English 446 - Lyrics and More

What are the antecedents of the central line of poetry in English as one finds it early in the twenty-first century?  Given the great variety of English-language poetry today, the term “central line” may be disputable; what is not disputable is the tradition of secular and religious lyrics and odes that derives from the major poets of the early seventeenth-century: John Donne, Ben Jonson, George Herbert, and Andrew Marvell. The lyric and the ode are recast two centuries on by, among others, William Wordsworth, whose development of the monologue inaugurates another genre much practiced in the following two hundred years.  Lyric, ode, and monologue become the principal modes in the work of John Keats, Alfred Tennyson, Thomas Hardy, Robert Frost, and Philip Larkin.  In this seminar students and instructors will read closely, and discuss, these ten poets.  A short paper or two, and a longer one in conclusion. 

Open to juniors and seniors.  Students not majoring in English are welcome.  Limited to 15 students.  Fall semester.  Professor Emeritus Pritchard and Professor Sofield.