21L.004 Major Poets, Spring 2003

A chronological survey of lyric poetry in the English language by major writers, running from Beowulf to the end of the twentieth century. For instance: Shakespeare, Donne, Wroth, Herbert, Milton, Marvell, Pope, Wordsworth, Keats, Whitman, Dickinson, Yeats, Frost, Stevens, Eliot, Auden, others more recent. There will be some attention to longer poems but mostly we will be reading (and hearing) short works. The last two weeks of the semester will be devoted to works selected and presented by members of the class. Frequent reading aloud, two group presentations, four or five papers (two revised) totaling at least twenty pages of final draft.