CRI Literature: Poetry   

The late William Stafford was an Oregon-based poet who became one of America’s best-loved authors during the last half of the 20th Century. His poetry earned him the National Book Award in 1963, and he taught writing at Lewis and Clark College for over 30 years. His poems often combined a practical bent with a deep spiritual sensitivity. It’s been described as ‘Dreamy, good-natured, and ironical.’ Our textbook will be “The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems” by William Stafford. “In our time there has been no poet who revived human hearts and spirits more convincingly than William Stafford. There has been no one who gave more courage to a journey with words, and silence, and an awakening life.” - Naomi Shihab Nye

The sonnet, or “sonetto,” little song, first arose around 1235, when the Italian poet Petrarch began writing his first of 317 14-line rhyming poems to his love, Laura. Shakespeare, a few centuries later, made the form his own. Today you find sonnets everywhere in the poetry world, not always about love, and, speaking metrically, often more reckless than regulated. It seems that all it takes for a poem to be considered a sonnet is more or less 14 lines, and — as Edward Hirsch, in “The Making of a Sonnet” says, “a beating heart.” In this course, we’ll explore a wealth of examples, old and new, and make up our own minds as to their viability. All texts will be provided.

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Walt Whitman (1819-1892) has been called “America’s Poet,” and for good reason. His poetry is idealistic, democratic (small-d, referring to a system of government “of the people”), ambitious, and sprawling, as was the young nation. And, like America itself, he is a poet of contradictions; despite living during the repressive Victorian age, for one example, he celebrated working-class people and occupations, and the body. “I celebrate myself, and sing myself,” he wrote, unapologetically, and he wrote to future generations—to us—“And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.” This course invites you to explore and discuss some of the most enduring portions of his “Leaves of Grass,” whether you are new to Whitman or a long-time fan. Since Whitman published his book 6-9 times, depending on how you count the editions, handouts will be provided for consistency during the class.

In this course, we will examine the work of three great poets of the Victorian period: Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), Emily Brontë (1818-1848), and Christina Rossetti (1830-1894). Their brilliant, wide-ranging work includes splendid poems of love and loss, hymns and expressions of faith, and biting social commentary. All texts will be provided.

Class begins in less than 2 business days or is already in session... Please call 425.640.1830 or email cri@edmonds.edu to register.