Modern Poetry (ENGL 310)
Yale's Langdon Hammer leads a full survey of modern poetry in English, moving from the Victorian holdovers through Yeats, Eliot, and Pound to Stevens, Moore, Bishop, and Frost. Individual lectures pause on Imagism as a movement, on the poetry that came out of the trenches of World War One, and on the Harlem Renaissance, giving each its own historical context rather than treating them as footnotes. Close readings of individual poems anchor most sessions, and Hammer brings in historical, biographical, and gender criticism as different lenses for the same texts, showing how the reading changes depending on the method. Recorded from twice-weekly 50-minute class meetings at Yale in spring 2007 as part of Open Yale Courses, the series includes full lecture video, transcripts, and the original course syllabus, free to audit with no certificate offered.