Description
The poet Dean Young is fond of saying that the wonderful thing about a poem is that, however arduous and intimidating it may appear, one can often see its end. This is a fantastic selling point, and one that should not only be applied to lyric poetry but to Brussels sprouts as well. Yet in an age when immediacy reigns, the long poem remains as one of the strongest indications there are still tribal aspirations to engage with history as both a private and public act. In its resistance to consumption, the long poem resembles an intensely limitless activity, much like a lifetime, much like a living organism in the slow search of its limits. In this reading-intensive course, students will analyze, synthesize, and interpret some of the most important long poems of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, while also writing their own longer poetic works.