How To Read A Poem

Spring 2010 ENGL 0910A S01

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Instructor: Melinda Alliker Rabb

Please check the Detailed Class Information for up to date information about this course.

Information on meeting times for this course can be found on Course Schedule at http://selfservice.brown.edu

Course Description

It is difficult/To get the news from poems/Yet men die miserably every day/For lack/Of what is found there. These lines from William Carlos Williams begin to articulate the purpose of this course. The human species for thousands of years has found ways to intensify and order experience through the language of poetry. The ability to read this kind of language well is an enduring life skill. Designed for non-concentrators and English concentrators, the course addresses both conceptual and practical issues of understanding poetry. Readings draw on a wide range of British and American writers, including Wyatt, Shakespeare, Donne, Blake, Keats, Dickinson, Cummings, Frost, Bishop, and Heaney.