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Introduces students to how to read a poem by examining the great variety of poems written and composed in English from the very beginning of the English language until recently.

Additional Information: Arts Sci Core Curr: Literature and the Arts
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
Departmental Category: General Literature and Language

Section 001:

How do poets write about America and the American experience?  We will answer this question by reading the work of Walt Whitman, America's most influential and beloved poet, and the work of some of the poets he inspired.  When Whitman wrote that he "contained multitudes," he offered an open and experimental attitude that we will trace in the beat poetry of Allen Ginsberg, the nature poetry of Mary Oliver, and the memoir/ autobiographical poetry of Lucille Clifton.   With each of these poets we will explore what poetry captures of the American experience that another kind of writing cannot. 

Taught by Dr. Katie Little.

Section 003:

This class focuses on poetry about artwork. The technical word for this kind of language is “ekphrasis.” We’ll read ekphrastic poetry from the Greeks to the 21^st century, with an emphasis on the Romantic period, when the word “illustration” first came to mean “pictures that represent a text.” Expect to look at paintings and sculpture and to spend time close reading and close looking.

Taught by Dr. Thora Brylowe.