Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
—Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself: #51” (1855, 1867)
[PRINTABLE SYLLABUS]
Required Books
- Diana Hacker and Nancy Sommers, A Pocket Manual of Style, 10th Ed. (New York: Bedford / St. Martin’s, 2025)
- Edward Hirsch, The Heart of American Poetry (New York: Library of America, 2022)
Featured Texts
- Abigail and John Adams, Letters (1776)
- Maya Angelou, “Still I Rise” (1978)
- Anne Bradstreet, “The Author to Her Book” (1666)
- Gwendolyn Brooks, “We Real Cool” (1960)
- Emily Dickinson, “Because I could not stop for Death” (1862)
- John Dickinson, “The Liberty Song” (1768)
- Bob Dylan, “The Times, They Are A-Changin’” (1964)
- Robert Frost, “The Gift Outright” (1942)
- Amanda Gorman, “The Hill We Climb” (2021)
- Woody Guthrie, “This Land Is Your Land” (1940)
- Joy Harjo, “Rabbit Is Up to Tricks” (2008)
- Robert Hayden, “Middle Passage” (1945, 1962)
- Langston Hughes, “I, Too” (1926) and “Harlem” (1951)
- Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence (1776)
- Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus” (1883)
- Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural (1861) and Gettysburg Address (1863)
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Paul Revere’s Ride” (1861)
- Herman Melville, “Shiloh: A Requiem” (1866)
- Marianne Moore, “The Student” (1932)
- Esther Popel, “Flag Salute” (1934) and Personal Adventures in Race Relations (1946)
- Tracy K. Smith, “Declaration” (2018)
- Sojourner Truth, “I am a Woman’s Rights” (1851)
- Frances Ellen Watkins, “Bury Me in a Free Land” (1858)
- Phillis Wheatley, “On Being Brought from Africa to America” (1773)
- E.B. White, On Freedom and Democracy (1940, 1943)
- Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself: #51, #52” (1855, 1867), “I Hear America Singing” (1860), “O Captain! My Captain!” (1865)
Additional Readings and Resources
- Kate Larson, “Women on the Underground Railroad,” NPS UGRR Handbook [WEB]
- Jill Lepore, “Paul Revere’s Ride,” American Educator (2011) [WEB]
- “Lincoln’s Gettysburg Addresses,” House Divided Project / Google Arts (2013) [WEB]
- Joseph Locke and Ben Wright, eds., American Yawp, Stanford University Press, [WEB]
- Nell Irvin Painter, “Sojourner Truth in Life and Memory,” Gender & History (1990) [PDF]
- Siobhan Phillips, “The Students of Marianne Moore,” Poetry Foundation (2017) [WEB]
- Matthew Pinsker, Dickinson & Slavery: Report,” (2019) [PDF]
- Poets.org, American Academy of Poets [WEB]
Close Reading Essays
Students will submit two close reading essays (3-4 pages each or about 750 to 1,000 words) with short companion videos (about 1 minute in length), posted PRIVATE at the course website. These critical essays will focus on a poem or short piece of writing from one of the featured authors and must include at least one relevant quotation from Edward Hirsch’s book on American poetry. Students must interpret a different author each time. Essays must analyze text, context, and subtext, relying on at least three sources and incorporating Chicago-style footnotes. The essay posts must also include 2 to 3 images, properly captioned and credited with embedded companion videos that use a clear voice-over reading from the document paired with a music track, relevant images, and a credit slide. Students MUST submit at least one full or partial DRAFT of their essays to Prof. Pinsker before EACH due date, and they MUST visit the Writing Center before at least ONE of the close reading assignments. Essays will be graded on research effort, depth of analysis and quality of prose. The first close reading is due by 5pm on Monday, September 29. The second is due by 5pm on Monday, October 27. Late essays will be penalized up to 5 points per day.
Research Journal posts
Students will submit two research journal entries (2-4 pages each or about 500 to 1,000 words per entry), posted PRIVATE at the course website by Monday, November 17 at 5pm. These narrative posts will detail research efforts for the final essays, with one entry focusing on the search for relevant primary sources and the other focusing on the search for relevant secondary sources. Journal entries do not require footnotes, but they should include Chicago-style bibliographies of at least six (6) sources for each entry. Submitting drafts is optional in this case. Entries will be graded on research effort, depth of analysis and quality of prose. Late entries will be penalized up to 5 points each day.
