Poetry as Time Travel

Catalog description

A poem can not only transport us through time but transform our perspective about and relationship to our current time as well. In this course, we will read a diverse range of writers and examine the formal mechanics of the 'the time travel poem.' Sharon Olds, PatriciaSmith, Frank O'Hara, Aracelis Girmay, and Franny Choi, are some of the authors students will read. We will discuss how such poems take the speaker and reader to different moments in histories both private and public, and we will discover how they conscript the reader as an active participant in the 'lyric vehicle.' Students should expect to write both analytical and creative responses.