Department of English

This is a course on major twentieth-century books of poems and their antecedents. We will emphasize the relations contemporary poets have with the work of poets of the past, asking a range of questions about literary influences and the "simultaneity" of the history of poetry for these writers. Readings will include: Robert Creeley's For Love and the work of Thomas Campion and Robert Herrick; Elizabeth Bishop's North and South and the work of George Herbert; Gwendolyn Brooks's "Anniad" and the work of Edmund Spenser and Alexander Pope; John Ashbery's April Galleons and the work of John Keats and Percy Shelley; Derek Walcott's Omeros and the work of Tennyson. Students are responsible for five response papers of three pages each and a final paper of 15 pages on a poet not included in the class readings. Students will also be required to pass a brief test on metrics in the second week of the course.