Syllabus
A. Required Texts:
(1) Complete Poems and Plays of T.S. Eliot. Harbrace, 1952.
(2) Selected Essays of T.S. Eliot. Harbrace, 1950.
(3) Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats. Macmillan, 1989.
(4) W.B. Yeats, Essays and Introductions. Macmillan, 1968.
(5) Ezra Pound, Selected Poems. ed T.S. Eliot. New Directions, 1957.
(6) Literary Essays of Ezra Pound. ed T.S. Eliot. New Directions, 1968.
(7) Michael North, The Political Aesthetic of Yeats, Eliot and Pound. Cambridge University Press, 1991.
B. Course Requirements:
(1) Two papers [500-800 words each; one unit each].
(2) A journal [2 units] in which students will be asked to write regularly, to be submitted in the penultimate week of the course. Each entry must be written neatly and dated. An incomplete journal will result in failure of the entire course. Students whose entries are not written on time will automatically incur a lowering of their overall grade.
(3) A final examination [3 units]: Wednesday, 14 December, 7-10 p.m.
(4) Class participation counts for 2 units.
(5) Any unexcused absence will lower the student’s grade by one point, e.g. from D- to F.
Anyone missing an assignment, for whatever reason, should see me as soon as possible.
C. Course Description:
An in-depth study of the poetry and aesthetics of Eliot, Yeats and Pound in their social, religious and political contexts. We will consider the major factors and figures which influenced the three writers; their relations with one another; their position in the overall movements of modernism; the main themes, form and development of their poetry; their aesthetic principles; and the possible determination of the nature of their work by their political predispositions.
Weekly Class Assignments:
PART ONE: T.S. ELIOT
W Sept 7: Introduction to course. Poems: Prufrock, Portrait of a Lady.
M Sept 12: Poems: “Preludes”; “Rhapsody on a Windy Night”; “Conversation Galante”.
W Sept 14: Essays: “Tradition and the Individual Talent”; “Hamlet”.
Poems: “Gerontion”; “A Cooking Egg”.
M Sept 19: Essay: “The Metaphysical Poets”.
Poems: “Whispers of Immortality”; “Mr. Eliot’s Sunday Morning Service”; “Sweeney Among the Nightingales”.
W Sept 21: The Waste Land.
M Sept 26: The Waste Land.
W Sept 28: Essays: “The Humanism of Irving Babbitt”; “Second Thoughts About Humanism”.
M Oct 3: Four Quartets.
W Oct 5: Four Quartets.
M Oct 10: Michael North, Ch. 2: “T.S. Eliot: Conservatism”.
PART TWO: W.B. YEATS
W Oct 12: Introduction to Yeats. Essay: “A General Introduction for my Work”.
Poems from Crossways and The Rose.
M Oct 17: Essays: “The Philosophy of Shelley’s Poetry”; “William Blake and the Imagination”.
W Oct 19: Poems from In the Seven Woods and The Green Helmet.
M Oct 24: Essays: “The Symbolism of Poetry”; “Poetry and Tradition”.
W Oct 26: Poems from Responsibilities and The Wild Swans at Coole.
M Oct 31: Essays: “Ireland and the Arts”; “Art and Ideas”; “Parnell”.
W Nov 2: Poems from Michael Robartes and the Dancer and The Tower.
M Nov 7: Essay: “Modern Poetry”.
Poems from The Winding Stair and Last Poems.
W Nov 9: Michael North, Ch. 1: “W.B. Yeats: Cultural Nationalism”.
PART THREE: EZRA POUND
M Nov 14: Introduction to Pound. Essays: “A Retrospect”; “How to Read”.
W Nov 16: Poems from Personae.
M Nov 21: Essay: “The Tradition”; poems from Ripostes.
W Nov 23: Thanksgiving.
M Nov 28: Essays: “Irony, Laforgue, and Some Satire”; “The Prose Tradition in Verse”.
W Nov 30: Poems from Lustra.
M Dec 5: Essays: “The Later Yeats”; “T.S. Eliot”.
W Dec 7: Poems from Cathay; Hugh Selwyn Mauberly.
F Dec 9: Hugh Selwyn Mauberly.
M Dec 12: Michael North, Ch. 3: “Ezra Pound: Fascism”.
W Dec 14: Final Examination: 7:00-10:00 p.m.