| Credits | 1 |
| Restrictions | No 2022 2021 2020 Open to first-years only |
| Pre-Requisites | |
| Co-Requisites | |
| Core Area | |
| Area of Inquiry | Human Thought and Expression |
| Liberal Arts Practices |
Faculty Profile for Professor Balakian
Students read major poets whose work has had a revolutionary impact on the nature of language, human consciousness, social and political thought. Students explore the nature of poetry and why it is essential to a democratic society. Students explore the role of the poet in the broader domains of civic life and social change and the growth of self. Poets to be studied include: Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, T. S. Eliot, Hart Crane, Sterling Brown, Robert Hayden, Sylvia Plath, and Adrienne Rich. Students who successfully complete this seminar will satisfy one half of the Human Thought and Expression area of inquiry requirement.
Professor Peter Balakian is the author of 7 books of poems and various books of prose. His recent book Ozone Journal won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He has taught at Colgate since 1980.