English 106

Poetry

In this course, we will be reading, exploring, and discussing poetry—some old, some very new; some originally in English, some translated. Poetry is the most intense of the literary forms: every single word, punctuation mark, and space has significance. It’s also the most fun genre, overall, especially when you can select the poems. Because poetry has the greatest variety of the literary kinds, I have designed the course so each of you has a good deal of choice in what individual poems you read: that is, the readings assigned for class are NOT the only major component of the course. Naturally, that means each of you becomes responsible for your own work to a great degree. The main objective is to help each of you to become an independent reader of poetry, with, we hope (!) enjoyment.