Reading Journal (one due every week):  

1.	From this week’s reading, pick out a poem you liked and another one you didn’t like. Explain, using specific examples, what you liked, what you didn’t like, and what you had trouble understanding. 

2.	Explain or analyze the form of one poem you read. How does the form affect the poem’s sound and meaning? Does the form have its own psychology or logic (that is, is it childish-sounding, compulsive, depressed, argumentative, etc.) Discuss how one the poem’s aspects (sonic, sensory, typographical, or ideational) contributes to your sense of it. 

3.	Look up one familiar word and one unfamiliar word in the online Oxford English Dictionary (http://0-dictionary.oed.com.wncln.wncln.org/entrance.dtl. You may have to look this up on campus.)  Give a brief history of each word and explain how it has changed. Note: if you’re having trouble getting OED from home, look up the word using American Heritage Online (http://www.bartleby.com/61/).  Use the Word History and Etymology sections, including the section on cognates (click where it says see root in Appendix I). 

4.	Go to either The Writer’s Almanac (http://almanac.mpr.org/); Poetry Daily (http://www.poems.com); or the Literary Calendar (http://english.yasuda-u.ac.jp/lc/). Find a poem you like (give name and author and explain why) or discuss something interesting that happened on this day in literary history.