American Poetry

Catalog description

This course surveys a range of significant works of American poetry. It is an introduction to various movements (e.g., transcendentalism or modernism), various schools (e.g., New Formalism), and the turn to a multi-lingual and multi-vocal poetry found in the Harlem Renaissance and Spoken Word movements. The course pays particular attention to form, while grounding understanding of form within a socio-historical context. Readings may range from Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, William Carlos Williams, Elizabeth Bishop, Wallace Stevens, Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Pedro Pietri, Joy Harjo, and others.