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Saturdays, Jul 10 - Jul 10
1:00 pm - 3:30 pm

1 meetings
Genre: Poetry 
Semester:
  • Summer 2021
Time of Day:
Meeting Location:
  • Online
Room: Zoom Room 1

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Bacchanals and Mourning: Writing Poetry After a Plague 

Mardi Gras, Carnival and other fiestas and bacchanal sessions have been, for centuries, the promise implicit in any lousy period: get through it, and there will be a great party waiting on the other side. They developed as loosenings up after the clamp downs societies endured to survive a plague, a Depression, a devastating period of war. And sometimes it works: the plague demands, among other things, that everyone endure the psychological burden of designation, everyone gets branded: sick or well. To relax afterward, everyone who parties can throw off designation for a while. Masks, costumes, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas are all versions of this throwing off, temporarily, one’s normal designations and social registrations. 

We will read and write two kinds of poem in this class: poems having to do with finding the “party” whatever form that party takes, and poems having to do with NOT finding any party, poems of mourning and recovery. Poets we will read include Paul Celan, Robert Pinsky, Louise Gluck, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Biggy Smalls, Dante Alighieri, Hesiod, Horace, David Ferry, Aviya Kushner, Yehuda Amichai, Firdausi, Villon, Rosanna Warren and Max Jacob. 

Please note: This class or event will be held online (using Zoom or a similar live platform). To participate, students or attendees should have a stable internet connection. Class participants: you should have a computer or device with a webcam and microphone; and your Zoom link will be automatically sent to you after you register. Check your spam box if you don't see it.

Dates:
  • July 10

The MuseTeacher: Tom Yuill