Classical Poetry: Complete Course

Course Title: Classical Poetry
Level: BS 4th
Course Code: ELL207

Course Description This course focuses on the study of poetry from Geoffrey Chaucer to Alexander Pope. The term ‘classical’ understandably refers to the lasting appeal and artistic pleasure of the poetical works selected for this course. Though belonging to different poetical genres, the poetry of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Donne, Milton, and Pope have stood the tests of time and no further study in this genre of literature is possible without studying these bench marks of English poetry. The teachers of classical poetry need to inculcate a spirit of studying the aesthetic concerns of the times of these poetical masterpieces along with giving a holistic understanding of different genres of poetry, namely epic, ballad, sonnet, lyric, and elegy etc. Offering a study of the congenial humor and gentle satire of Chaucer’s Prologue to Canterbury Tales (c. 1389), the puritanical strain of Milton’s epic Paradise Lost (1667), the fiery quality of Love and divine poetry of the metaphysical poet John Donne, some sonnets of William Shakespeare and famous mock epic of Alexander Pope, this course is designed to cover the classical aspects of English poetry. By teaching the fundamentals of poetry that this course entails, the teachers may introduce a diversity of poetic expressions that will help the students further their inquiry into this genre in the coming semesters.

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William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

• Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (Sonnet 18)
• Let me not to the marriage of true minds (Sonnet 116)

John Donne (1572-1631)

Love Poems:

• Song
• The Sun Rising
• Aire and Angels
• The Good Morrow
• The Broken Heart
• Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

Holy Sonnets:

• Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?
• Death be not proud, though some have called thee

John Milton (1608-1674)

• Paradise Lost - Book I (1667)
• Paradise Lost - Book 9 (The main contention and critical summary)

Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

Rape of the Lock (1712)

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Course Objectives

1. Trace the generic specific historical development of classical poetry, but also to develop a keen awareness of poetic language and tone of the period.
2. Introduce various forms and styles of the genre of poetry for creating an in-depth understanding of this genre.

Recommended Readings

• Abbs, P. & Richardson, J. The Forms of Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. 1995.
• Barnet, Sylvan. A Short Guide to Writing about Literature (7th Edition). New York: Harper and Collins. 1996.
• Boulton, Marjorie. The Anatomy of Poetry. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 1977.
• Kamran, Rubina and Syed Farrukh Zad. Ed. A Quintessence of Classical Poetry. National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad.
• Kennedy, X. J., Gioia, D. An Introduction to Poetry: (8th Edition). New York: Harper Collins College Publishers. 1994.

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