Write a statement of your personal aesthetics and preference for subject matter as applied to the poetry read for this course.

Review your statement about your favorite poem. By the end of the term you will have read (should have read) about 240 poems that have come to you in daily emails, about 15 minutes a day reading. Review your lists of favorite and of least-liked poems.Make a list of the 20 poems from this group that you liked best. Name the title, author, page number (if from your anthology) and website if from the web. Write one (or two) sentences about each poem, indicating its subject, tone, and techniques that you find noteworthy. By the end of the term you will have read (should have read) about 300 poems in the textbook, added for reading on the syllabus and many while choosing the poet for your cento and finding poems for your cento. Make a list of the 20 poems from this group that you liked best. Name the title, author, page number (if from your anthology) and website if from the web. Write one (or two) sentences about each poem, indicating its subject, tone, techniques that you find noteworthy. You may include 2 (TWO AT THE MOST) poems by the poet you’ve chosen for your cento and final essay, but you may find that none of his/her poems makes your top 20 list.Read these 40 poems in one sitting if possible. Also read again the poem you named as your favorite poem at the beginning of this course. [To make this easier for yourself, you may want to make a copy of each poem and compile them in one document where you can read them all. (Hooray for copy and paste features—and many of the poems in your book are also on line. Making the single document, your personal–choice anthology, is not a requirement; it is a suggestion to make your work easier. The mini-anthology will give you a souvenir of your work here.]Having read all 40 poems, write a statement (about 250 – 500 words) that describes what they have in common with one another. Give a couple of examples. What can you say about what you like, what you value in poetry. You may include both form and content (technical mastery and thematic elements. Remember what the author John Barth said, ‘In art as in lovemaking, heartfelt ineptitude has its appeal and so does heartless skill, but what you want is passionate virtuosity.