English 323
Poetry Project #1: The Thing Itself

Pts. possible: 2.5

Select one of the options below:

Option 1:  Doomed Republics

Select a specific event from your life that included you and a particular family member. This can be any significant, minor, puzzling, scary, odd, irritating, fleeting, or otherwise intriguing occurance—but its scope should be very narrow (something that took place, say, within an hour or less, not something that took place over days, months, or years). Avoid any incident which you already feel you understand, or which seems to have a clear lesson or moral.

Write a free verse poem about this even, relying almost exclusively on concrete language and images, letting the details speak for themselves.  Do not editorialize about your subject, reflect upon it abstractly, or explain it. Simply describe or reenact it as accurately and as vividly as you can, using your senses. .

Option 2: The Luminous Object

At the risk of appearing foolish, a writer sometimes needs to be able to just stand and gape at this or that thing—a sunset or an old shoe—in absolute and simple amazement.

(Ray Carver, "On Writing.")

Write a free verse poem about an object owned by a family member. This can be anything large or small—as long as it was owned (or strongly associated) with the family member. It should not be something whose significance is already obvious to you. Just pick something you connect with that person. Describe it with as much specific, concrete detail as possible, using all of your senses.  Keep reflection and explanations to an absolute minimum. Simply make the object vivid and present through language, respecting its thingness. Do not editorialize about your subject, reflect upon it abstractly, or explain it. .*

Evaluation Criteria for Both Options

The poem must be written in almost exclusively concrete langauge. It should include an abundance of fresh, vivid, specific, sensory details and images, so that the reader can truly see the subject. It should include plenty of descriptive, imaginative figurative language. Its details and meanings should not be predictable or include any obvious moral-of-the-story. It should be free of cliché and sentimentality (writing which evokes predictable, already-understood or "prepackaged" emotion or ideas).

Length: at least 50 lines, counting stanza breaks.

*It might be interesting, at some later point, to imagine your chosen object from some very unusual perspective—that of an animal, for instance, or someone from another country or planet. (An English 322 student once wrote about a rifle, for example, from the perspective of a deer, calling it "a branch that barks." )

Grading scale:

Outstanding = A = 2.5pts. Meets all of the stated criteria and instructions exceptionally well. Excels in inventiveness, originality, and energy, relative to work produced generally in 323. Well-edited and proofed. Possibly publishable.

Very Good =B = 2pts. Meets all of the stated criteria and instructions, or meets several of them exceptionally well, despite a weak performance with others.. May be especially striking in spots, despite noticeable flaws. Very competent, but may lack originality or inventiveness, relative to work produced generally in 323. Good attention to style and mechanics. Clear attention to assignment.

Fair=C = 1.5pts.. Meets some of the stated criteria, or meets all of them only partially. Uninspired but minimally competent; or very inspired but lacking competence in key areas.. May show some inattention to, or misunderstanding of, instructions. Weak proofreading and editing.

Poor = D = 1pt. Meets few of the criteria. May not not heed or understand instructions. May be sloppy, unproofed, unedited, and/or very perfunctory and uninspired.. An unsatisfying poem, saved by at least minimal attention to at least one facet of the piece.

Unacceptable = F = less than 1 pt. Poem either fails to meet any of the stated criteria, or demonstrates severe oversights or weaknesses in significant areas.

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