Key Information
About the content
Poetry lives in any reader, not necessarily in performance by the poet or a trained actor. The pleasure of actually saying a poem, or even saying it in your imagination—your mind’s ear—is essential. That is a central idea of “The Art of Poetry,” well demonstrated by the videos at favoritepoem.org: the photographer saying Sylvia Plath’s “Nick and the Candlestick,” the high school student saying Langston Hughes’ “Minstrel Man.” Those readers base what they say about each poem upon their experience of saying it.
The course is demanding, and based on a certain kind of intense reading, requiring prolonged, thorough— in fact, repeated—attention to specific poems.
The focus will be on elements of the art such as poetry’s historical relation to courtship; techniques of sound in free verse; poetry and difficulty; kidding and tribute—with only incidental attention to “schools,” jargons, categories, and coteries.
Learners are encouraged to think truly, carefully and passionately about what the poem says, along with how the poem feels in one’s own, actual or imagined voice. As Robert Pinsky says, in the Preface to Singing School: “this anthology will succeed if it encourages the reader to emulate it by replacing it . . . create your own anthology.” In a comparable way, this course hopes to inspire a lifelong study of poetry.
Syllabus
- How to think about, read, listen to, and engage with poems
- Historical and contemporary poems through topics like form, poetry and music, parody, and difficulty
- The means to inspire your own lifelong study of poetry
Instructors
- Robert Pinsky
- Duy Doan
- Laura Marris
- Calvin Olsen
- Tomas Unger
- Sarah Handley
Content Designer
Boston University’s impact extends far beyond our campus in the heart of Boston. Our students, faculty, and alumni travel around the globe to study, teach, and become immersed in the communities in which they live. As one of the world’s leading research universities, Boston University is currently engaged in more than 340 separate research, service, and educational programs and projects. Today, BU is the fourth-largest private university in the country and a member of the American Association of Universities, a nonprofit association of 62 of North America’s leading research-intensive institutions.
With 17 schools and colleges BU offers our students more than 250 programs of study in science and engineering, social science and humanities, health science, the arts, and other professional disciplines. And after graduation? Our students take their place in a long line of alumni whose inclusive and engaged educational experience prepared them to help serve, shape, and improve the world.
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