This colloquium will survey a range of topics that are currently prominent within the field of poetics. We will be discussing the suddenly increased attention to the visual and aural components of verse; the relation between technological and poetic innovation; the political significance of poetic form; the value of gender and sexuality as rubrics for the study of poetry; the turn toward historicism; the problem of the anthology in an age of canon expansion; the contemporary fascination with the production, circulation, and reception of material texts; and the unexpected revival of the charismatic authority of the poet-critic. Readings will concentrate on twentieth-century British and American poetry, but we will also be considering earlier poetries as well as poetries written in languages other than English.