ENGH 346: American Poetry of the 20th Century

ENGH 346-003: American Poetry 20th Cnt
(Spring 2016)

10:30 AM to 11:45 AM MW

Section Information for Spring 2016

The point of this class is to get you to think closely about poetry. The real issue with all of these writers lies with the sheer weirdness of poetry itself.

But this weirdness is not just a property of Modernism. In every historical period, in each social configuration, poetry has to figure out a way to defend itself and its privileges. It is such an odd form of communication to begin with and it appears to lie at such a distance from daily, useful information.

So here’s a definition you might want to think about. Modernism—confronted as it is by the growth of mass media (information on one side and entertainment on the other)—is all about its own defense.

The questions you will have to ask of each poet—and of each poem—are ultimately simple and maddeningly complex: why would someone write this poem anyway? Why would anybody write this stuff this way? What kind of reader does this poem desire? What kind of reader does this poem reject? What kind of demands does this poem make on us and what kind of rewards does it entail?

Course Information from the University Catalog