To introduce the student to the work off some major poets writing in Britain in the first half of the twentieth century, and to encourage exploration of, and appreciation of, a wide range of other modern poetry, and especially contemporary and near contemporary poetry.

Study of the work of a range of other poets writing in this century, the poets in question to be selected by students taking the course; and/or a range of individual poems of special interest and value to students taking the course. Considerable attention will be paid to the variety of the poetry so studied.

• Demonstrate detailed knowledge and understanding of a range of the poetry of Eliot, Yeats and Auden.
• Demonstrate an understanding of something of the special literary qualities that earn each of Eliot, Yeats and Auden high regard.
• Evaluate, and discriminate between, a range of modern and contemporary British poetry by other poets.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the special qualities of some of these other poets.
• Demonstrate any understanding of the complex relationship between method and achieved meaning and function in some twentieth century poetry.
• Analyse something of the relationship between the work of poets studied and the literary and cultural context in which they work or worked.
• Analyse something of the range of functions which have been served by twentieth century British poetry.

Tutor-led study of selected work (by Yeats, Eliot and Auden), interspersed by student led discussion of work of other poets on the century. There will be a few lectures on background topics such as modernism.

Either a 4000 word assignment considering general issues of twentieth century British poetry, or alternatively the submission of a body of the student’s own poetry accompanied by a discussion of the method adopted referring to the purpose and function of that poetry, plus a 3 hour examination in which the work of individual poets studied in the course will be commented upon.

Bibliography