728. The second version, where Pope confirmed his authorship of the work, appeared in the Dunciad Variorum in 1735. The New Dunciad, in four books and with a different hero, appeared in 1743. The poem celebrates the goddess Dulness and the progress of her chosen agents as they bring decay and imbecility and tastelessness to the kingdom of Great Britain.
Pope takes idea of the personified goddess of Dulness being at war with reason, darkness at war with light, and extends it to a full Aeneid parody. His poem celebrates a war, rather than a mere victory, and a process of ignorance, and Pope picks as his champion of all things insipid Lewis Theobald (for the first two versions) and Colley Cibber (for the third).
The central premise of the poem is the crowning of a new King of Dulness. However, Pope's satire is political and cultural in very specific ways. Rather than merely lambasting "vice" and "corruption," Pope attacks very particular degradations of political discourse and particular degradations of the arts.
The political attack is on the Whigs, and specifically on the Hanoverian Whigs. The poem opens, in fact, with the goddess Dulness noting that "Still Dunce the second rules like Dunce the first," which is an exceptionally daring reference to George II, who had come to the throne earlier in the year. Furthermore, although the King of Dunces, Theobald, writes for the radical Tory Mist's Journal, Pope consistently hammers at radical protestant authors and controversialists. Daniel Defoe is mentioned almost as frequently as anyone in the poem, and the booksellers picked out for abuse both specialized in partisan Whig publications.
The cultural attack is broader than the political one, and it may underlie the whole. Pope attacks, over and over again, those who write for pay. While Samuel Johnson would say, half a century later, that no man but a blockhead ever wrote but for money, Pope's attack is not on those who get paid, but those who will write on cue for the highest bid. He attacks hired pens, the authors who perform poetry or religious writing for the greatest pay alone, who do not believe in what they are doing. His dunce booksellers will trick and counterfeit their way to wealth, and his dunce poets will wheedle and flatter anyone for enough money to keep the bills paid.
[LECTURE TWO: POETIC FORM] Today's form lecture is on the villanelle (or occasionally villonelle), a traditional poetic form which entered English-language poetry in the late 1800s from the imitation of French models.
While it is sometimes claimed that the form is named for the French poet François Villon (1431-1474), most experts agree that the form derives from a round sung by farmhands and that the name comes from the Latin villa, (farm) and villano (farmhand) via the Italian villanella. Medieval villanelles were of variable form and the earliest known villanelle in the modern form is a poem by Jean Passerat (1534-1602), J'ay perdu ma tourterelle.
The schematic representation of a villanelle follows this form:
Line one (A1)*
Line two (b)
Line three (A2)*
Line four (A2)
Line five (b)
Line one (A1)
Line six (A1)
Line seven (b)
Line three (A2)
Line eight (A2)
Line nine (b)
Line one (A1)
Line ten (A1)
Line eleven (b)
Line three (A2)
Line twelve (A2)
Line thirteen (b)
Line one (A1)
Line three (A2)
Versions with three, seven, nine, or any odd number of three-line stanzas are also possible.
* A1 & A2 are refrains: lore & liar, door & dare, and also sometimes can be different rhymes (see the Sylvia Plath example below).
Although the relatively low number of rhyme words available makes the writing of villanelles more difficult in English than it is in Romance languages, many English-language poets have used the form. Oscar Wilde and Austin Dobson were amongst the first English practitioners and many twentieth-century poets have used it, often in reaction to free verse. These poets include W. H. Auden, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Dylan Thomas, Elizabeth Bishop, William Empson, Theodore Roethke and Sylvia Plath. James Joyce included a villanelle, ostensibly written by his fictional alter-ego Stephen Dedalus, in his A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Some examples of villanelles:
Dylan Thomas
W. H. Auden
Sylvia Plath
Oscar Wilde
Elizabeth Bishop
[DISCUSSION: We've talked a little about satire already. What I'd like you to do is tell me what you think a satirest expects to accomplish by publishing this sort of work. Does Pope really think his poem can promote change? Or is he merely using it as an excuse to mock people with whom he has a difference of opinion or an uncomfortable relationship?]
[WRITING ASSIGNMENT: Due February 28 -- Write your own villanelle, on any topic you like.]
***Reading assignment for next week: Selected poems by Poe: The Raven, The Bells, Annabelle Lee, and Ulalume.
Before the class is dismissed, Chaucer stands up in front to address them once more. "I want to let all of you know that I'll be leaving at Spring Break. Your new teacher will be attending class week after next, so you'll have the opportunity to meet him. I've had a wonderful time teaching all of you, and just having the opportunity to get to know you, and I want to thank you for what you've done to make my time here more enjoyable. Kiki, I especially want to thank you for your hard work as my TA for this class. I'm sure the new professor will appreciate and benefit from your abilities as much as I have."
CLASS ROSTER
Martin Blank
Connor MacManus
Han Solo
Jack Harkness
Kiki Takayama (TA)
DEATH
Sharon Valerii
Phoebe Halliwell
Auditing: Greg House
EDIT: Please note that there has been a change to the assigned reading for next week.
Kiki has, as always, provided the class with coffee and muffins, so please help yourself. Professor Chaucer greets the class and begins as soon as everyone is seated.
We have a lot of material to cover today, because we'll be discussing both your assigned reading and a new poetic form that you'll be using for your next writing assignment.
