Fall 2026
Prereq: none
Units: 3-0-9 HASS-H, CI-H
In this class we will read and discuss a lot of poems. We will also consider why so many people, going all the way back to Plato, have distrusted poets and despised their work. Among other activities, students will translate poetry into prose to see if there is something distinctive about poetic language; explore the many meanings that common words have gained and lost over the centuries, and think about how that matters; read all 154 Shakespeare sonnets to see if they’re really as good as most people seem to think (don’t worry, we’ll read many authors besides Shakespeare!); and find a poem they love (or hate, or otherwise feel inspired to share), assign it to the class, and lead a discussion of it. Opportunities for writing will be many and varied.
Prereq: none
Units: 3-0-9 HASS-H, CI-H
An introduction to poetry in English. We will explore poems written during several periods and in several genres (nature-poems, narratives, the epic, sonnets, odes, experimental forms.) Our focus will be less on names and dates than on tactics of analytic reading. Poets whose work we’ll read include William Shakespeare, John Milton, John Keats, William Blake, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Langston Hughes, Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, Marilyn Chin, Li-Young Lee, Louise Glück and others. Special course-related events (readings, lectures, film screenings) may take place on selected evenings throughout the term; regular classroom hours will be reduced in the weeks for which special events are scheduled. [Pre-1900]