The competition:
Mon, Jan. 28: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, Love, Love, Travel, Parting
Wed, Jan. 30 : Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, Love, Love, Travel, Grief
The competition will be held in two rounds, in the last part of class on each day. For each topic, two poems will be read, the poets’ identities kept secret, and the judges will render their judgment, after which the class – and the poets themselves – are free to comment or protest the decision. After class, the poems (with poets identified) and judgments will be posted to the discussion board for further response.
Composition:
Each student (except for the judges) will be randomly assigned a topic and a place in the competition. They should compose a poem on that topic to be e-mailed to the professor (robinsonj@wlu.edu) by midnight, Friday, January 25th. Although poems need not maintain a strict syllable count, they should resemble the tanka form (i.e. – five lines, in a short-long-short-long-long structure) and they should reflect the Japanese poetic tradition we have examined in class. Reread some of the poetry in Traditional Japanese Poetry, especially that on your assigned topic, to get a feel for the traditional diction and imagery.
Judging:
After all the poems have been submitted, the judges will be sent the poems in pairs with the names of the poets removed. They will then compare each set of two poems on the same topic and render judgment based on their assigned persona. They are not to determine the “quality” or “value” of the poem so much as its adherence to the following criteria:
The conservative judge will be primarily concerned with consistency of the diction and treatment of the poem with the tradition of the past. Freshness of spirit is valued, but only within the narrow range of traditional poetry. Precedent is important.
The liberal judge will value creativity over tradition and be more tolerant of deviations from earlier poetry. Appropriateness of topic and adherence to proper form will still be emphasized, and the poetic tradition valued, but working strictly within that tradition will not be the sole basis for evaluation.
The deadline for judgments is midnight of the day before each competition, and judges should send their evaluations to the professor in Word format as an e-mail attachment. After the competition is complete, the judgments will be posted to the discussion board and will be open to response.