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 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. I happened to chance upon the lawyer poets, and I found myself involved in law and literature in a new way. It is this rather intriguing 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. 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, or working alone, you will write a paper on the lawyer poet you select.

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.

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. My interest in Bly was never enough to spark a deeper interest in poetry. I did read one other poet, Wendell Berry. Wendell Berry and I are both from Kentucky. 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. 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, 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 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 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.

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

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.

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 lawye /poet attend undergraduate school? law school? Did the poet 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? 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 the poet's poems that you find most interesting.

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.

 

Home