Department of English

This course will examine two lyric forms imported into English: the sonnet, an Italian form introduced into early modern England, and the haiku, a Japanese form first published in English in early twentieth-century America. Our readings will trace the careers of these two wildly popular and persistent forms, from their first renderings into English all the way to the present. We will consider the conventions built into these forms and the extraordinary range of voices they accommodate.

This course entails close, metrical attention and focused response papers.