William FitzGerald Fall 2006
English 220


Homework assignments for Monday, September 15:

1. Please consult the course homepage at http://crab.rutgers.edu/~wfitz/english220.html to see a continually evolving website for our course. In the week to come it will be dramatically enhancedto function as an effective gateway to assignments, links to readings, detailed class schedule, etc. It will then continue to evolve to support your successful efforts. For the moment you can review course policies and other basic information.


2. Read the following poems available at the links provided.

"Sir Patrick Spens": Anonymous
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nap/Sir_Patrick_Spens.htm

"They FleeFrom Me":
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english//nap/They_Flee_From_Me_Thomas.htm

"Because I Could NotStop for Death":
http://www.wwnorton.com/litweb/workshops/poetry/dickinson1.asp

Each of these poems is found in an online resource site that provides background information, discussion questions, and even sound files. Feel free to sample this rich material, but your primary effort at this point should be to read comparatively and to consider why each of these has the form and function that it does.


3. Read the material here on versification:

http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nap/Essay_on_Versification_Elements.htm

While you won't be expectedto retain and apply all of these concepts at one go, you will begin now to solidify some basic technical knowledge that poets and their readers depend upon to recognize the interplay between form and meaning, text and context, tradition and innovation. You should take as many notes as you findhelpful since we will beginto apply these terms to our daily readings.