Lawyers | Poets | Poetry

Syllabus

"Lawyers, Poets, and Poetry" is being offered in the Fall, 2006, for the first time. The idea for the course evolved from my research on America's lawyer/poets and my efforts to publish--in the Legal Studies Forum (a journal I edit)--the poetry of contemporary lawyers. When I began this work, in the summer of 2000, I had been following rather closely the "law and literature" movement and had been teaching "lawyers and literature " for a decade. Then, I happened to chance upon the lawyer poets, and I found myself involved in "law and literature" in a new, and unforeseen way. It is this rather intriguing world, mostly an unknown world, of the lawyer as poet, and the poet as lawyer, I see as the basis and the reason for the course.

The "texts" for the course consist of a website--Strangers To Us All: Lawyers and Poetry, and three compilations of lawyers' poetry which appeared in the Legal Studies Forum (edited by Professor Elkins).

I titled the course "Lawyers, Poets, and Poetry" because I want to focus not only on the poets but on their poetry. In "law and literature," we study the "texts," while we ignore the author. (We turn to the "texts" to engage in close reading, to see what kind of lives fictional lawyers might live, to see what we can learn about law from those who have not been initiated into and seduced by the profession). In "Lawyers, Poets, and Poetry," part of your course work will consist of the exploration of a poet's life, including at least one historical figure and one contemporary figure.

An historical lawyer poet: At the beginning of the course, you will be asked to peruse the life and work of four major American lawyer poets: Edgar Lee Masters, Charles Reznikoff, Archibald MacLeish, Wallace Stevens, and then, teaming up with a colleague in the class, you will write a paper on the lawyer poet you select. (You may, of course, pursue this aspect of the course working on your own.)

A contemporary lawyer poet: During the course of the semester, you will be asked to establish contact with and interview (by email) a contemporary lawyer poet, one whose work has appeared in the Legal Studies Forum collections. (If you have elected to work with a partner, you may continue this work with your partner.)

Simply reading the poetry of lawyers is a significant part of this course. We will also be talking about this poetry and figuring out where it fits in our lives.

You do not need to be a student of poetry, or have studied poetry, to take (and I would hope, enjoy) "Lawyers, Poets, and Poetry." I am not a poet and do not pretend to be one. I have not studied poetry and thus cannot be of any help in understanding the formal, technical aspects of a poem. Before I took up this work on the lawyer poets, I had no more interest in poetry than the typical Morgantown lawyer. I read one well-known poet, Robert Bly, who I met in the mid-70s in Chicago, and studied mythology with Bly on a travel-study program in Greece and Sicily. Oddly enough, my interest in Bly was never enough to spark a deeper interest in poetry. Actually, I did read one other poet, Wendell Berry. Wendell Berry and I are both from Kentucky. Berry, after forays beyond, returned to Kentucky, while I ended up in West Virginia. It means something to Wendell Berry that he happens to be from Kentucky, and that he is a farmer. I've learned, in small and mysterious ways, that it means something to me as well. Berry happened to be a rather good poet. He is also a wonderful essayist and novelist. Wendell Berry helped me see, through his poetry, novels, and essays, why I'd never been able to let go of the "place" I carried with me. I read Wendell Berry's poetry because Wendell Berry wrote it; I read, and still read, everything Wendell Berry writes. It would have been strange to have excluded his poetry, so I read it. But I still wasn't propelled beyond Berry to that still larger world of poetry and poets.

I don't know whether or not any of this poetry by lawyers will produce the excitement for you that it has for me. Poetry is, in more than several ways, akin to music. There is, one hopes, music to be found in poetry. And, I suspect, we find, and become attentive to, and regard poetry in the same personal way that we do music. I turn on the radio in my car and find no music to which I'm willing to listen to. Yet, I love music; I simply have to find the kind of music that sounds like music to me. When I read poems in The New Yorker (and in most of the literary and poetry magazines I read), I find that I simply don't like the poetry. Finding that I don't like it, it's awfully easy to read something that I find more pleasurable, something more instructive. What I've done with the collections of poetry in the three Legal Studies Forum issues is publish poetry I can read. The question now is whether I've identified poetry you can read!

We'll use a significant part of the course to provide the time (and leisure) for you to peruse the poetry in the Legal Studies Forum issues. I hope in this exploration that you will find poetry that means something to you, poetry you can read, poetry you can enjoy. What it means, how you read it, and the enjoyment it makes possible will be the subject of the individual paper that you write for this course and the on-going subject of our class discussions.

