Close readings: the modern poem

Cambridge pioneered ‘close reading’ as the foundation of literary study. This course draws on that tradition to develop sustained attention to the texture of poems—their rhythms, images, and patterns of thought. Focusing on short poems from roughly 1880–1980, we’ll explore how poetry responded to a modern world shaped by doubt, democracy, and technology. Each class will combine a brief introduction to the poets and critical ideas with detailed discussion, comparing poems that reveal how a single century transformed both poetic language and the experience it sought to express.