In this course we shall survey French poetry of the first half of the
nineteenth century including such poets as Lamartine, Musset, Hugo,
Nerval, Gautier and Baudelaire. We shall explore the sources of
Romanticism and discuss the poetry in terms of the contemporary
political, social, aesthetic, and philosophical landscape. I shall try
to place this poetry in the larger context of the artistic
environment–including painting–and discuss the trends that lead to the
development in poetry up to World War I.

Students will use an anthology of poets I am preparing for the class.
There will be a term paper and a final examination.