The Irish poet Yeats wrote, “Of our conflicts with others we make rhetoric (essays); of our conflicts with ourselves we make poetry.” In one of his greatest poems, “Easter 1916,” Yeats expresses both awe and dismay at the Irish Republicans bold, doomed Easter Uprising. “A terrible beauty is born,” he wrote.
In this course, we will read poetry that goes deep because it lets itself feel on both sides of a question. We’ll read modern and classic poets such as Shakespeare, Keats, Dickinson, Heaney and Elizabeth Bishop.
Don Barkinhas degrees from Harvard College and Cambridge University. He has taught seminars for a number of years at Yale and Wesleyan. He has published three books of poetry. He has been a newspaper reporter and school teacher.
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OLLI: the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College Partners in education with Williams College, Bard College at Simon's Rock and the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts 1350 West Street | Pittsfield, MA 01201 | 413.236.2190 | olli@berkshirecc.edu