ENGH 356: Recent American Poetry
ENGH 356-001: Recent American Poetry
(Spring 2020)
12:00 PM to 01:15 PM MW
Thompson Hall 1017
Section Information for Spring 2020
How recent is recent? Let's say it's really recent--since the turn of the century. That gives us almost twenty years and they've been excellent years for American poetry.
You might be scared of poetry. Most people are. Don't fret: this course is for you. We will spend a lot of our time talking about how to read and discuss poetry. Though poetry might seem hard, it's not as hard as you might think. Here's a poem by Terrance Hayes:
American Sonnet for my Past and Future Assassin
Inside me is a black-eyed animal
Bracing in a small stall. As if a bird
Could grow without breaking its shell.
As if the clatter of a thousand black
Birds whipping in a storm could be held
In a shell. Inside me is a huge black
Bull balled small enough to fit inside
The bead of a nipple ring. I mean to leave
A record of my raptures. I was raised
By a beautiful man. I loved his grasp of time.
My mother shaped my grasp of space.
Would you rather spend the rest of eternity
With your wild wings bewildering a cage or
With your four good feet stuck in a plot of dirt?
Pretty cool sonnet. There's a lot more where that came from.
Course Information from the University Catalog
Credits: 3
Major American poets from World War II to present, emphasizing Roethke, Brooks, Rich, Dickey, Lowell, Ammons, Kizer, Sexton, Clifton, Plath, and Piercy. Limited to three attempts.
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