You may take consolation (or suffer the onrush of anxiety) from knowing that I am not a poetry guru. I don't recall ever hearing a teacher talk about a poem. All I bring to the course is this: I've become a reader of poetry. I read it every day. I now find, to my surprise, that some of the poetry which comes my way (again, I'm talking about the poetry written by lawyers) is intriguing or compelling in some way. It pulls me down into myself or out of myself, it soothes me or ruffles my feathers, it both confirms and reawakens my interest in language. With the discovery of the lawyer poets, I've found poetry, that I can read.

Addendum to Course Syllabus
[September 20, 2006]
[Concerning Course Requirements Previously Communicated in Class]

Papers on Major Lawyer/Poets: Stevens, MacLeish, Reznikoff, Masters

1 :: I have asked you to write a paper, in conjunction with a colleague, on either Wallace Stevens, Archibald MacLeish, Charles Reznikoff, or Edgar Lee Masters. (There is also a paper being written about John William Corrington.)

2 :: The paper/essay does not need to be term-paper length, 10-14 pages should be adequate, although you may find that it needs to be longer. There are ono page limits on the paper. The paper and in-class presentation will constitute 1/2 your grade for the course.

3 :: The Major Poets Paper--A Guideline:

Who is [Wallace Stevens][Archibald MacLeish][Edgar Lee Masters][Charles Reznikoff] and where does he stand as a poet (among poets and literary critics)?

Where was he born and raised?

Where did the lawyer/poet attend undergraduate school? law school? Did the poet r write about his experience as a law student?

When did he begin writing poetry? What, if anything, has he written about poetry, about being a poet? Has he written poems about poetry, about being a poet? Does he think the poet is a kind of "god"? Or, something else? You might want to prepare an appendix to the paper in which you include the poet's poems about poetry and about poets; with, of course, proper cites.

As lawyers, we're going to be interested in the poet's life as a lawyer and his relationship with the law. What does the poet say about being a lawyer (and about law)?

What does the poet say, if anything, about being a lawyer and a poet?

Did the poet write law/lawyer-related verse? (Again, you might want to include a second appendix to present the poet's law/lawyer related verse?)

Your reactions to the poet's work. (Here, the paper, although written jointly, might work best if you present your reactions under your own name, even though they will be part of the joint effort.)

All of the poets will have published work other than their poetry and this work may provide insight into the poet and the poetry.

Again, you might include an appendix in which you collect (even if you do not comment on) the poet's poems that you find most interesting. Of course, it would be best if you could provide some brief commentary on your selection.

Note: I have provided a "guideline" and some rather obvious questions that might help to provide a focus for your work. The "guideline" is not mandatory. If you find, as you explore the life of the poet and his work, that you want to develop a different approach, please do so. You are, of course, welcome to confer with me about radical departures from the "guidelines."

Books on Loan to You: The books you have been provided on the lawyer/poet you have choose to write about belong to the Legal Studies Forum and are on loan to you. Please treat the books, with care, as you would a library book. At the end of the course, please return to the books to Professor Elkins. (If you decide you want to keep any of the books for your own library, we will work something out.)

Contact/Conversation/Interview with a Contemporary Lawyer/Poet:

1 :: I have a list of lawyer/poets and contact information for those with whom I've worked most closely. (You are welcome to contact any of the lawyer poets you find on the Strangers To Us All: Lawyers and Poetry website.)

2 :: You are welcome to contact the poet directly, or, if you prefer, I can contact the poet to see if they have any interest in what you are doing and would be willing to talk with you.

3 :: You can contact the poet by mail, phone, or email. (I have better results using email than the phone; it's hard to find anyone these days who takes much pleasure in old-fashioned letters. They may be wonderful, but they're a dying art.)

4 :: And what are you to do when you contact the poet? First, you'll want to do some background preparation. Read the poet's bio in LSF. Read the poet's LSF poetry. Read the poet's other published work (in some instances, the poet may well have published far more than you will want to undertake reading before your initial contact). You could in the case of a well-published poet, ask for guidance as to what course you might follow in reading her work.

4 :: You might find that the "guideline" for the major/poets paper will provide points of interest and focus for your contact with the contemporary poet.

5 :: I should have the poet's published work--which may not be available in the University library--and would be delighted to make it available to you (either by xeroxing it or by loaning the book(s).

6 :: When you write about the poet, you contact, it can take the form of a narrative of the contact and your reading of the poet's work, or an interview. For the September 19th class meeting, I have assigned interviews (one of them called a "conversation") with three lawyer poets: TS Kerrigan, Ruthann Robson, and Simon Perchik. [I have conducted and published two additional interviews of writers (who are not poets): Lowell B. Komie and Albert Borowitz.] Whether these interviews with poets and writers work, and if they do, how, I must leave to you. You are invited to follow your own inclinations.

 

Home