1. Poetry Il Postino [The Postman] (Michael Radford, 1994)
ENGL 2030—Fall 2013 | Lavery

2. Poetry
Watch Clip on YouTube.
ENGL 2030—Fall 2013 | Lavery

3. Poetry
Poetry Terms
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4. How NOT to Read a Poem
ENGL 2030—Fall 2013 | Lavery

5. Poetry Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Poetry
How NOT to Read a Poem
ENGL 2030—Fall 2013 | Lavery

6. Poetry
Mrs. D. was an imperious, white-haired woman who not only gave extra credit for every symbol we could find in The House of the Seven Gables (the chickens in the back yard = repressed sexuality, etc.) but concocted a humiliating scheme in which 11-A students would tutor 11-Bers, including me, thereby allowing close acquaintances to be more than ordinarily supercilious and condescending to their about-to-become-former-friend. The highlight of the year, however, was our discussion of Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." The poem, we were told, and we had to regurgitate what we "learned" on a subsequent test, is about Santa Claus; indeed Kris Kringle is the speaker, taking a break "without a farm house near" to contemplate the work that yet lies ahead in delivering all those presents. (The "little horse" is, of course, really a reindeer; he thinks it odd to pause in an empty field because there is no house to deliver presents to; the speaker has "miles to go before [he] sleeps" because he has "promises to keep" to all those little boys and girls, etc.--you get the idea.) Though not yet literary, not yet even a reader, I smelled a rat. Such an approach seemed silly.
How NOT to Read a Poem
ENGL 2030—Fall 2013 | Lavery

7. Poetry
How silly I realized only recently, while teaching introduction to literature at Middle Tennessee State University. In the required text, Michael Meyer's comprehensive Bedford Introduction to Literature, I was surprised to find an excerpt from Herbert R. Coursen, Jr.'s "The Ghost of Christmas Past: 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,'" an essay, originally published in College English in 1962, four years before I suffered through Mrs. D's class. A parody of poetic interpretation, a "how not to do it" guide, Coursen's essay had evidently been misread by Mrs. D. with all the literalism of the British audience of Swift's "Modest Proposal." She didn't get the joke, and she passed on her lack of discernment to us. All over Western Pennsylvania there are probably hundreds of people now in their fifties who think the poem is about Santa Claus.
How NOT to Read a Poem

8. College English (December 1962).
Poetry
College English (December 1962).
ENGL 2030—Fall 2013 | Lavery
How NOT to Read a Poem

9. Introduction to Poetry
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
Billy Collins
Introduction to Poetry
from The Apple that Astonished Paris (Fayetteville, Ark: University of Arkansas Press, 1996).
How NOT to Read a Poem
ENGL 2030—Fall 2013 | Lavery

10. My husband gives me an A for last night's supper, Linda Pastan
Marks (1978)
ENGL 2030—Fall 2013 | Lavery

11. an incomplete for my ironing,
My husband gives me an A
for last night's supper,
an incomplete for my ironing,
Linda Pastan
Marks (1978)
ENGL 2030—Fall 2013 | Lavery

12. an incomplete for my ironing, a B plus in bed.
My husband gives me an A
for last night's supper,
an incomplete for my ironing,
a B plus in bed.
Linda Pastan
Marks (1978)
ENGL 2030—Fall 2013 | Lavery

13. an incomplete for my ironing, a B plus in bed.
My husband gives me an A
for last night's supper,
an incomplete for my ironing,
a B plus in bed.
My son says I am average,
an average mother, but if
I put my mind to it
I could improve.
Linda Pastan
Marks (1978)
ENGL 2030—Fall 2013 | Lavery

14. an incomplete for my ironing, a B plus in bed.
My husband gives me an A
for last night's supper,
an incomplete for my ironing,
a B plus in bed.
My son says I am average,
an average mother, but if
I put my mind to it
I could improve.
My daughter believes
in Pass/Fail and tells me
I pass.
Linda Pastan
Marks (1978)
ENGL 2030—Fall 2013 | Lavery

15. an incomplete for my ironing, a B plus in bed.
My husband gives me an A
for last night's supper,
an incomplete for my ironing,
a B plus in bed.
My son says I am average,
an average mother, but if
I put my mind to it
I could improve.
My daughter believes
in Pass/Fail and tells me
I pass. Wait 'til they learn
I'm dropping out.
Linda Pastan
Marks (1978)
ENGL 2030—Fall 2013 | Lavery

16. Gestalt Shift
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17. Gestalt Shift
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18. Gestalt Shift
Necker’s Cube
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19. Gestalt Shift
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20. Gestalt Shift
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21. Gestalt Shift
ENGL 2030—Fall 2013 | Lavery

22. Gestalt Shift
ENGL 2030—Fall 2013 | Lavery