Have you ever wanted to know more about poetry but didn't know where to start? If so, this lively and accessible course is for you. Together, we will close read a selection of poems in English from the mid 16th to the present day, in relation to their wider contexts and in terms of formal issues such as metaphor, rhyme, metre, rhetorical patterning, and allusion. This course will give you the skills and knowledge to talk confidently about different kinds of poems in different periods, and to participate in some of the serious games that poets play. We will discuss the following poets: Thomas Wyatt, Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, and Shakespeare; Ben Jonson, Aemilia Lanyer, and Andrew Marvell; John Donne, George Herbert and Henry Vaughan; John Milton; Alexander Pope, William Cowper and William Blake; William Wordsworth and S. T. Coleridge, and Joanna Baillie; John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Clare; and W. B. Yeats, W. H. Auden, Philip Larkin, Ted Hughes, and Alice Oswald. The course will offer these poets and their work as a springboard to reading further into different periods, and exploring your own interests.
A History of British Poetry
This is an in-person course which requires your attendance at the weekly meetings which take place in Oxford.
Overview
Programme details
Course starts: 20 Jan 2026
Week 1: Introduction: Reading Poetry in English and the Ballad Measure
Week 2: The Sonnet: Wyatt, Sidney, Spenser, and Shakespeare
Week 3: Pastoral Poetry: Ben Jonson, Aemilia Lanyer, and Andrew Marvell
Week 4: Heterometric Poetry: John Donne, George Herbert, and Henry Vaughan
Week 5: The Epic: John Milton’s Paradise Lost
Week 6: The Mock Epic: Alexander Pope, William Cowper, and William Blake
Week 7: Romantic Blank Verse: William Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge, and Joanna Baillie
Week 8: The Romantic Ode and Sonnet: John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Clare
Week 9: The Victorians: Tennyson, the Brownings, and Christina Rossetti
Week 10: Twentieth-Century Poetry: W. B. Yeats, W. H. Auden, Philip Larkin, Ted Hughes, and Alice Oswald
Recommended reading
All weekly class students may become borrowing members of the Rewley House Continuing Education Library for the duration of their course. Prospective students whose courses have not yet started are welcome to use the Library for reference. More information can be found on the Library website.
There is a Guide for Weekly Class students which will give you further information.
Recommended reading is optional and you are not required to purchase these books to study this course.
Optional preparatory reading:
- The Oxford Book of English Verse / Christopher Ricks (ed.)
- The Vagabond Spirit of Poetry / Edward Clarke
Certification
Credit Accumulation Transfer Scheme (CATS) Points
Only those who have registered for assessment and accreditation will be awarded CATS points for completing work to the required standard. Please note that assignments are not graded but are marked either pass or fail. Please follow this link for more information on Credit Accumulation Transfer Scheme (CATS) points
Digital Certificate of Completion
Students who are registered for assessment and accreditation and pass their final assignment will also be eligible for a digital Certificate of Completion. Information on how to access the digital certificate will be emailed to you after the end of the course. The certificate will show your name, the course title and the dates of the course attended. You will be able to download the certificate and share it on social media if you choose to do so.
Please note students who do not register for assessment and accreditation during the enrolment process will not be able to do so after the course has begun.
Fees
| Description | Costs |
|---|---|
| Course fee (with no assessment) | £300.00 |
| Assessment and Accreditation fee | £60.00 |
Funding
If you are in receipt of a UK state benefit, you are a full-time student in the UK or a student on a low income, you may be eligible for a reduction of 50% of tuition fees. Please see the below link for full details:
Tutor
Dr Edward Clarke
Edward Clarke’s poetry collections include Cherubims (Kelsay Books, 2022) and A Book of Psalms (Paraclete Press, 2020). His critical books include The Vagabond Spirit of Poetry (Iff Books, 2014) and The Later Affluence of Yeats and Stevens (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).
Course aims
To explore a range of poems in English in terms of different forms and contexts
Course objectives:
1. To allow students to gain knowledge of a range of English poets
2. To provide introductions to different kinds of poems
3. To help students understand through close textual analysis different poetic techniques
Teaching methods
Tutor talk followed by discussion; small group work; analyses of extracts provided
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course students will be expected to:
have detailed knowledge of a range of English poets
identify different kinds of poems
produce well-contextualized and effectively close critical analyses of poems
Assessment methods
Formative oral presentations on poems.
Summative essay (1,500 words)
Only those students who have registered for assessment and accreditation will submit coursework.
Application
To be able to submit coursework and to earn credit (CATS points) for your course you will need to register and pay an additional £60 fee per course. You can do this by ticking the relevant box at the bottom of the enrolment form or when enrolling online. Please use the 'Book now' button on this page. Alternatively, please complete an Enrolment form for short courses | Oxford University Department for Continuing Education
Students who do not register for assessment and credit during the enrolment process will not be able to do so after the course has begun. 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.
Level and demands
The Department's Weekly Classes are taught at FHEQ Level 4, i.e. first year undergraduate level, and you will be expected to engage in a significant amount of private study in preparation for the classes. This may take the form, for instance, of reading and analysing set texts, responding to questions or tasks, or preparing work to present in class.