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Harvard University

Poetry in America: The Civil War and Its Aftermath

Harvard University via edX

Overview

This module, the fifth installment of the multi-part Poetry in America series, explores the Poetry of the Civil War and its Aftermath. We will:

  • Encounter such poets as Herman Melville, Julia Ward Howe, Walt Whitman, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Paul Laurence Dunbar, James Weldon Johnson, Francis Ellen Watkins Harper, Emma Lazarus and W.E.B DuBois.
  • Examine the language of patriotism, pride, justice, violence, loss, and memory inspired by the Nation’s greatest conflict.
  • Travel to Boston’s Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54th Regiment Monument, and to Harvard’s Memorial Hall, two iconic sites of Civil War public memory.

Distinguished guests for this module include Harvard President Drew Faust, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter Tony Kushner, Professor and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Henry Louis Gates Jr., baritone Davone Tines, and Harvard Civil War scholar John Stauffer, among others.

Led by Harvard Professor Elisa New, Poetry in America surveys nearly 400 years of American poetry. Through video lectures, archival images and texts, expeditions to historic sites, interpretive seminars with large and small groups, interviews with poets and scholars, and conversations about poems with distinguished Americans, Poetry in America embarks on a journey through the literature of a nation. Distinguished guests, including President Bill Clinton, Elena Kagan, Henry Louis Gates, Eve Ensler, John McCain, Andrea Mitchell, Michael Pollan, Drew Faust, Tony Kushner, and Nas, among others, bring fresh perspectives to the study of American Poetry.

HarvardX pursues the science of learning. By registering as an online learner in an HX course, you will also participate in research about learning. Read our research statement to learn more.

Reviews

5.0 rating, based on 1 Class Central review

Start your review of Poetry in America: The Civil War and Its Aftermath

  • Profile image for Emmanuella Adele Karim
    Emmanuella Adele Karim
    It was a very informative course with videos, exercises and opportunities to contribute ideas to a forum. I enjoyed the course because I am studying American Literature and the points made about many different themes surrounding American culture were very useful and interesting. The fact that there were videos made the learning easier and allowed me to make notes. However, I will say that there are many annotation tasks of different poems which may not interest all people.

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