Poets and Poetry of New England began
in 1998 as part of a larger initiative of the Board of Trustees
to link the UMass Amherst “research” campus to
other sites within the Massachusetts higher education system.
Poets and Poetry was the only course in the College of Humanities
and Fine Arts developed for this multi-campus initiative.
Initially coming together via live video hookup for one hour
per week of intercampus dialogue and commentary on poetry
were students and instructors at five campuses across the
Commonwealth. Three campuses, led by Professor Richard Larschan
at UMass Dartmouth, Professor Sheila Willard at Middlesex
Community College and Professor William Moebius of Comparative
Literature, continued as active participants for the next
five years. In 2005, because of scheduling conflicts, Poets
and Poetry was offered for the first time on the UMass Amherst
campus without the weekly live interactive hookup.
The course recognizes both established English
language poets usually associated with New England, and ethnic
or diaspora poets who have lived and worked in New England
and who may write or think in languages other than English.
The work of two immigrant poets, Ann Bradstreet, from England
and Phillis Wheatley, from Africa, begins the course, marking
the beginning of an ostensible historical arc from the 17th
to the 21st century. No course in New England poetry can
ignore allusions to Greek and Roman classical, Biblical and
Indic, and later European figures and traditions, so the
historical range of class discussion is actually broader
than the 300 year span suggested by the poets and poetry
assigned. One way the literary importance of the works and
artists is signalled is by close readings in class of particular
poems. Another way is to have each poem to be discussed read
out loud, sometimes more than once. Still a third way is
to examine archival manuscript copies of a poet’s work,
available in the rare book rooms of libraries of the Five
Colleges.
One of the themes that runs through the
course is the matter of place, and that also leads to an
inquiry into New England culture and history, including the
account of various migrations. Poets of New England would
be expected to include the traditionally sanctioned American-born
poets who lived in New England, but this course also includes
poets born elsewhere (Kashmir, the Philippines, San Francisco,
New York, Philadelphia) who have lived or written in New
England, and who speak from a perspective (Latino, Filipino,
Kashmiri-American, Native American or African American) that
challenges a monolithic model of the New England poet. Even
Theodor Geisel, Dr. Seuss, is included on the list, although
he abandoned Massachusetts forever by the time he was 21
years old.
Videos developed for an on-line version
of this course have aired on WGBY, public television in Springfield,
MA. Included among these videos is a one hour two part conversation
between Professor Moebius and Aga Shahid Ali, a Kashmiri-American
poet (1949-2001), a video on Dr. Seuss filmed on location
in Springfield, (including a reading of If I Ran the
Zoo in the Forest Park zoo), and an introductory course video
filmed in four locations in Massachusetts and Vermont, both
developed by Professor Moebius, and a two part video on Sylvia
Plath, created by Professor Larschan, who was a friend and
neighbor of Sylvia’s mother Aurelia. The course is
currently offered under the aegis of the Commonwealth College.
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