ADEKUNLE AJASIN UNIVERSITY, AKUNGBA-AKOKO, ONDO STATE
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH STUDIES, FACULTY OF ARTS
COURSE OUTLINE.
Semester/Session: 2nd, 2024/2025 Session
Course Code and Title: LIT 104: Introduction to Poetry (2 units)
Lecturers in Charge: Dr O.M. Balogun, Mr. Oseni Adamu, Mr. T.I. Ojo
Learning Outcomes:
Upon the successful completion of this course, it is expected that the students will be able to:
1. List the basic techniques and principles for comprehending the poetic genre,
2. Identify the basic poetic forms and traditions of all poetic traditions,
3. Appreciate the elements and figures of speech,
4. Relate to poetic devices and themes.
Course Contents:
1. Poetry as a literary genre
2. Poetic forms and traditions (narrative, dramatic, lyrical and ode)
3. The epic traditions, romantic and panegyric poetry, odes, dirges and epics
4. The evaluation of poetry
Required Poems:
1. John Keats: “Ode to a Nightingale” (1819)
2. Shakespearean Sonnet (154 Sonnets by number- Sonnet 18- Shall I compare thee to a
summer’s day? )
3. William Wordsworth: “The World is too Much with Us” (1807)
4. John Milton “When I Consider How my Light is Spent”/ “On His Blindness” (1665)
5. Theodore Roethke: “Elegy for Jane” (1950)
6. Anonymous: “Lord Randall” (1803)
7. Robert Burns: “A Red, Red Rose” (1794)
8. Alfred Tennyson: “Cradle Song” (1850)
9. John Donne: “The Sun is Rising” (1633)
10. Dylan Thomas: “Do not go gentle into that good night" (1951)
11. Paul Lawrence Dunbar: “We Wear the Mask” (1895)
12. Niyi Osundare: “Poetry Is” (1983), “Raindrum” (1986)
13. J.P. Clark: “Night Rain” (1962)
14. Wole Soyinka: “Night” (1976)
15. Nimmoh Bassey: We Thought It Was Oil. But It Was Blood. (2002)
Assessment
Evaluation will be by:
1. Continuous Assessment: Test/Assignment/Attendance = 30%
2. Examination: 70%
3. Class Attendance is compulsory.
Reading Materials
Akporobaro, Frederick B. O. (2015). Introduction to poetry: Its forms, function,
language and theories (2nd ed.). Lagos: Princeton and Associates.
Reeves, James, ed. (1972). The Poet’s World: An Anthology of English Poetry.
London: Heinemann
Holman, Hugh, ed. (1972). A Handbook of Literature. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.
Weekly Schedule of Activities
Conceptual clarification of Poetry, Elements of Poetry (imagery, rhythm, sound,
diction etc)
Forms of Poetry (I Impersonal- Epic, Ballad)
Forms of Poetry (II Personal- Ode, Sonnet, Lyrics, Elegy, Limerick)
Forms of Poetry (III Rondeau, Haiku, Acrostic, Villanelle)
Forms of Poetry (IV); Types of Verse: blank; heroic; free
Tropes: irony; paradox; metaphor, simile; personification; metonymy; synecdoche;
etc.
Rhetorical Figures: antithesis; apostrophe; contrast; onomatopoeia; hyperbole;
oxymoron; etc.
Movement and Sound in Poetry: syllable; foot; metre and types; duration/quantity.
Analysis of Poetry: Through matter or sense; Through manner or method
Analysis of Poetry: Through evaluation of manner/method vis-à-vis meaning
Practice through selected poems for illustration
Useful literary/Poetic terms
