For Thursday, read the poems by Edgar Lee Masters and Edwin Arlington Robinson. Both poets are often seen as early or “pre” modernist. I think if we look closely at both, we can see continuities with Adams, Du Bois, and Perkins Gilman – – especially a shared sense of old ways (or “forms”) pressured and fissured by change and disruption. Make one annotation on at least three different poems by either author. Can you see the continuities that I think I see?
On Tuesday, we’ll talk about the poems by Robert Frost. Frost is often seen as the bard of rural, folksy, nature-filled New England. However, I think he’s a lot more serious and nefarious than this conventional identity. In fact, I think Frost’s greatest delight is in punking his readers. Make three annotations on any of his poems – – but perhaps especially “Two Roads,” “Mending Wall,” and “Stopping by Woods” – – and think about moments where Frost seems to go out of his way to undermine or reverse our expectations as readers.