# Twentieth-Century English Poetry: Between Lyric and Epic

- Institution: IIT Roorkee
- Department: Humanities and Social Sciences
- Teacher: Prof. Aruni Mahapatra
- Level: Undergraduate
- Language: English
- Subjects: Society and politics
- Source: [NPTEL](https://nptel.ac.in/courses/109107739)
- Licence: [CC BY-NC-SA](https://nptel.ac.in/faq) (Non-commercial use only.)
- Syllabus: [at the source](https://nptel.ac.in/courses/109107739)
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (sources give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the source's own words)

This course will offer a comprehensive and unique introduction to a canonical and indispensable literary field: Twentieth Century Poetry in English. The course will be a useful addition to the NPTEL course offerings because it covers poets and poems not covered in other courses. The selection is also based on new scholarship in the literary history of English poetry. Scholars have recently begun to study the multiple ways in which lyric poetry fills important links in the history of modernism. Hence the unconventional beginning with the lyric poems of Thomas Hardy, usually known as a writer of late Victorian realist prose. The lyric voice of Hardy overshadows a wide range of poetic work to follow in the 20th century. The course then reads the pathos of war, and the consolations of religious faith, in the lyrics of HD and T. S. Eliot. The mid-century focus falls on the work of Adrienne Rich, Elizabeth Bishop, and Sylvia Plath, a powerful trio of American women poets. The course then turns to two epics of the twentieth century: Walcott’s Omeros and Merrill’s The Changing Light at Sandover. Overall, these works provide a wide-ranging, exhaustive, and representative view of twentieth century poetry. Taken together, a study of these poets and poems allows this course to exemplify a study of diverse themes such as gender, race, empire, along with a sensitive and historically accurate attention to the intricacies of genre, tone, style, and form. Both close-reading, and historically-oriented contextual readings will situate these writers in a composite history of twentieth-century poetry.

Intended audience: This course will appeal to the following audiences: 1. Individuals engaged in the formal study of English literature at the UG, PG, and Ph.D level. 2. Individuals pursuing their study of English Literature from their own interest. 3. General readers who have read classic works of English literature on their own,and wish to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation…

