Course Information
SemesterCourse Unit CodeCourse Unit TitleT+P+LCreditNumber of ECTS CreditsLast Updated Date
3LIT 205Poetry and Poetics3+0+03531.10.2025

 
Course Details
Language of Instruction English
Level of Course Unit Bachelor's Degree
Department / Program BA Program in Comparative Literature
Type of Program Formal Education
Type of Course Unit Compulsory
Course Delivery Method Face To Face
Objectives of the Course This course aims to familiarize students with different forms of poetry and with how literary, creative expression has been conceived over time.
Course Content Poetry is perhaps one of the hardest categories of writing to define, and is composed of many genres and forms. This course acquaints students with a selection of poetry and theories of literary expression—poetics—that engage with elements of style, technique, content, purpose. The selection includes poems representative of various Eastern and Western literary traditions, including ghazal, mathnawi, sonnets, epic and romance poetry. Students will read them comparatively, taking into account the developments, transformations, and intercultural transmissions of different genres rooted in specific cultural and geographical contexts; for example, the popular twenty-first century form of American ghazal poetry. Interlaced with genre and intercultural transmission is the subject of socially conscious and activist poetry. We will explore how poems become effective mediums of voicing inner thoughts, frustrations, and visions for the future.
Course Methods and Techniques Close reading and analysis
Prerequisites and co-requisities None
Course Coordinator None
Name of Lecturers Asist Prof.Dr. Merve Aktar
Assistants None
Work Placement(s) No

Recommended or Required Reading
Resources Felluga, Dino F. (Ed.) (2015). Critical theory: The key concepts. Routledge.
2. Strand Mark, Boland Eavan (2001). The making of a poem: a Norton anthology of poetic forms.
3. Culler, Jonathan (1997). Chapter Six: Narrative. Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
4. Kenyonreview.org
5. Poetryfoundation.org
6. Poets.org
7. Splitthisrock.org
8. Americanghazal.com
Course Notes Students will be asked to write one or more response papers, and one poem critique during the semester, besides their midterm and final assignments. Readings are available via poetry databases and online libraries. Sources not provided through the syllabus will be posted on Canvas each week.
Documents 1. Andrews Walter G., Black Najaat, & Kalpaklı Mehmet (1997). Ottoman lyric poetry: an anthology. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. 2. Halman Tala^t Sait., Fındıkogˆlu Zeki, & Warner J. L. (2009). Popular Turkish love lyrics & folk legends. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. 3. Strand Mark, Boland Eavan (2001). The making of a poem: a Norton anthology of poetic forms. New York, NY: w.W. Norton & Company. 4. Poetryfoundation.org 5. Splitthisrock.org 6. Americanghazal.com
Assignments şiir analizi
Exams Ara dönem ve final uygulama

Course Category
Mathematics and Basic Sciences %0
Engineering %0
Engineering Design %0
Social Sciences %40
Education %0
Science %0
Health %0
Field %100

Planned Learning Activities and Teaching Methods
Activities are given in detail in the section of "Assessment Methods and Criteria" and "Workload Calculation"

Assessment Methods and Criteria
In-Term Studies Quantity Percentage
Assignment 3 % 25
Practice 2 % 65
Total
5
% 90

 
ECTS Allocated Based on Student Workload
Activities Quantity Duration Total Work Load
Course Duration 14 3 42
Hours for off-the-c.r.stud 1 14 14
Assignments 3 18 54
Practice 2 20 40
Total Work Load   Number of ECTS Credits 5 150

 
Course Learning Outcomes: Upon the successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
NoLearning Outcomes
1 Acquaint students with major genres and traditions of poetry
2 Cultivate an awareness and understanding of poetics
3 Understand prosody and perform basic prosodic analysis
4 Close-read poetry
5 Research into the cultural, intellectual, aesthetic contexts of poems

 
Weekly Detailed Course Contents
WeekTopicsStudy MaterialsMaterials
1 Introduction Shatha Almutawa, "What to Expect When Travelling With Your Arab Wife" Darius Simpson, "ma'am, i'm sorry to tell you, your son is d-"
2 Poetics I Terry Eagleton, "How To Read a Poem" excerpts from: Plato, The Republic Aristotle, Poetics
3 Epic and Romance excerpts from: Homer, Illiad Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queen
4 Poetics II Sir Phillip Sidney, An Apology for Poetry
5 Metaphysical Poetry and the Sonnet John Donne, "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning" Andrew Marvell, "A Dialogue Between the Soul and the Body" Petrarch, Sonnet 131 William Shakespeare, Sonnet 55, 116
6 Midterm
7 Poetics III excerpt from Percy Shelley's A Defence of Poetry T.S. Eliot, "Tradition and the Individual Talent"
8 Songs and Ballads selection from William Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads William Blake, "The Lamb" and "The Tyger" from Songs of Innocence and Experience
9 Odes and Elegies John Keats, "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and "Ode to a Nightingale" Walt Whitman, "O Captain! My Captain!" W.H. Auden, "Musee des Beaux Arts"
10 The Ghazal "About the Ghazal" Ghalib, "Translations by Aijaz Ahmad and Adrienne Rich" in The Poetry of Ghalib Agha Shahid Ali, "Even the Rain" Patricia Smith, "Hip-Hop Ghazal"
11 American Romantic Edgar Allen Poe, "The Raven" and "Annabel Lee" Emily Dickenson, "I died for Beauty-- but was scarce,"
12 Open Forms Adrienne Rich, "Diving into the Wreck" Jorie Graham, "Reading Plato" Frank O'Hara, "Ave Maria" James Langston Hughes, "I, Too"
13 Poetics IV Marjorie Perloff, "In Defense of Poetry"
14 Socially conscious poetry Kazim Ali, "Origin Story" Rasha Abdulhadi, "Picking Up Rocks" Justice Ameer, "when white supremacy kills me"

 
Contribution of Learning Outcomes to Programme Outcomes
P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8 P9 P10 P11 P12 P13
All 5 5 5 4 4 5 4 4 3 4 4 3
C1 5 5 5 4 4 5 4 4 4 4 4 3
C2 5 5 4 5 4 3 5 3
C3 5 4 4 2 3 3
C4 5 4 5 3 5 4 4 4 4 4 3
C5 5 5 5 4 5 5 5 4 4 4 5 3

  Contribution: 1: Very Slight 2:Slight 3:Moderate 4:Significant 5:Very Significant

  
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