This class will consider the two most successful and influential English poets of the second half of the 18th Century: Thomas Gray and William Cowper. Gray and Cowper are generally considered Poets of Sensibility, and this will also be a class in what The Age of Sensibility, as opposed to the Age of Satire which preceded it and The Romantic Age which followed it, is all about.
Thomas Gray wrote the best-selling poem of the 18th Century, “Elegy In A Country Churchyard,” which became the most taught and memorized poem in English schools for centuries and contained classic lines and phrases from “Far From the Madding Crowd” (borrowed by Thomas Hardy for his novel of the same name), “full many a flower is born to blush unseen / And waste its sweetness on the desert air” (featured in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey and innumerable novels since), “the paths of glory lead but to the grave” (which gave Stanley Kubrick’s film Paths of Glory its title) and more. In other poems, Gray penned iconic lines like “where ignorance is bliss / ‘Tis folly to be wise” and “Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest.”
William Cowper was Jane Austen’s favorite poet, enormously important to Coleridge and Wordsworth, and a writer of well-known hymns, renowned translations of Homer, and some of the most iconic poems in the English language. Cowper was an early animal rights advocate, an impassioned opponent of slavery, and a deeply devout Christian who struggled with mental illness and wrote some of the greatest letters in the history of literature. His poetry appears prominently in everything from Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility to Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse.

COURSE FORMAT
This is an interactive online seminar course that meets weekly over 6 weeks. Live online sessions will use the zoom platform. Weekly reading or other forms of materials may be assigned. Weekly sessions will be recorded and available for registered participants to access throughout the course.
There are no papers or grades. This course does not offer any credits or certificates. This course is intended for learning for the love of learning.


COURSE MATERIALS
Since there are no reliable and comprehensive editions of either poet’s work currently in print- alas!- all readings will be supplied by the professor via email each week.
Registrants will receive access to the course website and the zoom links about two weeks before the course starts.

COURSE CANCELLATION POLICY
Registrants can cancel and receive a full refund up to March 10. After March 10, there will be no refunds issued.
Yale Alumni College courses are subject to schedule changes as well as cancellations. If Yale Alumni College must cancel any course prior to its start due to low enrollment, you will be notified of this by the cancellation date. Upon cancellation of a course, registrants may transfer their registration to another available course or have the registration fee fully refunded.

In the event of a disruption to the original course schedule, including but not limited to; Professor absence, hazardous weather conditions, or local travel restrictions, Yale Alumni College will do its best to reschedule the missed class for the week immediately following the original end date at the same course time and day.