## Lectures

1. [Introduction to 20th-Century Poetry](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/8bde43783b85) (YouTube)
2. [The Transnational Origins of 20th-Century Poetry](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/34cfdf0d8c91) (YouTube)
3. [Make It New: Aesthetic Revolution](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/88f07104ce0f) (YouTube)
4. [William Butler Yeats: Biographical Context](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/a3d6fe075299) (YouTube)
5. [William Butler Yeats: “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/7153826dff64) (YouTube)
6. [William Butler Yeats: Nationalism in “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/3d6fca596d51) (YouTube)
7. [Modernist Elegy](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/d67794df009c) (YouTube)
8. [Poetry and the Authenticity of Mourning](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/540c4f0f1eb8) (YouTube)
9. [Wallace Stevens: "The Emperor of Ice-Cream"](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/9318c13baee8) (YouTube)
10. [Thomas Hardy: Elegist](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/7edb097f387e) (YouTube)
11. [Thomas Hardy: Poems 1912-1913](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/d47779edce6f) (YouTube)
12. [Thomas Hardy Concluded](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/b2c4a6d7524b) (YouTube)
13. [Hilda Doolittle (H.D.)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/7ab6b9b19b00) (YouTube)
14. [H.D.: “Eurydice”](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/0f1a1b35d3eb) (YouTube)
15. [Robert Frost: Biographical Context](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/07fdc17d67ea) (YouTube)
16. [Robert Frost: North of Boston](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/e6d1d8408d59) (YouTube)
17. [Robert Frost: "Home Burial"](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/e890a03fb0f1) (YouTube)
18. [Robert Frost: "The Death of the Hired Man"](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/5c284f371e74) (YouTube)
19. [Edna St. Vincent Millay: Biographical Context](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/5f4f63204934) (YouTube)
20. [Edna St. Vincent Millay: "Renascence"](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/923e0f55a00e) (YouTube)
21. [Edna St. Vincent Millay: "Blight"](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/184a5f5b3d7b) (YouTube)
22. [Edna St. Vincent Millay: The Sonnet](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/dedc09e71e0d) (YouTube)
23. [Edna St. Vincent Millay and Vanity Fair](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/5a2086d782bc) (YouTube)
24. [Edna St. Vincent Millay: “Spring” and Other Poems](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/86fd2369078a) (YouTube)
25. [Edna St. Vincent Millay: Concluded; T. S. Eliot: Introduced](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/ad022824611f) (YouTube)
26. [T. S. Eliot - 'Tradition and the Individual Talent'](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/64d071a835db) (YouTube)
27. [T. S. Eliot - 'The Metaphysical Poets'](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/b0275e24051a) (YouTube)
28. [Late Style in "Four Quartets"](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/bacc1a8559ea) (YouTube)
29. ["Four Quartets" Concluded](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/67def943d82e) (YouTube)
30. [Robert Lowell - "Life Studies"](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/a1d78e9dd012) (YouTube)
31. [W. H. Auden: Introduction](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/ebf4b2c192eb) (YouTube)
32. [Marxism, Psychoanalysis, and Elegy in Auden](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/8d82eac208dd) (YouTube)
33. [Auden and Influence: Wilfred Owen and W. B. Yeats](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/1c52c39c909c) (YouTube)
34. ["September 1913"](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/994fe0d0b734) (YouTube)
35. ["In Memory of W. B. Yeats"](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/0556111f835e) (YouTube)
36. [Auden on Sigmund Freud](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/9c7fcf62efcb) (YouTube)
37. [Langston Hughes - Introduction](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/f06dbe92a3da) (YouTube)
38. [Elegy, Blues, and Blackness](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/11a0860c5405) (YouTube)
39. [Blues and Negritude - "Proem"](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/65a8b75cc4fc) (YouTube)
40. ["The Weary Blues" and "The Negro Artist"](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/a60bf42c8cdc) (YouTube)
41. ["Blues Fantasy" and 'Fine Clothes for the Jew'](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/c66f3e6f2e96) (YouTube)
42. [Lynch Poems - "Bitter Fruit", "Song for a Dark Girl"](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/dd112e9f82d3) (YouTube)
43. ["Silhouette" and "Blue Bayou"](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/6eb8fa8e840d) (YouTube)
44. ["The Negro Speaks of Rivers" and "Bitter River"](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/c19af1495de0) (YouTube)
45. ["The Moose" - Introducing Elizabeth Bishop](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/d0f647c280dc) (YouTube)
46. ["The Moose" Continued - Motion & Imagination in Bishop's poems](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/cc4e429220c6) (YouTube)
47. [Elizabeth Bishop - Biographical Contexts & "The Map"](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/9133eb2b1ce1) (YouTube)
48. ["Questions of Travel"](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/e03413b5fc31) (YouTube)
49. ["One Art"](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/56b324100a9c) (YouTube)
50. [Sylvia Plath: The Fraught Background to 'Ariel'](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/04bfad65138f) (YouTube)
51. [Sylvia Plath - "The Rabbit Catcher"](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/9668230e40aa) (YouTube)
52. [Ted Hughes - "The Rabbit Catcher"](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/8ba7c333280c) (YouTube)
53. [American Family Elegy - "Full Fathom Five"](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/7707a0afa841) (YouTube)
54. ["Electra on Azalea Path" and "The Colossus"](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/b9542f0ccbf7) (YouTube)
55. ["The Colossus" and "Daddy"](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/1475443d1885) (YouTube)
56. [Concluding Plath, Introducing Walcott](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/7a8e43cdb83a) (YouTube)
57. [Walcott - "Ruins of a Great House"](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/376dcee88918) (YouTube)
58. [Walcott - 'Omeros'](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/8c124b49ca8a) (YouTube)
59. ["Mythic Method" and Introduction to Arun Kolatkar](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/2390a13281bc) (YouTube)
60. ["Turnaround", 'Kala Ghoda' poems, and 'Jejuri'](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109107739/aae42f60f02c) (YouTube)