Creative Writing: Poetry, Lesson Six
[LECTURE ONE: ASSIGNED READING] The Dunciad is a landmark literary satire by Alexander Pope published in three different versions at different times. The first version (the "three book" Dunciad) was published in 1728. The second version, where Pope confirmed his authorship of the work, appeared in the Dunciad Variorum in 1735. The New Dunciad, in four books and with a different hero, appeared in 1743. The poem celebrates the goddess Dulness and the progress of her chosen agents as they bring decay and imbecility and tastelessness to the kingdom of Great Britain.
Pope takes idea of the personified goddess of Dulness being at war with reason, darkness at war with light, and extends it to a full Aeneid parody. His poem celebrates a war, rather than a mere victory, and a process of ignorance, and Pope picks as his champion of all things insipid Lewis Theobald (for the first two versions) and Colley Cibber (for the third).
The central premise of the poem is the crowning of a new King of Dulness. However, Pope's satire is political and cultural in very specific ways. Rather than merely lambasting "vice" and "corruption," Pope attacks very particular degradations of political discourse and particular degradations of the arts.
The political attack is on the Whigs, and specifically on the Hanoverian Whigs. The poem opens, in fact, with the goddess Dulness noting that "Still Dunce the second rules like Dunce the first," which is an exceptionally daring reference to George II, who had come to the throne earlier in the year. Furthermore, although the King of Dunces, Theobald, writes for the radical Tory Mist's Journal, Pope consistently hammers at radical protestant authors and controversialists. Daniel Defoe is mentioned almost as frequently as anyone in the poem, and the booksellers picked out for abuse both specialized in partisan Whig publications.
The cultural attack is broader than the political one, and it may underlie the whole. Pope attacks, over and over again, those who write for pay. While Samuel Johnson would say, half a century later, that no man but a blockhead ever wrote but for money, Pope's attack is not on those who get paid, but those who will write on cue for the highest bid. He attacks hired pens, the authors who perform poetry or religious writing for the greatest pay alone, who do not believe in what they are doing. His dunce booksellers will trick and counterfeit their way to wealth, and his dunce poets will wheedle and flatter anyone for enough money to keep the bills paid.
[LECTURE TWO: POETIC FORM] Today's form lecture is on the villanelle (or occasionally villonelle), a traditional poetic form which entered English-language poetry in the late 1800s from the imitation of French models.
While it is sometimes claimed that the form is named for the French poet François Villon (1431-1474), most experts agree that the form derives from a round sung by farmhands and that the name comes from the Latin villa, (farm) and villano (farmhand) via the Italian villanella. Medieval villanelles were of variable form and the earliest known villanelle in the modern form is a poem by Jean Passerat (1534-1602), J'ay perdu ma tourterelle.
The schematic representation of a villanelle follows this form:
Line one (A1)*
Line two (b)
Line three (A2)*
Line four (A2)
Line five (b)
Line one (A1)
Line six (A1)
Line seven (b)
Line three (A2)
Line eight (A2)
Line nine (b)
Line one (A1)
Line ten (A1)
Line eleven (b)
Line three (A2)
Line twelve (A2)
Line thirteen (b)
Line one (A1)
Line three (A2)
Versions with three, seven, nine, or any odd number of three-line stanzas are also possible.
* A1 & A2 are refrains: lore & liar, door & dare, and also sometimes can be different rhymes (see the Sylvia Plath example below).
Although the relatively low number of rhyme words available makes the writing of villanelles more difficult in English than it is in Romance languages, many English-language poets have used the form. Oscar Wilde and Austin Dobson were amongst the first English practitioners and many twentieth-century poets have used it, often in reaction to free verse. These poets include W. H. Auden, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Dylan Thomas, Elizabeth Bishop, William Empson, Theodore Roethke and Sylvia Plath. James Joyce included a villanelle, ostensibly written by his fictional alter-ego Stephen Dedalus, in his A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Some examples of villanelles:
Dylan Thomas
W. H. Auden
Sylvia Plath
Oscar Wilde
Elizabeth Bishop
[DISCUSSION: We've talked a little about satire already. What I'd like you to do is tell me what you think a satirest expects to accomplish by publishing this sort of work. Does Pope really think his poem can promote change? Or is he merely using it as an excuse to mock people with whom he has a difference of opinion or an uncomfortable relationship?]
[WRITING ASSIGNMENT: Due February 28 -- Write your own villanelle, on any topic you like.]
***Reading assignment for next week: Selected poems by Poe: The Raven, The Bells, Annabelle Lee, and Ulalume.
Before the class is dismissed, Chaucer stands up in front to address them once more. "I want to let all of you know that I'll be leaving at Spring Break. Your new teacher will be attending class week after next, so you'll have the opportunity to meet him. I've had a wonderful time teaching all of you, and just having the opportunity to get to know you, and I want to thank you for what you've done to make my time here more enjoyable. Kiki, I especially want to thank you for your hard work as my TA for this class. I'm sure the new professor will appreciate and benefit from your abilities as much as I have."
CLASS ROSTER
Martin Blank
Connor MacManus
Han Solo
Jack Harkness
Kiki Takayama (TA)
DEATH
Sharon Valerii
Phoebe Halliwell
Auditing: Greg House
EDIT: Please note that there has been a change to the assigned reading for next week.