Class 11 1C 2016

1. ELIT 48C Class #11

2. Stationary vs. Stationery
• Stationary means "fixed in place, unable to move;”
Stationery is letterhead or other special writing paper.
(Hint: Stationery with an e comes with an envelope.)
Examples: Evan worked out on his stationary bike. The
duke's initials and crest appeared atop his personal
stationery.
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sue-sommer/common-grammar
mistakes_b_935609.html#s338543&title=stationarystationery

3. AGENDA
 The Chair Poet
 Imagist Poetry
o “In a Station of the Metro.”
o “The Red Wheelbarrow”
o “To Elsie”
 Author Introduction:
o Wallace Stevens
o Mina Loy

4. Chair Poet of the Day?
On the website, you will find a link to short American poems. You can get a
poem from there, but any American poem is fine. Simply commit the poem to
memory; each day from now until the end of the quarter I will ask if we have a
chair poet. All you have to do is raise your hand. I will take one or two a day. (If
there are multiple volunteers, we will schedule them for the next sessions.
A chair poet earns five extra participation points
for each member of his or her group.
• The first time I taught this class, a
student spontaneously recited “The
Red Wheelbarrow” while standing on
a chair. From that came the idea of a
chair poet a day.

5. LECTURE
Imagism
Crooked, crawling tide with long wet fingers
Clutching at the gritty beach in the roar and spurt of spray,
Tide of gales, drunken tide, lava-burst of breakers,
Black ships plunge upon you from sea to sea away.
From “Tide of Storms” by John Gould Fletcher

6. Imagism flourished in Britain and in the United States for a brief
period between 1909 and 1917. In an effort to move away from
the sentimentality and moralizing tone of nineteenth-century
Victorian poetry, imagist poets looked to many sources stimulate
new ideas:
• They studied the French symbolists, who were
experimenting with free verse, a form of poetry that
shunned the accustomed rhythm of metrical feet, or lines.
Rules of rhyming were also considered nonessential.
• The ancient form of Japanese haiku poetry influenced the
imagists to focus on one simple image.
• Greek and Roman classical poetry inspired some of the
imagists to strive for a high quality of writing that would
endure.

7. T. E. Hulme (an English Poet who lived from 1883–1917) was
instrumental in formulating and cultivating the ideas and
concepts that characterized imagism. Hulme proposed a
poetry based on absolutely accurate presentation of its
subject with no excess verbiage.
Imagist poetry aimed to replace muddy abstractions with
exactness of observed detail, apt metaphors, and economy
of language.
The first tenet of the Imagist manifesto was "To use the
language of common speech, but to employ always the
exact word, not the nearly-exact, nor the merely
decorative word." While Hulme wrote only a modest
amount of poetry, his ideas inspired Ezra Pound.

8. Pound's definition of the image was "that which presents an
intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time."
Pound defined the tenets of Imagist poetry as follows:
I. Direct treatment of the "thing," whether subjective or
objective.
II. To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to
the presentation.
I. As regarding rhythm: to compose in sequence of the
musical phrase, not in sequence of the metronome.
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5658#sthash.D8754249.dpuf

9. Amy Lowell on Imagism
When Ezra Pound left the imagists, Amy Lowell led the movement. In
her book Tendencies in Modern American Poetry (New York: Macmillan
Company, 1917), she outlines what she sees as the major points of
imagism. She set them down “in order.”
1. To use the language of common speech, but to employ always the
exact word, not the nearly-exact, nor the merely decorative word.
2. To create new rhythms -as the expression of new moods -- and not
to copy old rhythms, which merely echo old moods. We do not insist
upon "free-verse" as the only method of writing poetry. We fight for it
as for a principle of liberty. We believe that the individuality of a poet
may often be better expressed in free-verse than in conventional forms.
In poetry a new cadence means a new idea.

