Department of English

This course introduces students to British poetry from Andrew Marvell to William Butler Yeats. In addition to tracing the development of different poetic movements--Neo-classicism, Romanticism, Modernism--we will concentrate on relating the poems we read to the historical contexts in which they were written. Our readings will draw upon the following authors: Andrew Marvell, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Anne Finch, William Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge, Charlotte Smith, Christina Rossetti, Robert Browning, T.S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, and W. B. Yeats. Our study of these authors will be driven by questions concerning the relation of poetic form and genre to content, the role of the poet in society, the social construction of gender and desire, and the impact of industrialization and modernization on literature.

Requirements: careful reading, regular attendance, active participation, short analytical papers, and a final exam.