Course Schedule and Catalog

Department: English

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: AMERICAN POETRY 1900 - 1960 ***** This course will focus on the range of American poetry written during the first two-thirds of the period (roughly, through 1940). Emphasis will fall on major modernists such as Eliot and Stevens, and writers covered will include Frost, Williams, Pound, Moore, Riding (Jackson), Crane, Stein, Hughes, Cullen, and perhaps others. We will read the poems alongside a dossier of supplementary, contextualizing materials: letters, essays, and manifestos by the poets themselves, as well as contemporary theoretical and critical writings that help to clarify the philosophical, cultural, and political interests of the poems' formal innovations. Requirements will consist of two take-home exams (a mid-term and final), and probably a 10-12 page paper of research-based interpretation. Diligent attendance and preparation will be expected.