ML16-V. AN INTRODUCTION TO AND HISTORY OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN POETRY TO 2002

Beginning with a short consideration of the nature of poetry, this course will introduce students to the lives and writings of such poets as Phillis Wheatly, Francis E. W. Harper, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, and Maya Angelou as they expressed in poetry the experiences of black people in America — their sorrows, joys, despairs, hopes, frustrations, and triumphs.