Final Critical Essay
By Monday, December 8 at 5pm, students will submit by email attachment an 8 to 10-page critical essay that analyzes at least THREE poems or writings from authors on the syllabus or featured in Edward Hirsch, The Heart of American Poetry (2022). Good essays will develop a strong thesis statement that analyzes the respective strategies of the authors in connection with how they attempted to reach either similar audiences or to develop similar themes. Essays should be typed and double-spaced as Word or PDF documents with title page and Chicago-style footnotes (no bibliography required). Essays must include at least THREE quotations from the Hirsch book and use a variety of other sources developed from the research journal posts. Students MUST submit at least one DRAFT (full or partial) to Prof. Pinsker BEFORE the deadline. Essays will be graded on research effort, depth of analysis, and quality of prose. Late essays will be penalized up to 5 points per day.
Grade Distribution
Class Participation 25 percent
First Close Reading Essay 20 percent
Second Close Reading Essay 20 percent
Research journal posts 10 percent
Final Critical Essay 25 percent
Schedule
| Day | Date | Discussion Topic | Reading Assignment |
| Thursday | 8/28 | Methods & Expectations | |
| Monday | 9/1 | Puritanism | Bradstreet + Hirsch, pp. xiii-xxvii, 3-13 |
| Wednesday | 9/3 | American Exceptionalism | Frost + Hirsch, pp. 97-105 + Academic Integrity module (MOODLE) |
| Monday | 9/8 | Awakenings | Wheatley + Hirsch, pp. 15-25 |
| Wednesday | 9/10 | Original Sins | Hayden + Hirsch, pp. 235-48 |
| Monday | 9/15 | United We Stand | John Dickinson + Adams letters |
| Wednesday | 9/17 | Revolutionary ideals | Jefferson + Smith |
| Monday | 9/22 | Library session | Library, lower level, Classroom 1 |
| Wednesday | 9/24 | NO CLASS | ROSH HASHANAH |
| Monday | 9/29 | First Close Reading | Due by 5pm |
| Monday | 9/29 | Woman’s Rights | Truth + Painter |
| Wednesday | 10/1 | Dickinson & Slavery tour | Pinsker, 2019 report |
| Monday | 10/6 | Fugitive Slaves | Watkins + Larson |
| Wednesday | 10/8 | Abolitionists | Longfellow + Lepore |
| Monday | 10/13 | Secession | Lincoln (1861) |
| Wednesday | 10/15 | Civil War | Melville + Emily Dickinson + Hirsch, pp. 52-69 |
| Monday | 10/20 | NO CLASS | FALL PAUSE |
| Wednesday | 10/22 | New Birth of Freedom | Lincoln (1863) + House Divided |
| Monday | 10/27 | Second Close Reading | Due by 5pm |
| Monday | 10/27 | Leaves of Grass | Whitman (1855, 1865) + Hirsch, pp. 35-51 |
| Wednesday | 10/29 | Industrialization | Whitman (1860) |
| Monday | 11/3 | Immigration | Lazarus + Hirsch, pp. 70-79 |
| Wednesday | 11/5 | Assimilation | Harjo + Hirsch, pp. 437-46 |
| Friday | 11/7 | REQUIRED: Arts Award | 5pm (exhibit) 7pm (award), Weiss Center |
| Monday | 11/10 | Dickinson’s Poet Laureate | Popel –Flag Salute |
| Wednesday | 11/12 | Archives visit (LIBRARY) | Popel –Personal Adventures |
| Monday | 11/17 | Research journal entries | By 5pm |
| Monday | 11/17 | Carlisle and Modernism | Moore + Hirsch, pp. 142-153 + Phillips |
| Wednesday | 11/19 | American Ballads | Guthrie + Dylan |
| Monday | 11/24 | Modern Democracy | White |
| Wednesday | 11/26 | NO CLASS | THANKSGIVING |
| Monday | 12/1 | Dreams Deferred | Hughes (1926, 1951) + Brooks, Hirsch, pp. 178-89, 269-283 |
| Wednesday | 12/3 | Hills to Climb | Angelou + Gorman |
| Monday | 12/8 | Closing lines | |
| Monday | 12/8 | Final essays | By 5pm |