A History of British and Irish Poetry from Barrett Browning to Paul Muldoon

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Concessionary fees for short courses

To introduce students to a variety of poems, by men and women, from Britain and Ireland, written between c.1850 and the present day.

Course objectives:

• To familiarise students with a variety of poetic forms, and with the language required to discuss these forms.
• To enable students to read closely different poetic forms, and to be comfortable giving their own opinions of the poems.
• To leave students with an understanding of how British and Irish poetry since 1850 has interacted with the wider world and its contexts.

Seminars will usually include a brief introduction of the poet and poems under discussion, followed by a close reading of the poem or poems. In week 1 and week 10 the tutor will provide a more extensive handout to help think about wider contexts, as well as approaches to the poet or poems. There will be less emphasis on direct critical material on the poems themselves, as students will be encouraged to develop their own opinions on the poems, but we will of course discuss different possible critical approaches to the works.

In weeks 2–9 we will begin the class with a presentation by a student or student(s) on the poetry in question, following a brief introduction by the tutor. The tutor will give students advice on the kinds of things such presentations might contain.

Although it is ideal that students obtain a copy of the poems discussed, most are widely (and cheaply) available and most have copies available in the library at Rewley House. If necessary, the tutor can make copies if poems prove elusive to find.

By the end of the course students will be expected to:

• be confident in their abilities to express a viewpoint on a poem;
• have a good understanding of the technical terms involved in close reading (rhyme, metrics, metaphor and so on);
• understand some of the wider contexts of the poems under discussion;
• have developed some of their own tastes in poetry from c.1850 to now, and be confident to read further.

There will be an informal (formative) assessment of a presentation on a poem or a section of a poem. For each weekly seminar the tutor will ask a student or students to give a brief introduction (5 minutes) to some of the poetry discussed that week. Some students may choose to present on a different poem, and will have an opportunity to do so in week 10. Each student will receive oral feedback - from the tutor and from other students - on their presentation.

Early in the term the tutor will provide students with a list of prompts for their formal (summative) assessment, which will be an essay of 1,500 words to write up after the teaching weeks have finished. This will be a close reading of a poem or poems, considering wider contexts. Students will be able to choose from the prompts given or come up with a topic of their own, in consultation with the tutor.

Students must submit a completed Declaration of Authorship form at the end of term when submitting your final piece of work. CATS points cannot be awarded without the aforementioned form - Declaration of Authorship form

Students who register for CATS points will receive a Record of CATS points on successful completion of their course assessment.

To earn credit (CATS points) you will need to register and pay an additional £10 fee per course. You can do this by ticking the relevant box at the bottom of the enrolment form or when enrolling online.

Coursework is an integral part of all weekly classes and everyone enrolled will be expected to do coursework in order to benefit fully from the course. Only those who have registered for credit will be awarded CATS points for completing work at the required standard.

Students who do not register for CATS points during the enrolment process can either register for CATS points prior to the start of their course or retrospectively from the January 1st after the current full academic year has been completed. If you are enrolled on the Certificate of Higher Education you need to indicate this on the enrolment form but there is no additional registration fee.

Most of the Department's weekly classes have 10 or 20 CATS points assigned to them. 10 CATS points at FHEQ Level 4 usually consist of ten 2-hour sessions. 20 CATS points at FHEQ Level 4 usually consist of twenty 2-hour sessions. It is expected that, for every 2 hours of tuition you are given, you will engage in eight hours of private study.

Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme (CATS)