The core of this course will be poetry in the English language traditions, from Beowulf to present-day. That said, we will
supplement generously with poetry drawn from various cultures and historical periods, and try to pick up the strands from here and there. Classwork will be mostly dedicated to approaches to close reading. Students will be introduced to terms related to poetic form, and selected critical readings will also be included. The material will be a course reader, assembled by the instructor. We’ll cover numerous authors, too numerous to name, but among them will be: William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Baudelaire, W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Marina Tsvetaeva, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Charles Olson, Susan Howe and Bernadette Mayer.

The course satisfies the university's W requirement. Students will write one final, 10-12 page paper, which they will have an
opportunity to revise in consultation with the instructor.