The student will be able to:

1. Understand the significance of poetry's historical, cultural, and literary context, and recognize poetic genres and forms
2. Understand and apply critical reading strategies and terminologies of literary explication to develop grounded interpretations and enter the conversation about poetry at an introductory level
3. Develop analysis of poetry using various critical literary lenses
4. Research appropriate secondary sources and synthesize sources to develop scholarly analysis of poetry
5. Demonstrate appropriate formatting and documentation

1. History of poetry and relevant cultural and literary contexts
   1. History of poetry as oral tradition
   2. Poetry and myth
   3. Poetry genres and multi-cultural contexts related to genre, such as:
      1. Dramatic
      2. Lyric
      3. Narrative
   4. Poetry subgenres and multi-cultural contexts related to subgenre, such as:
      1. Aubade
      2. Ballad
      3. Confessional
      4. Ekphrasis
      5. Elegy
      6. Epistle
      7. Experimental
      8. Ode
      9. Pastoral
      10. Spoken word
      11. Musical poetry: blues, folk, hip-hop, etc.
   5. Poetry forms, such as:
      1. Cento
      2. Experimental (e.g., The Golden Shovel)
      3. Haiku
      4. Ghazal
      5. Pantoum
      6. Prose
      7. Sonnet
      8. Tanka
      9. Villanelle
   6. Establishment of historical, contemporary, and influential poetry communities and movements, such as:
      1. American Transcendentalists
      2. Beat Poets
      3. Black Mountain Poets
      4. Black Arts Movement Poets
      5. Elizabethan Poets
      6. Harlem Renaissance Poets
      7. Indigenous Nations Poets
      8. Romantic Poets
      9. Sicilian Court Poets
      10. Surrealism
      11. Nuyorican Cafe Poets
      12. Metaphysical Poets
2. Critical reading strategies for reading poetry and terminologies
   1. Reading process as construction of meaning
      1. Importance of re-reading, revising understanding
      2. Reading intuitively
      3. Reading to understand
         1. Making observations about the text
            1. Identify "facts" of the poem
         2. Develop inferences based on observations
         3. Understand use of various rhetorical or structural features in poem
         4. Questioning the text
         5. Importance of discussion in developing interpretation
   2. Terminology of literary explication
      1. Allusions: historical, cultural, pop-culture
      2. Character
      3. Figurative language: simile, metaphor, symbol, etc.
      4. Enjambment, end stopped lines, line breaks
      5. Metaphor and simile
      6. Point of view: first person, second person, third person
      7. Rhetorical considerations: anaphora, apostrophe, conceit, metonymy and synecdoche, hyperbole, irony, repetition, etc.
      8. Speaker voice
      9. Sound: alliteration, rhyme, assonance, consonance, rhythm, and meter
      10. Symbolism
      11. Voice
      12. Word choice: denotation and connotation
3. Applying literary theories to poetry, such as:
   1. Classical-Medieval-Renaissance criticism
      1. Aristotle's Poetics/time, place, action
      2. Myth
      3. Religion
   2. Enlightenment criticism
      1. The Sublime
   3. Romantic criticism
   4. Modern criticism: New Criticism
      1. Metaphor, irony, ambiguity
   5. Post-modern criticism: New Historicist, Marxist, feminist, psychoanalytic, critical race theory, gender, queer, and cultural critiques
4. Research
   1. Navigation of research databases and print archives
   2. Evaluation of sources and identification of those scholarly
   3. Critical reading of research sources
5. Formatting and documentation
   1. Modern Language Association (MLA)

Not applicable.

Critical reading responses and examinations in which students effectively explicate poetry using terminology of literary explication, critical lenses, and/or additional research to deepen analysis
Written work includes at least one synthesis essay, quizzes, midterm(s), and final essay examination
Stylistic imitations and explanatory reflections that demonstrate the use of particular elements in poems studied
Presentations on poems that focus on poetic elements, form, movements, poetics, and themes

Lecture presentations and classroom discussion using the language of poetry
Homework readings, plus in-class reading of poetic texts by the instructor and students followed by instructor-guided interpretation and analysis
Group presentations of major projects followed by in-class discussion and evaluation

Abu Toha, Mosab. Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza. 2022.

Alexander, Kwame. This Is the Honey: An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poets. 2024.

Antigua, Diannely. Good Monster. 2024.

Asghar, Fatimah. Halal If You Hear Me. 2020.

Brown, Jericho. The Tradition. 2019.

Burt, Stephanie. Don’t Read Poetry: A Book about How to Read Poems. 2023.

Chavez, Felicia Rose, et al.. LatiNext. 2020.

Chen, Che. When I Grow up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities. 2017.

Hirshfield, Jane. The Asking: New and Selected Poems. 2023.

Hodgson, Andrew. The Cambridge Guide to Reading Poetry. 2022.

Jones, Ashley M., and Rebecca Gayle Howell. What Things Cost: An Anthology for the People. 2023.

Limón, Ada, et al.. You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World. 2024.

McDougall, Brandy. Nālani. 'ĀINA Hānau = Birth Land. 2023.

Nguyen, Diana Khoi. Root Fractures: Poems. 2024.

Rice, Patty. 100 Poems That Matter. 2022.

Sealey, Nicole. The Ferguson Report: An Erasure. 2023.

Seuss, Diane. Modern Poetry: Poems. 2024.

This list includes anthologies and poetry collections that showcase various cultures and poetry traditions, both historical poetry and contemporary works, and books about reading poetry. Although some of the texts are older than the suggested "5 years or newer" standard, they remain important texts in the field.

1. Weekly reading and writing assignments from the course assigned poetry anthology.
2. Analysis and application of textual criticism within the course assigned poetry anthology.
3. One week reading, research, and writing assignments from a single author text.
4. Attend and report on one local poetry reading or single author DVD or VHS.