ENGL 241
BEGINNINGS OF MODERN POETRY
TR 2:00-3:15

This course satisfies the General Education Criteria in Fall 2015 for a UIUC: Western Compartv Cult course

“Make it new!” was the cry of Imagist Ezra Pound. “We want to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and rashness” said the Futurist F.T. Marinetti. Modernist poetry offers an exhilarating, challenging, and deeply rewarding reading experience. The poetry can be difficult; artists were grappling with difficult times: war, death on an unprecedented scale, gender role upheaval, a technology explosion, and the birth of the split subject within psychoanalysis. Everything was changing and modernist poetics reflected that. The poetry is deep, thrilling, and engaging but rarely simple. Students will read canonical authors such as W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, and Ezra Pound but also Mina Loy, War Poets, and other forgotten gems.

Sign up for the Beginnings of Modern Poetry to see if the Sirens will sing for you . . . do you dare to eat this peach?