Wednesday night Literary Salon:

Winter 2007

Poetry, Of Course !

Professor Alan Helms and Rev. Kim K. Crawford Harvie
Seven Wednesday evenings (you are invited to join us at as many as you can!):
January 10, 17, 24, 31; February 7, 14, and 21 6:00 - 7:30, Frothingham Library

"POETRY HELPS PEOPLE LIVE BETTER LIVES"

             --Wallace Stevens

  • Course syllabus
  • What did Alexander the Great never travel without, Charles I carry to his
    beheading, and Jefferson prize more than his presidency?
    Poetry, of course! Until World War, II, it was always "poetry, of course," but in
    recent years the art has fallen on hard times. What a shame, but lucky us!

    The goal of this salon series is to demystify poetry by helping us become adept
    readers of different kinds of poems (sonnet, lyric, ballad, haiku, etc.) from
    different periods and cultures. We'll learn a basic critical vocabulary that
    will help in analyzing poems and talking about how they're made,
    hence why they're good or bad.

    Occasional exercises will be designed to instruct with delight! An incidental
    reward of this salon will be our own enhanced mastery of the language.

    TEXT: Western Wind by John Frederick Nims and David Mason (4th edition ).