Description
This course will introduce students to a wide range of poetic forms and genres. The goal is not only engender an appreciation for poetry, but to develop critical methods of reading, thinking, and writing about poems. Writing assignments and class discussion will help students develop and demonstrate these skills on their own. Although individual poems will be connected to their historical and cultural contexts, the emphasis will be on the variety, defining characteristics, and function of various poetic genres. The course will not be chronological, though it will feature a wide sampling of major-and some minor-poets from the medieval to the contemporary.