Department of English

This course will examine the modernist revolution in American verse, which reshaped how poems looked, sounded, and felt. Reading broadly and deeply, we will consider the wide spectrum of poetic expression that blossomed in the tumultuous era between the two great wars. We will move through an extraordinary array of poetic voices via pairings aimed to bring out shared concerns and suggestive (and even surprising) resonances. Beginning with modernism’s irascible ambassador Ezra Pound and the tormented mysteries of H.D., our pairings will include Gertrude Stein and E.E. Cummings, T.S. Eliot and Claude McKay. Course requirements: response papers and close readings.