Literature: The Thirties Poets and their Influence

On this online 10-week course we will read, explore and enjoy some notable works by a selection of significant contemporary poets emerging in both Britain and Ireland during an important period in the 1930s; we will consider figures such as W.H. Auden and Louis MacNeice, as well as the work of more contemporary poets that they influenced, such as Seamus Heaney. We will look at and think through a couple of key poets and poems each week in relation to the overall theme. In doing so, we will create some connections between form, ideas/subject matter and the life of each poet. Alongside close reading of the chosen poems we will engage with literary criticism on each poet, as well as poetry, form and poetics generally, exploring the backgrounds of each writer and their unique approach to the art of poetry, which should set the poems in their context and within the poet's life and career. Through this we will also look to understand how a particular sense of voice is established and created within the works we encounter.