abstract movement in red and blue

Poetry is alive. Poets have written for more than a thousand years and continue to study, write and perform poetry today. Poetry is not meant to wither and die in dusty pages on forgotten shelves. It is meant to be heard, read and voiced—aloud and alive. This course will introduce you to a great variety of poems written and composed in English from the very beginning of the English language until recently, and provide you with tools to help understand them. We will discuss terminology, themes, forms and formal innovation, as well as the many ways that poetry lives in the world now--from sonnets and sestinas to concrete poetry and epic poetry, from slam to Instagram. Representative poets: Walt Whitman, William Shakespeare, Phillis Wheatley, Sharon Olds, Lucille Clifton, Jamaal May, Joy Harjo, Natalie Diaz, Gabriel Hirsch, Patricia Smith, Myung Mi Kim, Fatimah Ashgar, Kiki Petrosino, Diana Khoi Nguyen, Rupi Kaur, Mark McMorris, TS Eliot, Gertrude Stein, many others.

Taught ONLINE by Khadijah Queen during B-term (July 7 - August 7, 2020).