52-6674 The Metaphysical Poets

The metaphysical and Cavalier poets of the early 17th century wrote intense lyric reflections on human experience that exerted influence well into the 20th century. Their rationalist perspectives on life and death, love and fear, faith and doubt, and other enduring human concerns were articulated in carefully-elaborated, at times dissonant, figures and images. We will study the techniques, aesthetics, and influence of poets such as Donne, Herbert, Lanyer, Vaughan, Crashaw, Wroth, Jonson, Herrick, Suckling, and Marvell.

3 Credits