Insects and Poetic Inspiration (Virtual)

From the Old Testament to Shakespeare to Lewis Carol and Kafka, insects have long held a prominent place in some of our most well-known literary works. Poets, in particular, seem to have a special fascination with the insect world. In this class, we’ll explore how poets draw on the world of insects to amplify these themes. Using examples of both free verse as well as metrical poems, we’ll investigate the depiction of insects in work of Robert Frost, Sylvia Plath, Virginia Hamilton Adair, Yusef Komunyakaa, Alice Oswald, and others. This class will also pay special attention to effective use of line breaks and generating sound in poems.