Our course has several aims: primarily, to increase the ways you
can become more engaged and curious readers of poetry; to
increase your confidence as writers thinking about literary
texts; and to provide you with the language for literary
description. The course is not designed as a historical survey
course but rather as an introductory approach to poetry from
various directions – as public or private utterances; as
arranged imaginative shapes; and as imaginative worlds, for
example. This course will suggest poetry offers intellectual,
moral and linguistic pleasures as well as operating in the
public sphere as an instrument of change and persuasion. Expect
to hear and read poems aloud and to memorize lines; the class
format will be group discussion, occasional lecture. Fall in
love with poetry. But remember, as Audre Lord exhorts us to do,
that “poetry is not a luxury” – it is a powerful and critical
tool and it’s time to learn our way around it. This course is
designed to meet the following objectives: Meye