This class explores the history and development of poetry in the English language. We will investigate the evolution of poetic techniques, forms, and tropes across history. We will begin with meter, syllabics, received forms such as the sonnet and villanelle, the ode, lyrical versus narrative poetry, accentual verse, structure versus form, prose poetry, and free verse. We will also explore various schools and styles of poetry such as Romanticism, Modernism, Imagism, Objectivism, Projective Verse, etc. Students will write critical papers exploring how poems read in class and for homework are informed by and disembark from critical texts highlighting substantial areas in poetic expression. Class will culminate in a final project that speak to how a single prosodic element or a group of closely related elements has evolved across time.