Modern Poets: Dylan & Cohen

In this class, we'll be checking out the work of two contemporary writers who have used words and music to enliven the possibilities and extend the audience for lyric poetry. At the same time they have explored some of the traditional questions about the connection between poetry and autobiography, the creation of a poetic self, the recycling of cultural materials, and the political and spiritual significance of verse. Because these writers have created such a large range of material, we will concentrate on a few periods in their long professional lives: Dylan's shift from acoustic folk to electric rock and back in the mid-to-late-1960s and the remarkable quartet of albums that Cohen recorded in the last decade of his life (we'll check out earlier Cohen and later Dylan too). And we will read some of their more conventionally literary works as well. The assignments will work on the assumption that the best way to understand a writer is to try to write something similar to their work; there will be several short assignments which will be shared with the class and a final project.