ENGL 208T(F) Poetry (W)
What do poems do? How do poems work and play? How do poems challenge and reward attentive scrutiny? What does close, sustained reading enable us to think, feel, and say about a poem? To encourage subtler, richer responses to poetry, this tutorial considers a single great poem per week, such as John Keats's Ode to a Nightingale, William Butler Yeats's Sailing to Byzantium, and Adrienne Rich's Diving into the Wreck. Students will memorize 12 lines of a half a dozen poems. The purposes of the course are to develop reading and interpretive skills, and to construct critical arguments, considering complicating perspectives, and responding to competing viewpoints in written and oral critiques.
Format: tutorial. Requirements: Students will meet with the instructor in pairs for at least an hour each week; they will write a 5-page paper every other week (five in all), and comment on their partners' papers in alternate weeks.
Prerequisite: a 100-level English course, except 150. Enrollment limit: 10 (expected: 10). Preference is given to sophomores and first-year students with advanced standing in English.
Tutorial meetings to be arranged. R. BELL