9:30a-10:45a TR (30) 3 cr

This course will offer a broad overview of British poetry from 1900 to 2000, with "British" defined fairly broadly to include Anglo-Irish, expatriate American, and postcolonial authors writing in English. Our central focus will be on the ways in which various poets have written themselves into, rebelled against, or otherwise been haunted by the British literary tradition. We will also discuss some of the thematic and formal concerns that have most persistently preoccupied these and other twentieth-century writers. Does poetry represent an unrestrained outpouring of emotion (a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings," in Wordsworth's phrase) or a carefully controlled marshaling of ideas? Can poetic language effectively articulate the atrocities of war, the alienation engendered by an increasingly mechanized society, the frustrations of a disempowered post-colonial nation? Should poetry offer an escape from historical contingency or serve as an expression of it?

In exploring the responses of a wide range of poets to these and other questions, we will generally avoid anthologies, reading wherever possible from poets' own collected works. Course requirements will include written explications of individual poems, a group presentation, a formal research paper, a creative project, and a final exam. Active participation in class discussions will be both expected and required.