ENG 4950: Twentieth-Century Poetry (2024-2025)

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Winter 2025

The most acute rendering of an era's sensibility is reflected in its poetry, so it's no wonder that opinions about what a poem should say and how it should say it change with the times. In the twentieth century—largely in reaction to its horrors—a new generation of poets questioned traditional beliefs and values, along with established modes of literary expression, obeying Pound’s dictum to “make it new”--that is, to craft original, relevant verse that dared to confront “real life” without flinching. In this course we'll explore how the modern imagination was both shaped and revealed in the poetry of Britain and America from the late-nineteenth to the late-twentieth centuries, an age in which poets in the English-speaking world dared to claim new ground for poetry in a remarkable range of styles and voices. May be repeated for credit up to 5 credits.