- to introduce students to major works of lyric poetry 
throughout the world, from the mid-nineteenth century to the 
present, with special emphasis on the relevance of these texts 
the contemporary global scene; 
- to examine the conventions of the genre; 
- to situate the works within their social and cultural 
contexts;
- to develop students' critical skills in the exegesis of 
poetry; 
- to improve students' communication skills through oral
presentations and expository writing assignments.

Students' performances will be assessed through presentations,
papers, tests, and a final examination.

The focus of the course is on readings of lyric poetry around 
the world, with special emphasis on the relevance of texts 
under discussion to the contemporary global scene. 
The works covered vary with the individual instructor. Among 
the topics generally treated are: the formal, rhetorical, and
thematic patterns common to modern poetry and how these differ
from one culture to another, from one period to another, and 
from one poet to another; the function of symbol, irony, 
paradox, allegory, synesthesia, and myth in modern verse; the 
persistence of themes of displacement, withdrawal, and 
alienation; and the preoccupation with questions of 
epistemology and axiology in modern poetry. The following is a 
sample syllabus of readings for a single semester:

Holderlin.  Hymns and Fragments
Baudelaire.  The Flowers of Evil
Neruda. Selected Poems
Soyinka. Idanre and other poems 
Rilke.  Duino Elegies
Pessoa.  Poems
Kaschnitz.  Selected Later Poems
Akhmatova.  Poem Without a Hero
Herbert.  Report from a Besieged City
Brodsky.  Less Than One, On Grief and Reason
Szymborska.  Poems New and Collected
Zagajewski.  Canvas

Students are required to abide by the University of Georgia academic honesty policy.