Poetic Studies Lesson 1: Theme

Lesson One: Theme

Materials needed: With Rough Gods and access to linked documents.
Optional materials: You Can't Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe

Read With Rough Gods. Answer the following questions:
Optional assignment: read You Can't Go Home Again (nb: this is a hefty book) or its Wikipedia entry.

1: Robert Frost said "if a book has twenty-four poems, the book itself should be the twenty-fifth poem." Is there a central theme to With Rough Gods? Does it follow a story arc? Is the book itself the "twenty-fifth poem"?

2: Each section of With Rough Gods: "The Ramparts of the Furious Earth: The Birth of the Gods" (3-10), "How Naked We Are Here: The Seduction of the Gods" (11-20), "The Endless Streets of Life: The Rise of Men" (21-39), "The Dark, Lost Helen: The War of Men" (41-52), and "A Geography of Heart's Desire: The Affairs of Men" is, or should be, thematically consistent. Do the section titles reflect this? In what ways? Are there poems that seem out of place? Why or why not? Provide a table of contents of your own edition of With Rough Gods.

3: Each section of With Rough Gods: "The Ramparts of the Furious Earth: The Birth of the Gods" (3-10), "How Naked We Are Here: The Seduction of the Gods" (11-20), "The Endless Streets of Life: The Rise of Men" (21-39), "The Dark, Lost Helen: The War of Men" (41-52), and "A Geography of Heart's Desire: The Affairs of Men" takes its title from Thomas Wolfe's You Can't Go Home Again, a book about an author's struggle to make a place for himself in the world. How is your experience of With Rough Gods altered by this knowledge? Pick your own "favorite book" or other appropriate work and find new section titles for With Rough Gods. Explain and justify your decisions.

4: Is the Dramatis Personae (Glossary) section important to With Rough Gods as a whole? Why? Is it primarily a creative or academic work? Why? What information would you include or exclude from this section? Why?