Modern Poetry
This course covers the body of modern poetry, its characteristic techniques, concerns, and major practitioners. The authors discussed range from Yeats, Eliot, and Pound, to Stevens, Moore, Bishop, and Frost with additional lectures on the poetry of World War One, Imagism, and the Harlem Renaissance. Diverse methods of literary criticism are employed, such as historical, biographical, and gender criticism.
This Yale College course, taught on campus twice per week for 50 minutes, was recorded for Open Yale Courses in Spring 2007.
Syllabus
This course covers the body of modern poetry, its characteristic techniques, concerns, and major practitioners. The authors discussed range from Yeats, Eliot, and Pound, to Stevens, Moore, Bishop, and Frost with additional lectures on the poetry of World War One, Imagism, and the Harlem Renaissance. Diverse methods of literary criticism are employed, such as historical, biographical, and gender criticism.
Ramazani, Jahan, Richard Ellmann, and Robert O’Clair, eds. The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry. Vol. 1, Modern Poetry. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003.
RIS Course Packet
Bishop, Elizabeth. The Complete Poems, 1927-1979. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1983.
Pound, Ezra. Selected Poems. New York: A New Directions Paperbook, 1957.
Moore, Marianne. Complete Poems. New York: McMillan Publishing Co., Penguin Books, 1982.
Bishop, Elizabeth. The Collected Prose. Edited, with an introduction by Robert Giroux. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1984.
Eliot, T. S. The Waste Land. A Facsimile and Transcript of the Original Drafts Including the Annotations of Ezra Pound. Edited by Valerie Eliot. New York: A Harvest Special, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1971.
Simon, Marc, ed. Complete Poems of Hart Crane. London: Liveright, 2000.
Stevens, Wallace. The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens. New York: Vintage Books, 1982.
Stevens, Wallace. Opus Posthumous. Edited, with an Introduction, by Samuel French Morse. New York: Vintage Books, 1982.
Mendelson, Edward, ed. W. H. Auden. Selected Poems. New Edition. New York: Vintage Books, 1989.
Finneran, Richard J., ed. The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats. A New Edition. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1983.
Lathem, Edward Connery, ed. The Poetry of Robert Frost. The Collected Poems. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1979.
Regular attendance at lecture and in discussion section; some informal writing and exercises; midterm exam in class; two papers (5 and 7 pages); and a two-hour final exam.
Paper 1 (5pp.): 15%
Midterm examination: 15%
Paper 2 (7pp.): 30%
Final examination: 30%
Discussion section attendance and participation: 10%
Sessions
| Lecture 1 | Introduction |
| Lecture 2 | Robert Frost |
| Lecture 3 | Robert Frost (cont.) |
| Lecture 4 | William Butler Yeats |
| Lecture 5 | William Butler Yeats (cont.) |
| Lecture 6 | William Butler Yeats (cont.) |
| Lecture 7 | World War I Poetry in England |
| Lecture 8 | Imagism |
| Lecture 9 | Ezra Pound |
| Lecture 10 | T.S. Eliot |
| Lecture 11 | T.S. Eliot (cont.) |
| Lecture 12 | T.S. Eliot (cont.) |
| Lecture 13 | Hart Crane |
| Lecture 14 | Hart Crane (cont.) |
| Lecture 15 | Langston Hughes |
| Lecture 16 | William Carlos Williams |
| Lecture 17 | Marianne Moore |
| Lecture 18 | Marianne Moore (cont.) |
| Lecture 19 | Wallace Stevens |
| Lecture 20 | Wallace Stevens (cont.) |
| Lecture 21 | Wallace Stevens (cont.) |
| Lecture 22 | W. H. Auden |
| Lecture 23 | W. H. Auden (cont.) |
| Lecture 24 | Elizabeth Bishop |
| Lecture 25 | Elizabeth Bishop (cont.) |
| Exam 1 | Final Exam |