10. 3. To allow absolute freedom in the choice of subject. It is not good art to
write badly of aeroplanes and automobiles, nor is it necessarily bad art to
write well about the past. We believe passionately in the artistic value of
modem life, but we wish to point out that there is nothing so uninspiring nor
so old-fashioned as an aeroplane of the year 19 11.
4. To present an image (hence the name: "Imagist"). We are not a school of
painters, but we believe that poetry should render particulars exactly and not
deal in vague generalities, however magnificent and sonorous. It is for this
reason that we oppose the cosmic poet, who seems to us to shirk the real
difficulties of his art.
5. To produce poetry that is hard and clear, never blurred nor indefinite.
6. Finally, most of us believe that concentration is of the very essence of
poetry.
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/amylowell/imagism.htm

11. American Imagists
Ezra Pound
H.D
Amy Lowell
John Gould Fletcher
William Carlos Williams
English Imagists
Richard Aldington
James Joyce
F. S. Flint
D. H. Lawrence
It is almost impossible to discuss
the imagist movement in terms of
only Americans. Pound, who
spearheaded much of it, had
connections in both America and
Britain, and the ideas influenced all
of those poets in the same decade.
Though the Imagism movement
was over by 1917, the doctrine
profoundly influenced the free
verse style of the twentieth
century.

12. GROUP
DISCUSSION:
PARAPHRASE
NEWCRITICISM
QHQS
“In a Station of the Metro”
“The Red Wheelbarrow”
“To Elsie”

13. In a Station of the Metro by Ezra Pound
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
Who can
paraphrase “In a
Station of the
Metro”?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES-
CqAkxPKo

14. New critical readings of “In a Station of the Metro”
In the title of this poem the word “Station” could have several meanings. In one
sense the word could mean an actual station; like the Metro Train Station. In
this context it could portray a sense of coming and going, a place in which you
could go several directions. It could be a starting place or an endpoint of
another. In another sense it could mean a place of stability. If you are stationed
somewhere, you know where you are supposed to be and what you must do.
The last word “Metro” also has dual meanings.
The lack of action words in the poem contrasts with the fast moving metro car,
and is representative of the lifelessness of the passengers. The phrase
“apparition of these faces” is ambiguous because the word “apparition” can
either mean “a ghost or ghostlike image of a person” or “the appearance of
something remarkable or unexpected.” Based on the multiple definitions, the
speaker is stating that he views the passengers on the metro, and the
atmosphere of the environment, as remarkable, but due to the fast paced
nature of the subway the passengers appear ghost like as they ride on the
metro. It is ironic that the speaker incorporate nature, not to use it as a symbol
of life, but as a symbol of lifelessness.

15. New critical readings of “In a Station of the Metro”
The second line, “Petals on a wet, black bough” works as a metaphor
for the faces inside of the train quickly passing by. This can be
interpreted as the bough being the train, and the petals being the
people riding the train, so in this case the reader would be the viewer.
With the second and final line, “petals on a wet, black bough”, gives it
another context. The line does not make it feel sad and alone, but that
everyone is dealing with their own things in life. The “wet, black
bough” means that is it comparing the people together on a dark, wet
branch, which has a feeling of connection because a branch connects
to a whole tree, so everyone in the station is together as one. The fact
that the people are called “petals” means that they are a beautiful
thing as people, but they are connected to the wet branch. The
wetness, or the rain, is usually meaning “new”, so the fact that they
are flowers on a wet branch could be that something new is beginning
for everyone, and that everything can change.

16. “In a Station of the Metro” and Pound’s Manifesto
Ezra Pound was known for his support of simplicity, as we see in his
Manifesto From a Retrospect. No word should be used unless it reveals
something relevant to the work. He also discusses his definition of an
“Image”, “that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in
an instant of time” (342) Using the above information, this explains the
style and shortness of the poem. Every word is significant and used to
create an image that will stimulate emotion and intellect within the
reader.
Q: How does this poem reflect the concepts discussed in Ezra Pound’s
manifesto?
Q: Does the fact that Pound only writes two lines in his “In a Station of
the Metro” contradictory to his promotion of “great” writing as avoiding
abstractness of meaning?

