In this course, we will explore the tangled and controversial means by which
poets writing chiefly between the two World Wars tied the political, social, and
intellectual ferment of the era to the fate of poetry. Both dire and admiring accounts of these poets' work point to a central impulse to aestheticize political
and philosophical problems. Considering issues such as occultism, Irish nationalism and unrequited love in the poetry of W. B. Yeats; pedantry, religious conversion, and baby-talk in that of T. S. Eliot; and cosmopolitanism, isolationism
and insurance in that of Wallace Stevens, we will consider the ways in which
these poets' work both plays out and eludes accusations of self-reflexive lyricizing. We will examine the roles of aristocratic bias, abstruse erudition, and proto-
fascism in their work, as well as critics' tendencies to equate these impulses. Although we will focus chiefly on the work of these three poets, we will also refer
to the poetry of William Carlos Williams, Ezra Pound, Robert Frost, Marianne
Moore and Langston Hughes, considering whether the populism and comparative stylistic accessibility of some of these poets is an antidote to, or another
means to formulate, the concerns of so-called "high modernism."
Format: discussion/seminar. Requirements: one short and one long paper.
Prerequisite: a 100-level English course, except 150. Enrollment limit: 25 (expected: 25). Preference given to English majors.
(Post-1900)