Literary Interpretation: Interpreting Poetry
A seminar on lyric poetry from MIT OpenCourseWare, treating poems as messages to be deciphered. Readings trace theories of figurative language from Aristotle through the last thirty years, focusing on debates over whether metaphor and other figures of speech are truly distinct from literal expression. The course also builds a working sense of English-language poetry from the early modern period onward, and touches on how metaphor functions in scientific writing. Materials include the reading list, weekly discussion topics, and writing assignments as posted on MIT OCW, free to access with no certificate offered. Suited to students who want a grounding in close reading and the critical vocabulary for talking about figurative language, rather than a survey of poets or periods for their own sake.