Text: Perrine’s Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry, eds. Thomas R. Arp
And Greg Johnson (Harcourt College Publishers, 12th Edition)

This course aims at introducing beginning students to the nature and variety of English poetry. In class we seek to familiarize students with the elements of poetry in a progression in which each new topic builds on what preceded it. Gradually students will come to understand and appreciate such terms as imagery, rhyme, rhythm, metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy, symbol, allegory, connotation, paradox, overstatement, understatement, irony, sound repetition, allusion, etc. They will also be exposed to a variety of genres and sub-genres of poetry such as ballad, sonnet, ode, villanelle, blank verse, dramatic monologue, and free verse. However, the first and foremost emphasis remains in teaching students to read, enjoy, interpret, and evaluate each individual poem.