17. QHQ on “In a Station of the Metro”
Q: Why is it two lines?? What is the deep meaning? Why is it difficult to
analyze a poem with two lines!?
Q: How does line one compare to line two?
Q: What is pound trying to say about the faces in the crowd by
comparing it to the petals of flowers on a wet dark tree branch?
Q: Is there any value to Pound’s minimalistic approach to “In a Station of
the Metro”?
Q: What is Ezra Pound is trying to accomplish stylistically with “In a
Station of the Metro”?
Q: Could this poem, In the Station of the Metro, be Ezra Pound’s
allusion to the destruction of nature caused by industrialism?

18. William Carlos Williams
“No ideas but in things”
The Red Wheelbarrow
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N
qIl3oX_44s

19. The Paraphrase!
1. The small, red cart that is placed near the white chickens and wet
with rain is greatly relied on.
2. The glistening red wheelbarrow that was drenched with rain and
carried the essential goods necessary for survival, was placed
alongside the clean and lively birds.
3. Many aspects of life are contingent on a garden technology of a
certain color that is wet from the precipitation while it lies near the
farm animal
4. It is extremely important, the role of this pushcart; its fire truck
color inspiring in its neglect as it shines with the liquid of the skies
adjacent to the porcelain poultry.
5. There is an excess of reliance weighing down a manufactured
industrial product. Aspects of nature have marked their presence
on the object. Lastly, this object is situated by animals that roam
nearby.

20. QHQ “The Red Wheelbarrow”
1. Q: Why does so much depend “upon a red wheel barrow
glazed with rain water beside the white chickens.”
1. Q: Are we interpreting Williams’ poem correctly if we
analyze it as him literally referring to a red wheelbarrow?
2. Why did Williams include the description of the
wheelbarrow being wet and next to a pair of white
chickens? Color seems to be of significance in this poem
since white usually symbolizes innocence and purity.

21. QHQ
1. Q: What was the connection between “The Red
Wheelbarrow” and Spring and All, the collection it first
belonged to?
2. Q: How does “The Red Wheelbarrow” influence our
understanding of an imagist text? How does this round-
out, or help us understand the complicated subject that is
inherently ambiguous?
3. Q: If “The Red Wheelbarrow” and “In a Station of the
Metro” are poems, what constitutes a poem, and where
do we draw the line and no longer consider something a
poem?

22. To
E
l
s
i
e
The
P
A
R
A
P
H
R
A
S
E

23. “To Elsie”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqpNWyl
zRDs

24. “To Elsie” Lines1-12
The pure products of America
go crazy—
mountain folk from Kentucky
or the ribbed north end of
Jersey
with its isolate lakes and
valleys, its deaf-mutes, thieves
old names
and promiscuity between
devil-may-care men who have taken
to railroading
out of sheer lust of adventure—
First consumer goods
made in America went
viral, that even folks as far
East as Kentucky, or the far
north of Jersey along the
empty lakes and valleys,
provoke by the hunger for
prosperity and lust of a
new adventure dare to
migrate to the West.

25. Lines 13-21
and young slatterns, bathed
in filth
from Monday to Saturday
to be tricked out that night
with gauds
from imaginations which have no
peasant traditions to give them
character
but flutter and flaunt
Young unclean women are
dirtied from working
Monday to Saturday. They
dress up at night with
flashy, decorative clothing
and accessories made by
people whose designs do
not draw from any
traditional roots. These
articles of clothing and
accessories are
consequently devoid of
any purpose or personality
other than being being
showy.

26. “To Elsie” Lines 46-54
addressed to cheap
jewelry
and rich young men with fine eyes
as if the earth under our feet
were
an excrement of some sky
and we degraded prisoners
destined
to hunger until we eat filth
Directed to unvalued
jewelry and wealthy
boys who have beautiful
souls, it is as though the
land beneath our feet
had been waste from
the heavens; We
devalued criminals who
were fated to starve for
the moment we devour
dirt.

