Department of English

This course will explore the history of poetic forms and genres from the Restoration of the British monarchy in 1660 to the beginning of World War I. We will see how various poets linked their activities with larger social forces that gained momentum as the decades and centuries passed. We will begin with Milton's late dramatic poem, _Samson Agonistes_, and end with the work of William Butler Yeats. In between these two figures, we will read works by Dryden, Swift, Pope, Burns, Macpherson (of the "Ossian" controversy), the six major Romantic poets, and the Victorians. We will attend to the vital aspects of poetic craft (meter, rhyme, figurative language, wordplay, tone, imagery) as well as to the ways in which these poets represent themselves and the world around them. Requirements: two medium-length essays, a mid-term, and a final.