Department of English

This course, designed for English majors and for those with an interest in
modern American poetry, will begin with a quick but intensive survey of
poetics -- rhythm and meter, stanza and verse conventions, open and closed
forms, etc.  We will read Whitman and Dickinson in depth, then move to the
work of the major modernists (Eliot, Pound, Crane, Moore, Williams, H. D.
and Stevens).  In the final third of the course, we will read
contemporary poets both male and female, representing a wide range of
backgrounds and influences.  These will include Bishop, Lowell, Roethke,
Berryman, Brooks, Ginsberg, Rich and others.  Requirements include active
participation, short writing assignments for each class, one paper and a
take-home final.