Reading Poetry
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this introductory literature course on how to read poems beyond intuition. Students examine the formal tools poets use, including meter, sound, syntax, and word choice, and compare approaches to reading poetry ranging from memorization and reading aloud to digital visualization and annotation techniques. Readings draw on poems made available online through the Poetry Foundation and the Academy of American Poets, and the class devotes attention to strategies for working through difficult or resistant texts. Materials include the syllabus, readings, and assignments as published by MIT OpenCourseWare, free to access with no certificate offered. The course suits anyone wanting a structured, close-reading approach to poetry rather than a survey of literary history, taught with MIT's characteristic emphasis on textual analysis and independent study.