27. Paraphrase“To Elsie” Lines60-69
the stifling heat of September
Somehow
it seems to destroy us
It is only in isolate flecks that
something
is given off
No one
to witness
and adjust, no one to drive the
car
The torrid warmth of the
ninth month of the year,
annihilates us in a way
that is unseen. In the
lonely rubble left in our
wake, only a single grain
of life can be found. In
the forlorn emptiness,
there is no one to move
forward, nobody to
operate the vehicle.

28. QHQ: “To Elsie”
Q: What is Williams saying about the life and people in his poem?
Q: Is there a reason Williams chooses to use pessimistic and
negative imagery in “To Elsie”?
Q: How is “Elsie” subject to the sexualization of the poem and the
narrator?
Q: What does Williams mean at the end when he talks about the
deer going by fields of goldenrod” and how there’s no one to
“adjust” or “drive the car?”

29. AUTHOR INTRODUCTION
Wallace Stevens

30. • Wallace Stevens was born on October 2, 1879
• He lived a relatively privileged life
• He went to Harvard, trying to satisfy his father’s wish for him to
become a lawyer while at the same time satisfying his own need
to write.
• In 1900, he defied his parents and moved to NY to become a
Journalist for The New York Tribune, though eventually he did
return to law school and become a lawyer.
• He worked to make himself financially stable, but still he wrote.
• In 1923, he published his first collection of poetry.
Although Steven’s work is powerful in its use of images, he is not
classified as an imagist. Instead he writes in a number of styles—
often three line stanzas. His early poems sometimes rhymed, some
are in blank verse, and some a melodic free verse. The poems we
are reading are lyric poems

31. AUTHOR INTRODUCTION: MINA LOY 1882–1966
VISUAL ARTIST AND POET

32. Although Mina Loy was born in England, she
did much of her work in Paris, Florence, and
New York City, where her beauty and
outlandish behavior shone at the center of
multiple avant-garde circles. The
unconventional vocabulary and syntax of Loy’s
poems and their scornful treatment of love
and other subjects can puzzle and offend, but
no reader can question the work’s originality
nor the poet’s fierce intelligence.

33. Neglect of Loy's poetry has lent qualified support to revisionist claims that
leading male modernists like T. S. Eliot, Pound, and Joyce defined modernism so
as to marginalize writers whose poetics and politics threatened their own largely
conservative stance.
However, Eliot and Pound praised Loy's work. High modernist champions of
technical innovation and intellectual rigor could not accuse Loy of formal
conservatism or sentimentality.
Literary historians may have marginalized Loy by making her a modernist icon,
woman-as-Dada, while relegating her writing to avant-garde obscurity; but
equally relevant is Loy's lessened attention to her poetry in later life.
Renewed interest in her poetry belongs to the recovery of the neglected,
multiple aspects of early modernism. In The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
(1933) Stein, whom Loy praised as "Curie / of the laboratory / of vocabulary,"
offers a definitive tribute to Loy's artistic vision. Recalling Loy's first husband's
plea that she punctuate the long sentences without commas in The Making of
Americans (1925), Stein notes that "Mina Loy . . . was able to understand
without the commas. She has always been able to understand."

34. HOMEWORK
Read: Mina Loy 295-96 and “Parturition” 296-99
Post #12: Respond to one of the following prompts:
1. QHQ on the “Parturition”
2. Discuss “Parturition” in conjunction with Loy’s Manifesto.
3. Discuss “Parturition” in conjunction with one critical theory
Read: Wallace Stevens
“The Snow Man” 283
“The Emperor of Ice Cream” 284
Post #13:
1. Paraphrase either poem. Be original!
2. Discuss the modernist aspects of one or both of these poems.
3. Or a brief “new critical” reading of one poem
4. Or do a QHQ for either “The Snow Man” or “The Emperor of
Ice Cream”