ENG 4823
The Poem
Jennifer Maier
TuTh 3:00 - 5:00 p.m.
English 4823 is an introductory course in poetics, the body of aesthetic theory and discourse that explores what a poem should mean and do. In this course, we’ll survey the contentious critical landscape from Aristotle to Auden and beyond, debating, along with poets themselves why poetry matters—and how poems function both as literary artifacts and timeless embodiments of the human experience.
In this class we’ll be reading poems and critical essays by a variety of authors. In addition to a midterm and final exam, students will be asked to write an analytical essay, along with two original poems illustrating the aesthetic principles espoused by poets whose styles and theories of composition a student finds most compelling.