Modern Poetry This course will examine the nature and achievement of the major modern poets of Britain and America during the modern period, beginning with the origins of poetic modernism in the work of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Emily Dickinson, and Walt Whitman. The central figures to be studied are William Butler Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, and W.H. Auden. The course will conclude with a look at some after-echoes of modernism in the work of Elizabeth Bishop and others. Two papers, one exam, with occasional oral presentations in class

The Art and Practice of Poetry  In this course students will investigate the poetry and poetics of the 21st century and create their own collection of poems. We will read widely in contemporary poetry, with a focus on formal and structural possibilities and other technical aspects of poetic craft. Through the revision process, we will learn strategies for making poems that enlarge language and express our inner worlds. Each week students will share their own work with peers as we build a vocabulary for discussing poetry. We will produce an anthology of class work, and the final project will be a chapbook of finished pieces.

Advanced Fiction Workshop: Writing Place-Sinking Deeper into Landscape * Can place be rendered so richly it becomes a character unto itself? In this course we will explore the ways writers deepen a reader's sense of place, and showcase the ways setting can pressurize a narrative and a life, through events related to climate, environmental degradation, and migration. This course will be useful to prose writers of all types, as we explore both non-fiction and fiction - like work by Vladimir Nabokov, Jamaica Kincad, Sarah M. Broom, Daphne du Maurier, and Pitchaya Sudbandthad - in order to observe technique, intention, and impact. Students will read critically and also produce place-based work of their own. This course will be of particular interest to environmentally engaged students looking to process loss and degradation of place in their work.(Any 100-level CRWR course)

This course is an advanced workshop for students who have already done some work in poetry and are committed to the challenge of continued artistic development. Students will write a new poem each week, and revise at least eight of these for inclusion in a final chapbook project. Readings will include craft essays as well as several recent poetry collections by writers such as Hanif Abdurraqib and Natalie Diaz. Students must have completed (CRWR 0170 or CRWR 0175 and instructor approval).

Workshop: Poetry This course is an advanced workshop for students who have already done some work in poetry and are committed to the challenge of continued artistic development. Students will write a new poem each week, and revise at least eight of these for inclusion in a final chapbook project. Readings will include craft essays as well as several recent poetry collections by writers such as Hanif Abdurraqib and Natalie Diaz. (any 100-level CRWR course and Instructor Approval).

Batter My Heart: Religious Poetry from the Psalms to Mary Oliver In this seminar we will look closely at some of the major religious poets (broadly defined to include a variety of traditions) in the course of English and American poetry from the 17th century writers John Donne and George Herbert to the contemporary American poet Mary Oliver. Major figures will look at include Donne, Herbert, Wordsworth, Hopkins, Dickinson, T. S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Charles Wright, and Mary Oliver.   There will be prose selections from various poets and spiritual writers, including Emerson.

Poetry and the Spiritual Tradition In this course we will examine the long and intimate connection between poetry and spirituality, looking especially at the influence of Christian thinking on such English and American poets as John Donne, George Herbert, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and T.S. Eliot. The course will begin with a study of the King James Version of the Book of Psalms, which deeply affected later British and American poetry. We will also read early Taoist and Islamic poets, including Lao Tse and Rumi. The course will conclude with a look at the work of several contemporary poets: Charles Wright, Louis Glück, and Mary Oliver. While this course is primarily online, on-campus students will have opportunities to meet in person with fellow students and the professor in small groups and during office hours, if circumstances allow. Off-campus students will be accommodated with additional optional online opportunities to connect. 3 hrs. lct.

Jay Parini

Reviews and ratings for Jay Parini at Middlebury College.Jay Parini teaches Modern Poetry, The Art and Practice of Poetry, Advanced Fiction Workshop and more.  Explore top rated instructors and find the best for you.Is Jay Parini good ? Find out on MiddCourses.

Professor Parini is an amazing lecturer, and truly engages the entire class. I was not very knowledgeable on poetry before this class and he was truly able to peak my interest. He's also an amazing story teller which made the class even better.

Jay was an amazing professor and I am so glad I experienced his last semester teaching Modern Poetry. It is a very relaxed class with only 1 or 2 papers. Easy grading. Jay tells the best stories and I would take this class again if I could. 

Jay Parini is possibly the greatest professor in all of Middlebury College, and his classes are truly something to experience. Unfortunately, as last Spring was his final semester teaching, it is unlikely he will be returning. However, if he were to, I'd drop everything!