University of St Andrews

Key information

SCOTCAT credits : 30

ECTS credits : 15

Level : SCQF level 10

Semester: 2

Availability restrictions: Not automatically available to General Degree students

Planned timetable: 3.00 pm - 5.00 pm Tue

Why do we find it hard to remember phone numbers longer that seven digits? What made 'Make America Great Again', for better or worse, one of the most effect political slogans of recent times? What common root is shared by the words 'fierce' and 'treacle'? Why is 'the future is ahead of us' one of the worst metaphors in human history? In what sense can a man be a ham sandwich? Why are most handshakes about three seconds long? Surprisingly, the study of how poems are written can answer all these questions (and many others besides) by shedding light on how language, thought, music and rhythm work in and on our brains. Using examples drawn from Shakespeare to Sharon Olds, from the author of Beowulf to Black Thought, from Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Kate Tempest, we'll find out how much Anglo Saxon poetry and hiphop have in common (answer: a great deal), why iambic pentameter is still so popular, why sonnets are the shape they are, and what makes poetry memorable. This module will explain what makes poetry an inescapable part of our living speech, and examines the relationship between the poem as we experience it on the page, and the cognitive, linguistic and cultural forces that bring it into being. The module will draw on both traditional methods of analysis and recent linguistic and neuroscientific theory to explain how the poems work, how poems are made 'from the inside out', and how form works not only to structure the poem, but to draw it forth from the poet's mind. (Group E)

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisite(s): Before taking this module you must pass EN2003 and pass EN2004

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact: 1 x 2-hour seminar and 2 optional consultative hours.

Assessment pattern

As used by St Andrews: 2-hour Written Examination = 50%, Coursework = 50%


Re-assessment: exam = 100%

Personnel

Module coordinator: Professor D Paterson
Module teaching staff: Prof Don Paterson
Module coordinator email dp31@st-andrews.ac.uk

Intended learning outcomes

• Display insight not just into why and how poems are made, but into the structure of expressive language and how language works on the mind.
• Demonstrate a broad understanding of metaphor, poetic form, prosody, and lyric effect, and how these have evolved from Chaucer to the present day.
• Demonstrate familiarity with both traditional and current theories of poetics and ars poetica.
• Use critical tools to make a technical analysis not just of poetry, but any speech or piece of language that uses poetic effect to expressive and original ends.